The Empty Spain Movement is taking a step forward in Castile-La Mancha, wanting a seat in the regional courts of one of the autonomous communities hardest hit by depopulation. They will do so with a candidacy led by a visible face, like the singer-songwriter Ángel Corpa, one of the founders of the Jarcha group and a native of Barajas de Melo, in the province of Cuenca, where he will run for the 28 .May. . Cuenca is currently the only province of Castile-La Mancha that will have a candidacy under the umbrella of the Federation of Parties of Empty Spain, which also includes other parties and platforms such as Cuenca Ahora – the one that will represent Corpa -, Teruel exists, Aragon exists, Soria now! o Jaén deserves more The presentation of Corpa as a candidate will take place this Thursday at 11 am at the Posada San José in the capital Cuenca.
The 70-year-old singer-songwriter has lived in the municipality of Barajas de Melo, the town of 987 people where he was born, since 2009. Located in Cuenca Alcarria, it is one of the most sparsely populated areas in Spain along with the provinces of Soria and Guadalajara. Corpa is best known for having been one of the creators of Jarcha, a group without which it is difficult to understand the Spanish transition musically, and which performed emblematic songs such as Libertad sin ira (1976). With 50 years of “uninterrupted activity dedicated to music” – as his website says – he was also the composer of other well-known songs such as Andaluces de Jaén, Gritos de un pueblo, un cantar, La copla que está en mi boca or Cadenas (for the he got the gold LP).
More than 50% of people born in Cuenca live outside the province
The Corpa environment assures EL PAÍS that its first links with the associations were born precisely in its community and in the refusal of a group of neighbors to set up a macro farm. From then on, this association thought of running as a group of voters in the local elections, but did not manage to collect the necessary 15 signatures. Finally, they will do so under the Cuenca Ahora umbrella, a platform aware of the potential attraction of the singer-songwriter and has decided to offer him the management of his candidacy. At first Corpa resisted, but eventually they persuaded him.
The Jarcha group received a gold record in the seventies. Corpa is first from left of the Crouching EFE
The Empty Spain Movement has grown strong in other regions such as Castilla y León – where they entered the regional courts with three deputies – or in Aragón – with one seat in the Chamber of Deputies with Teruel Exists. However, Castile-La Mancha had not yet taken the step of making itself available for elections. The Cuenca Now platform is part of the Federation of Parties of Empty Spain and is aiming for one of the five seats at stake in the province of Cuenca. It will be difficult for him in a place that has never known any system other than a two-party system.
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In the last regional elections, Cuenca was the only constituency where Ciudadanos – the third party with representation in the Cortes – did not get a seat, leaving the distribution with three MPs for the PSOE and two for the PP. The Parliament of Castile-La Mancha is one of the most underrepresented parliaments in Spain, with 33 seats, with the same number of seats as La Rioja, although this municipality has a population of just over 300,000 compared to more than two million people living in live in the Manchego area. The Corpa environment makes it clear that one accepts the challenge with great enthusiasm, but also in this situation is aware that the challenge is complicated.
Paralysis of macro farms
Cuenca has now presented a political document, which goes under the banner “add reasons”. Analyze the situation in the province and propose a series of measures to counteract depopulation, which is one of the greatest threats. The diagnosis contains information: “More than 50% of people born in Cuenca live outside the province.” They also recall that the European Union has classified Cuenca, Soria and Teruel as “sparsely populated areas” because of their population density of less than 12 inhabitants per square kilometer. Castile-La Mancha has had an anti-depopulation law since May 2021 that seeks to lock residents in rural areas through tax incentives.
In the absence of the election program with which they will stand in the regional elections in Castilla-La Mancha, España Vaciada mentions as a specific demand the cessation of further projects to set up macro-farms in the autonomous community. He opposes the moratorium announced by the government of socialist Emiliano García-Page, which he calls a “sieve”, and believes that the advance of this type of intensive farming must be halted. The platform also does not consider the increasing installation of wind farms or photovoltaic parks to be necessary – it considers stronger regulation necessary – and advocates improving the infrastructure.
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The new candidacy calls for the completion of the Cuenca-Teruel and Cuenca-Albacete motorways or the maintenance of traditional bus lines and rejects the closure of the Madrid-Cuenca-Valencia railway line. He also criticizes the Villar de Cañas (ATC) radioactive waste storage project, promoted by the popular government of María Dolores de Cospedal and kept in a drawer by the socialist executive of García-Page. Nor does it support the toxic waste dump in Almonacid del Marquesado, a town whose mayor is the current president of the Cuenca Provincial Council, Álvaro Martínez Chana.
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