“The state has fallen”. Spain on fire. “Everything is burning except the only thing that should burn: a corrupt system”
When the greatest parties in history are blamed for the ongoing disaster, VOX benefits – the third largest force in parliament. The extreme right adds oil to the firepresenting fires as a result of a morally bankrupt political system.
“Everything is burning except the only thing that should burn: a corrupt system that is plotting against the Spaniards,” said the leader of Vox Santiago Abascal.
Forest fires are the latest series of crises that shook the country's toxic policy.
The response to fires became the subject of a dispute between the weak central government, headed by the Socialist Labor Party (PSOE) of the Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez, and the opposition conservative People's Party (PP). Socialists are still in power in ministries and federal agencies, but PP rules three regions with the most affected fires: Galicia, Castile and Leon and Estremadura.
Minister of Transport Oscar Puente defined the proceedings of the President of PP in Castile and Leon, Alfonso Fernandez Manueco, as a “disgrace” for being on vacation when the fires began to destroy his region. As a result of this dispute, PP representatives called Virginia Barcones, head of the State Population Protection Agency, “Piromanka” and “Hooligana”.
“This rhetoric is very beneficial for the extreme right”
Prime Minister Sanchez emphasized that fires have its source in climate change and called for a supreme agreement in order to solve what he calls the “climate crisis” in Spain.
VOX, on the other hand, used fires to promote its own platform based on denying climate change, describing the government's policy as “atmospheric terrorism”. This party blames the government's ecological policy and comply with the objectives of sustainable UN development for the lack of attention devoted to sensitive rural areas.
VOX claims that installing renewable energy infrastructure in rural areas instead of conducting traditional agriculture increases the likelihood of fires. This party also wants to centralize the government, making Madrid – not regions of the country – only responsible for the coordination of fire -fighting activities.
The PP party, which also sometimes supported the denying of climate change, but is afraid of too close connections with VOX, rejected Sanchez's appeals for a political agreement, calling them a “smoke veil” to divert attention from his own problems.
Meanwhile, VOX presents the current crisis as a failure of both parts of the establishment.
– The two -party system robbed Spain. The forests are burning indefinitely, while PP and the Socialist Workers' Party argue about responsibility, principles and budgets – wrote party spokesman Jorge Buxade on the right -wing information portal OKDIARIO on August 24. His party colleague, Hermann Tertsch, even went to the theory that the central government deliberately caused fires to divert attention from his own problems.
Sanchez administration is unstable. It rules a small parliamentary majority and has been tried in recent months by a series of corruption investigations.
– This rhetoric is very beneficial for the extreme right, which presents the government as illegal and unable to act – suggesting that all the problems of the country have the same cause that power is – said Paco Camas, head of the public opinion department in Spain at the Ipsos research company.
The expert stated that the ability of VOX to distance itself from traditional parties and their disputes helps to increase the attractiveness of the group.
“Earlier, Vox was a middle and higher middle class party, but recently it has been supported by lower -income groups,” he said. “He also managed to gain support in rural areas, poorly populated, in small towns where people have low income.”
Disasters drive the increase in the popularity of the VOX party
In October 2024, violent floods in eastern Spain caused the death of over 220 people, which led to an angry quarrel between PP and PSOE. The dispute arrived all the way to Brussels, where conservatives unsuccessfully tried to block the appointment of the former socialist minister Teresa Ribera as a European Commissioner.
In April, the power failure deprived the country of electricity for several hours, causing bizarre conspiracy theories and another political quarrel.
VOX presented these crises as proof of the fall of the state, combining them even with immigration and citing what some criticized as slow provision of assistance in response to the eruption of the volcano in the Canary Islands in 2021.
“It doesn't matter if it's a volcano, a pandemic, an invasion of migrants, a flood, a power failure, or now fires,” said Vox leader, Abascal. “The state fell and was occupied by the corrupt mafia for Pedro Sanchez.”
Burning forest in La Baña (Castle and Leon) in Spain, August 24, 2025.
Support for VOX was growing before fires. In the July survey conducted by the National Research Agency CIS party, the party obtained 19 percent. support, reducing the distance to the two main parties, which obtained 27 percent. (although other poll companies have made PSOE in second place). Support for the far -right party increased especially among agricultural workers, many of whom were directly affected by fires.
VOX seems to take over voters from PP rather than PSOE. However, with the expiration of summer fires, the government will again be forced to face a corruption scandal that broke out in the spring of this year. According to Camas, a huge bribe scandal, in which important PSOE members are involved, remains “serious enough to lead to the collapse of the government.”
Convincing the broad parliamentary alliance to approve the new budget for 2026 – which is not an easy task – it seems to be the greatest hope of Sanchez to survive the coming months.
