The Congress of Deputies this Thursday approved the socialist reform of the law guaranteeing total sexual freedom, known as the only yes is yes, but the election campaign was more than 500 kilometers from Carrera de San Jerónimo in Huelva. Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez traveled to the Andalusian province this Thursday to visit the derelict Doñana National Park and opposition leader Alberto Núñez Feijóo, who has hosted the popular candidate for its mayor, Pilar Miranda. Doñana has monopolized the main allegations between Sánchez and Feijóo, motivated by the controversial initiative of the people and Vox to increase irrigation next to the reserve, despite the extreme drought that the Guadalquivir basin is suffering.
Sánchez has indicted the PP and the Junta de Andalucía over the proposal for an autonomous law that has monopolized criticism and warnings from the European Commission, scientists, environmentalists and Unesco. “There is no reason, no matter how great, that legitimizes a four-year government to bring a centuries-old legacy to a point of no return,” said the district president. “Denial and arrogance will not save Doñana. What will save them is heeding the warnings of science. What an administration has to do [la Junta] it has to obey the law and the penalties,” he added, before visiting the national park, whose biodiversity is badly affected by the lack of rain and the illegal wells that have lowered the water table.
Just this Thursday, the European Commission once again expressed its concern about the initiative of the Andalusian right, which it believes could “break” with European environmental legislation. Brussels has warned that it could use “any means” to protect this world heritage site, with the possibility of fines running into the millions on the table. Sánchez has resorted to this threat from the European body to try to persuade the population to give in, in a brief appearance without allowing questions from journalists.
The initiative by the right-wing in the Andalusian parliament, which could be adopted urgently before the summer, could lead to multimillion-dollar sanctions for Spain for failing to comply with the EU Court of Justice ruling that condemned it in 2021 for failing to protect Doñana. The judges emphasized that Spain has damaged its aquifer with the macro-urbanization of Matalascañas and the abundance of illegal wells for strawberry greenhouses next to the park, plants whose soils PP and Vox now want to make irrigable, despite the fact that the water rights are granted by the Ministry of ecological change.
The Andalusian PP, positioned to defend farmers with crops no longer cultivated after the 2014 Strawberry Plan, is measuring against the erosion of their image that the implementation of their plan entails, with the institutions and the entire scientific community an improvement in polls in the El Condado region with five municipalities on May 28th.
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Following his presentation, Sánchez visited the staff of the Biological Station and the Guadalquivir Hydrographic Confederation, who study the scientific evolution of biodiversity in the reserve and manage the surface and underground water reserves.
The Andalusian PP defends that its draft law differs from the one it presented a year ago because it does not directly affect the precarious aquifer and will only grant surface water to farmers who have no water rights today if the necessary infrastructure can cope with the scarcity of the aquifer Territory mitigates suffers.
Feijóo in the city of Huelva
Meanwhile, in the capital, Huelva, the leader of the PP has attacked the socialist leader’s visit, accusing him of not having been in the hemicycle when the future of the norm that has most worn down and divided members of the executive was decided: ” If you’re wrong, show your face, ask forgiveness, go to Congress and vote for yes-is-yes reform and don’t stay away because you can’t take the collapse of your government.” Feijóo hinted.
The popular leader has insisted on splitting the Sánchez executive not only over the yes-is-yes law, but also over the housing proposals the prime minister has tabled in recent days. “Sanchez came here [Doñana] trying to change the conversation before the government collapsed,” has had repercussions. Feijóo will propose a government pact to solve the problem of access to housing in Spain and another for water.
The expansion of irrigation in Doñana, through a bill presented by PP and Vox in the Parliament of Andalusia, and the impact of the worst drought in Spain since the 1990s, have polarized and autonomous the debate of politicians in recent days, in the midst of the municipality’s primary campaign. Feijóo had already defended the legalization of irrigation in Doñana, against which the European Commission issued another very serious warning this Thursday, as Andalusian President Juan Manuel Moreno Bonilla “seeks a solution for hundreds of families”. It has also blamed the government for not respecting the obligations related to water infrastructures towards the county of Huelva, the area affected by the regulation promoted by the Andalusian right and the extreme right. “It’s not reasonable to come to Falcon to defend Doñana. Doñana defends itself with infrastructures,” said the PP President, who also promised to “carry out all the works promised to Huelva by declaration of emergency”.
Feijóo has also backed CEO Juan Manuel Moreno, who was slammed this week over the drought by Agriculture Minister Luis Planas, after the Andalusian leader centrally questioned the government’s water policy. “Now there is no water in Spain and there hasn’t been for a long time and there are places in Spain that just ask for the water that is left in other places, it’s the fault of Juanma Moreno and the Junta de Andalusia” said the President of the PP ironically
Win the Diputación de Huelva
In the background are dealing with the consequences of climate change, a differentiating aspect between PSOE and PP with regard to majority votes in the parliamentary elections, but also and in the short term the struggle to seize power in the municipalities and provinces, the form of control of deputations. Among those of Andalusia is Huelva, a territory historically given to socialism. An aspiration that does not hide the Moreno party, which intends to consolidate the good results in this province in the heat of the absolute majority of the autonomous elections last June at the appointment with the polls on May 28th.
This attempt to gain control of the 79 councilors of the five municipalities of the Huelva region – Almonte, Rociana, Bonares, Lucena and Moguer – ultimately motivates the law to expand irrigation in Doñana. In the PP, they consider that the presentation of the legislative proposal in January 2022, very similar to the current one and rejected with the call for regional elections, has made it possible to decant the rural votes in these areas in favor of the PP.