2025, the year of fires in Orense and the peak of Galician socialism

It is clear that the PSdeG is not going through its best moment. In less than a month, the formation – already affected since the last calls to the polls; above all, that of the 18F, where it recorded the worst result in its history – has seen its situation revolutionized since #MeToo was revealed to the current president of the Provincial Council of Lugo and mayor of Monforte de Lemos, José Tomé, and after the contested reaction of the socialist leadership, led by José Ramón Gómez Besteiro. The origin of all this lies in a series of testimonies made public on television, accusing Tomé of obscene comments and behavior towards women linked to the party, non-consensual touching and even offers of sex in exchange for public employment.

No party – whether family, business or otherwise – is safe from bad apples, but it is responsible for how it separates them from the basket. And how quickly he does it. Especially if, as is the case in this case, it is an organization that displays its historic role in defending women’s rights. This is why For many, inside and outside the PSdeG, Besteiro’s response was insufficient and his team.

The socialist leader admitted to having learned in October of the existence of an alleged victim from Tomé. This is what someone close to him told him. Apparently the complainant’s mother. However, Besteiro limited himself to meeting her, recommending that she encourage her daughter to go to the police or court, asking for explanations from Tomé, who denied the facts, and referring her to her number two, Lara Méndez, and to Tomé’s number two, Pilar García Porto. It was only in December, when the complaint was broadcast on television – or according to the socialist narrative, when it reached the party’s internal channel – that Besteiro came forward publicly, after almost three days of silence, to defend as “energetic” his response, which consisted of: demand that Tomé resign and explain that he couldn’t do much more because the victim is free to file a complaint or not.

friendly fire

Critical voices were immediately raised within the PSdeG, condemning the hesitant and late reaction of the socialist leadership and demanding responsibilities. Of course, avoiding talking about resignations. There were two main currents in the form of a manifesto: the first, supported by several mayors of the province of Orense, and another led by the mayor of La Coruña, Inés Rey, after the resignation of the secretary of Equality of the party due to differences with the management of the situation by the board of directors of which she was a part. This document It was signed by former presidents Pérez Touriño and González Laxe.

It turns out that both the municipal councilor of Barbadás, one of the most prominent signatories of the manifesto of the socialists of Orense, and his counterpart from La Coruña, have been accused of harassment at work. In the case of Xosé Carlos Valcárcel Doval, Besteiro demanded that he resign and leave his reports to the City Hall and the Provincial Delegation of Orense. This is not the case Inés Rey, denounced by two former advisors who were part of his government during the previous mandate and who were no longer on the lists. The mayor speaks openly about “account”.

Flame Grass

To assess the extent of the crisis in the PSdeG, we will have to be attentive to upcoming movements and, above all, to upcoming electoral calls. To quantify last summer’s wave of fires, some only need a single number.: the 120,000 hectares that burned, which represent the record of area burned not only since the beginning of this century, but since the terrible year 1989 during which nearly 200,000 people were burned. What gives the “positive” point on this occasion is that, fortunately, there were no personal losses, something that had to be regretted in 2006, during the bipartisan, where the number of burned hectares did not reach 100,000, but four people died.

Here is proof that limiting ourselves to measuring the impact of a wave of fires by the number of hectares burned is as graphic as it is simplistic. And yet, the dance of numbers began from the first minute, with the opposition always pushing upwards – according to the European Copernicus system, 170,000 were reached –, while the Galician government always preferred to leave the count until the end and emphasize that the important thing was not the number of hectares burned but the content of this affected area – almost 70% was scrubland – and the control of the risk to prevent it does not reach buildings or take lives. human. By the way, only 0.2% of the eucalyptus burned.

Regardless, these figures were enough for the opposition to directly demand the resignation of Alfonso Rueda. Anne Pontón accused him of lack of foresight and “political incompetence” and even arriving late in his response to the wave of fires for having been “on motorbikes, from party to party or in the bullring of Pontevedra with Feijóo and Rajoy” while “Galicia was burning” and the mayors and residents “were alone”. Of course, the nationalist leader also highlighted the reduction of means of extinction, while the Xunta has always defended the deployment of the largest device in the history of Galicia.

Beyond its management, part of the rhetoric of the Xunta and the PPdeG focused on the central government for his lack of cooperation against a capable Galicia, which led the opposition to accuse him of “throwing the ball”. The PSdeG also accuses of “denial” while recognizing that climate change does not help, and is one of the elements that worsen the impact of fires every year, but completes the diagnosis with other elements.

For the rest, the president of the Xunta and leader of the popular Galicians was quick to announce help to those affected and measures to strengthen prevention. Among the latest, the reissue of the agreement with Seaga to facilitate the cleaning of secondary bands by municipalities from which Fegamp, led by the PSdeG, has distanced itself.

While Rueda managed to put out the fire, Besteiro still has to calm down the one who was more than lit during his match. Pontón, meanwhile, tries to monetize these and other fires in her eternal desire to become the first president of the Xunta.