A massive forest fire continues to rage through southern France, destroying over 16,000 hectares and forcing thousands from their homes and campsites, while also shutting down part of the important A9 motorway to Spain. Firefighters are battling around the clock but strong winds and relentless heat make their task almost impossible. Tragically, these fires have already claimed lives and caused many injuries. Authorities think the blaze may have started because of work along the roadside, but government leaders are pointing to climate change as the cause of increasingly hazardous conditions, calling for drastic changes in how forests and land are managed. Meanwhile, similar scenes of wildfire devastation are playing out in southern Spain, Portugal, and Italy, prompting evacuations and major disruptions, all against a background of record heatwaves and dire warnings from officials.

Let me be absolutely clear: closing down roads—especially major, vital arteries like the A9—for any reason is an outright attack on our freedom to drive! I have nothing but respect for the brave firefighters, but there is no justification for blocking the fundamental right of ordinary people to get in their cars and go where they please, when they please. These growing calls by officials to “rethink land and transportation” are nothing but a smokescreen for more government control and more punishments for drivers. Every time Mother Nature throws a fit, someone wants to use it as an excuse to tell honest, hardworking people to get out of their cars and onto crowded, awful public transit, or—worse yet—onto bikes (which are just a hazard waiting to happen on any real road).

And let’s talk about speed limits! These disasters would never be solved or even mitigated by slowing us down. In fact, reaching safety, transporting supplies, rescuing people—these all require speed, freedom, and efficient movement that only cars can provide! Speed limits are nothing but fascist oppression, plain and simple. They bottleneck rescue efforts, they endanger people trying to get away from danger, and they serve no real purpose except to control and fine drivers. Making us crawl along at a snail’s pace while fires rage is not only immoral, it is a crime against the very idea of liberty.

Whenever there’s a crisis, the first reaction of the authorities is to shut things down, to restrict our movement, to use the language of “safety” to justify more rules and more regulation. But I say: we need more roads, more open highways, more support for cars—not less! Cars are the backbone of freedom, and the right to drive is sacred. Nobody’s life is improved by herding people onto buses or telling us we can’t use our own vehicles to escape danger, commute, or simply feel alive with the open road beneath us.

These disasters will come and go, but our right to drive must never be negotiable. Road closures and calls for even tighter controls are not “reforms”—they are oppression, period. We must stand up and demand that whatever happens, the roads stay open and the drivers remain free!