Europe wildfires live: Macron to chair crisis meeting as France and Spain continue to battle major blazes

Wildfires in France and Spain - the latest

Angelique Chrisafis in Paris, Sam Jones in Madrid and Jennifer Rankin

Wildfires have forced about 375,000 people to flee their homes in France and Spain. In France nearly 260,000 have been forced to flee, while in neighbouring Spain 116,000 have been evacuated this week.

Bordeaux’s mayor, Thomas Cazenave, described the Gironde blaze in France as being “at the gates of the metropolitan area”, between 15 and 20 miles (25-30km) from the city itself, which has a population of 268,000. An evacuation of the city was not on the cards, he said.

The fire situation in Gironde remained “broadly stable overnight” with no major developments, the local authority said on Monday. “Security and emergency services remain fully mobilised and are continuing their operations on the ground,” the statement said.

Authorities in Spain said major areas of fire near Madrid had been contained and cooled down, according to a senior officer with Spain’s military emergencies unit.

“We’re facing some difficult hours, although it’s true that the latest update has shown that last night was very positive in terms of the fire’s evolution and efforts to control it,” prime minister Pedro Sánchez said.

The EU commissioner for crisis management, Hadja Lahbib, told the BBC it was likely that damage from wildfires would exceed previous records. “Last year, one million hectares burned during the summer and so we are expecting to face another historic, sad record because the season has started earlier in the year,” she said.

Morning opening: France, Spain continue to battle dramatic fires

French president Emmanuel Macron is about to chair a crisis meeting on major wildfires that have seen over 250,000 flee their homes after another challenging night in the Gironde region.

Local authorities said the situation was “globally stable” overnight in a marked improvement on previous nights, but the situation on the ground remained difficult.

We are expecting to hear from France’s interior minister, Laurent Nuñez, after this morning’s meetings and I will bring you his comments here.

Over in Spain, some progress was reported with plans to allow some of the 116,0000 people evacuated to gradually return home near Madrid.

But the country’s prime minister Pedro Sánchez spoke on Sunday night of “difficult hours” still ahead, with some concern that strong winds could complicate the response on Monday.

I will bring you all the latest throughout the day as we will track the situation in both countries.

Separately, I will also keep an eye on Germany and the aftermath of the Islamist terrorist attack on a pride event on Saturday, with chancellor Friedrich Merz facing tricky questions on reports that the suspect had been convicted in Germany of “preparing a serious act of subversive violence,” but his sentence was suspended.

I will also keep an eye on Iceland, as PM Kristrún Frostadóttir is in Berlin today, just over a month before her high-stakes referendum on reopening EU accession talks.

Finally, there will also be updates from Romania, which saw three drone incursions over the weekend and its air forces shot down all three.

Lots of ground for us to cover.

I will bring you all the updates here.

It’s Monday, 27 July 2026, it’s Jakub Krupa here, and this is Europe Live.

Good morning.