Blazing arguments

Spain's recent wildfires were the worst for decades, but the political spat they have triggered is very familiar. Just as with the floods that killed 232 people last October, most of them in Valencia, the left is blaming climate change; while the right points to what it sees as the Socialists' disastrous environmental policies. There are also parallels with the argument about what caused the massive blackout in Spain on April 28th.

After the disaster in Valencia, the Spanish right blamed the Socialist-led government's approach to managing (or not managing) streams and rivers in the region - especially the Poyo ravine, which caused some of the worst flash-flooding.

The PP and Vox adopted the same stance over the blackout, saying that it was down to an over-reliance on green energy. The wildfires, on this narrative, are the inevitable result of policies that prevent the removal of flammable dead vegetation from rural areas. In all three cases, Vox has led the attack on Pedro Sánchez, identifying the main culprit as his government's 'climate fanaticism'.

There is bound to be disinformation and exaggeration in all such arguments. This is because their goal is not - or at least not only - to uncover truth, but to make the other party look bad. In reality, the wildfires, like the floods and the blackout, were not due to a single cause, but a number of factors, each of them necessary, none sufficient. And probably more than one human culprit, too.

Still, the question raised by the right's accusations of climate fundamentalism can't be dismissed, because it cuts to the heart of the debate. We have to ask whether a non-interventionist approach is compatible with the implementation of measures that better equip us to live on a rapidly-warming planet.

The Spanish right distorts matters by banging on about 'climate fanaticism'; but Sánchez does the same by holding up his hands to the uncontrollable skies. "We need to readjust and recalibrate both our response and prevention capacities," he said this week, on a visit to the scorched plains of Extremadura. He's absolutely right, but prevention means intervention - which is why his former energy minister Teresa Ribera cancelled a proposal to channel the Poyo ravine in 2021.

Wildfires and floods are not new to Spain, although the last two instances of both have been extreme. Even blackouts on the scale of April's are not as rare as one might think.

All such events trigger headline-grabbing arguments, in which the right plays the part of the climate-sceptic and the left declaims its love for the planet. And that is the problem. As long as they're able to broadcast their climate ideology, the combatants in these blame games walk away feeling victorious - without learning any lessons for the future.