Sánchez: 'Climate Change Kills' as Spain Burns
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- Pedro Sánchez repeated his blunt 2022 warning that 'climate change kills,' telling reporters on Monday that Spain must reduce the causes of the climate emergency, not just respond to its consequences, as 2026 wildfires burned through more than 180,000 hectares in seven months.
- Sánchez has been among the most vocal European leaders criticizing Israel's conduct in Gaza and Donald Trump's war in Iran, and he deploys similarly unvarnished language on climate, defending immigration and raising awareness of the emergency.
- Spain's People's Party (PP) accused the government of using the climate crisis as a 'mantra' to mask 'poor management' of disasters, with spokesperson Ester Muñoz questioning whether humans drive climate change: 'The climate changes... that's obvious. Now how do we humans act in the face of things that change?'
- Madrid regional president Isabel Díaz Ayuso, a PP rightwing populist, has questioned the scientific basis of the climate emergency, calling it an 'agenda' pushed by 'lobbies' and 'communists,' while asking the central government to take over the wildfire response.
- Vox MEP Jorge Buxadé posted what he claimed was an official air ministry document showing 44C temperatures recorded in Spain in the 1950s; state meteorological office Aemet responded that the data was fake, noting 'all but one station's data are false.'
- Experts attribute the blazes to a combination of abandoned rural areas, an abundance of dry flammable vegetation, and an increase in heatwaves driven by climate breakdown.
- A December 2024 survey by Spain's Centre for Research Studies found that 84% of Spaniards view the climate emergency as 'a real threat to human wellbeing and to the health of the planet.'
Why it matters: The PP–Vox coalition now contesting Sánchez's climate framing reflects a hardened transatlantic pattern of rightwing denial — yet 84% of Spaniards already see the emergency as a real threat, leaving Spain's climate policy politically paralyzed even as 180,000 hectares have already burned in 2026.
