Wildfires and empty Spain: the debate pitting city dwellers against ruralists

Wildfires and empty Spain: the return to the countryside as revolution

What lies behind the criticism of city dwellers who only pay taxes and turn their backs on rural areas? A statement circulating amid the wildfires claims that the State and capital deliberately emptied the countryside in order to control the population more effectively. From the Madoz confiscation of 1855 —which, according to this thesis, expropriated a third of Spain's land from its villages— to the Franco era, which pushed 6 million people into the cities, everything would have been orchestrated. For those behind the text, the solution is a return to rural life, but framed within a revolutionary project that includes the right to bear arms to defend oneself against power.

The practical answer is not long in coming: much of the Spain that burns has no permanent residents. "They sleep there but don't live in the countryside," sums up one of the comments. The dilemma is clear: without a stable rural population, forest management is left to administrations that, according to the statement, are part of the problem. And the return is not simple: according to the most radical voices, it requires an all-encompassing revolution that the average reader finds hard to grasp.

Between rural nostalgia and criticism of the State, the debate leaves an uncomfortable conclusion: while the wildfires rage, the gap between the diagnosis and the proposal is as wide as the one separating Madrid's outskirts from the villages of Ávila. Revolutionary manuals are being downloaded, but the fire does not wait.