MADRID: Spain’s environmental prosecutor has ordered officials to verify whether municipalities affected by wildfires complied with their legal obligation to adopt prevention plans, according to a document seen Thursday (Aug 21) by AFP.
The move comes as tensions mount between Socialist Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez’s government and conservative-led regional authorities over how to manage the fires that have scorched record amounts of land.
Under Spain’s decentralised system, regional governments lead the response to disasters, though the central state can intervene when emergencies escalate.
The northwestern regions of Galicia and Castile and Leon, along with Extremadura in the west, have been hit hardest by the fires raging since early August in the scorching heat.
Regional governments are required to draw up prevention strategies, but the newspaper El Pais reported the national government has yet to issue a decree establishing common criteria for such plans.
In his letter to local justice officials across the country, Spain’s environmental prosecutor, Antonio Vercher, argued it was “evident” that the scale of the wildfires stemmed from the absence or poor implementation of prevention measures.
He urged local prosecutors to consider pressing criminal responsibility charges in the most serious cases.
