President Emmanuel Macron and Pedro Sanchez describe Europe's record-breaking wildfire season as a climate emergency.
Europe is currently experiencing one of its worst wildfire seasons on record, with over 1 million hectares burning in 2025. The fires have caused mass evacuations in France and Spain, where hundreds of thousands of people have been forced to leave their homes. President Emmanuel Macron described the situation in France as the worst wildfire emergency since World War II, noting that the fires in the Gironde region remain intense despite being stabilized. Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez characterized the fires as a painful expression of a climate emergency, highlighting the user-long heatwaves and droughts that have fueled the blazes. While the European Union's Civil Protection Mechanism is coordinating firefighting resources from across the continent to assist affected nations, officials noted that emergency response alone is insufficient. The administration of the European Commission argues that the continent needs an integrated management approach that combines active firefighting with long-term prevention measures, such as improved forest management and the reduction of combustible vegetation.