Spain’s biggest blaze risks scorching conservatives ahead of key election year

The largest wildfire in Spanish history risks becoming a political liability for the center-right People’s Party ahead of a pivotal election next year. Over the past five days, more than 100,000 people have been forced to flee their homes as massive blazes have torn across the regions of Madrid, Ávila, Toledo and Castellón. With temperatures set to push toward almost 40 degrees Celsius, the prognosis for even greater devastation later this week is grim. While the central government has stepped in to oversee this national crisis, regional authorities have legal responsibility for many of the front-line sectors at the heart of the emergency such as the rescue services and forest management. The center-right PP, which controls 11 out of the country’s 17 regions, is now facing political blowback over perceived strategic failings. At a national level, the PP is still topping the polls and is on track to take power in 2027, profiting from the web of corruption scandals ensnaring Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez’s ruling Socialist Party. But the fires threaten to expose vulnerabilities. The conservatives are not only being criticized for failing to invest in firefighters, but also risk looking out of step with the severity of the challenge posed by climate change, in part thanks to regional alliances with the far-right Vox party that are steering the PP toward increasingly anti-ecological positions. Madrid Regional President Isabel Díaz Ayuso, a conservative heavyweight, has felt the sting of public anger over her political priorities. On Sunday, she said she’d come under fire from constituents accusing her of prioritizing investment in fighting bulls — a vote winner with a right-wing base — rather than firefighters. From left: Madrid Regional President Isabel Díaz Ayuso, Villamanta Mayor Mariano Núñez Muñoz, King Felipe VI, Queen Letizia and Lt. Gen. Francisco Javier Marcos. They are pictured visiting wildfire evacuees on July 26, 2026. | Javier Soriano/AFP via Getty Images “In two or three municipalities, they were talking about bullfighters,” a palpably irritated Ayuso complained. “What do bullfighters have to do with all this?” The populist Madrid president accused her political opponents of stirring up grievances to “divide” her constituents, adding that the bullfighting sector had been especially impacted by the wildfires. “We must remember that they are the first ones who have lost livestock and land,” she added. But political opponents like Manuela Bergerot, spokesperson for the left-wing Más Madrid party, argued that once the fires are extinguished, it would be time to probe “the precarious situation of firefighters, cuts in prevention and climate change denial.” Ayuso’s critics contrast those alleged failings with her administration’s willingness to subsidize bullfighting, on which the Madrid region is set to spend a record €7.2 million this year. Regional responsibilities Jordi Vendrell, director of the Pau Costa Foundation, a nonprofit organization focused on wildfire management, explained that regional administrations had a legal responsibility for disaster prevention and crisis management. “Spain is a decentralized country, and regional governments have jurisdiction over forest management and firefighting,” he said. “The central government provides a common framework through the forestry act, but it’s the regions that decide how forests and other landscapes are managed and which firefighting strategies to pursue.” That responsibility is under increased scrutiny thanks to the governance pacts that the PP signed with the far-right Vox in regions such as Valencia, Aragón and Andalusia. In exchange for power, conservative regional leaders have been obliged to reject the EU’s Green Deal and adopt rhetoric questioning the extent to which human activity is driving climate change. Those positions have increasingly put the PP at odds with public opinion. Spaniards consistently ra