Turn to Doñana
Mark ideological profile
Support from Brussels
Economic cost
childishness
Importance of Andalusia
The president of the Popular Party, Alberto Núñez Feijóo, during a visit to the Viralgen VC company, on April 14, 2023.
The Socialist Party has valued the controversy over the conservation of Doñana as a golden opportunity for the municipal and regional elections in May, and will promote its maximum use during the campaign.
The Junta de Andalucía, governed by the Popular Party and led by Juan Manuel Moreno Bonilla, has approved, together with Vox, a bill to expand the irrigated area next to the National Park, and the defense of the environment will be the response of the socialist ranks, which will accept the position of Brussels threatening sanctions if this regulation is not stopped.
Less than two months before the elections, from Ferraz they confirm to Confidencial Digital that the party will defend Doñana during the electoral campaign.
Montero asks Moreno to withdraw the PP-Vox law that can cause EU sanctions for aggression against Doñana
Turn to Doñana
The decision of the Junta de Andalucía, to legalize thousands of agricultural exploitations hitherto illegal, has aroused socialist alerts.
As ECD announced, the Government has prepared an ‘ecological 155’ to, if necessary, intervene and take control of the National Park, with the aim of preventing further damage and reversing the ecological decline of the reserve.
In addition, almost certainly, they will appeal the law to the Constitutional Court to prevent the application of the recently approved bill.
Mark ideological profile
The Government considers that it has found an opportunity to set an ideological profile with the defense of the environment, one of its main flags, and a responsibility that, at the national level, falls on no less than a vice-presidency, the one led by Teresa Ribera.
The person in charge of the Ecological Transition portfolio came to describe Moreno Bonilla’s decision as the arrogance of an Andalusian gentleman.
From Ferraz they are not going to let this opportunity pass and they are going to put Doñana’s defense on the front page. This is unexpected help, in one of the key issues for the PSOE, a few weeks before an election that will be decided by the governments of many Andalusian municipalities, essential after the absolute majority that the PP achieved in June last year.
The Miteco claims to have met up to two times with the Board and transfer its total rejection of the Doñana law
Support from Brussels
The main dialectical trick that the socialists will wield comes from Europe. The European Commission has pointed out on several occasions the possibility of requesting economic sanctions before the Court of Justice of the European Union.
In 2021, a ruling from that instance already warned that the Government of Spain was not defending Doñana, given the vulnerability suffered by the Natural Park. More, if possible, now with the drought that has plagued the country in the last year.
Economic cost
From Ferraz, they will not only be able to wield community support, in order to stop Moreno Bonilla’s project, but they will argue the economic cost that a community sanction can entail for the State coffers.
The European Commission threatens Spain with fines that we will all pay, sources from the party leadership point out.
The Socialists try to avoid the suspicion that they are making a partisan use of this crisis, by including it within a transversal problem: the defense of the European environment.
This is not something only of the Government of Spain or the PSOE. Europe has clearly said no, they reiterate.
The President of the Government and Secretary General of the PSOE, Pedro Sánchez, participates in an act together with the PSOE candidate for Mayor and current mayor, Daniel de la Rosa, on April 12, 2023, in Burgos, Castilla y León.
childishness
However, from Ferraz they are not limited to criticizing and attacking the measure. They also take the opportunity to accuse the president of the Board and the Vox party of infantilism for this measure.
The support of those from Santiago Abascal has been essential to carry out this bill, which will make thousands of hectares of irrigated land in the surroundings of the Natural Park legal.
Importance of Andalusia
The controversy takes place in one of the key territories from the electoral point of view.
Although twelve autonomous governments are elected on May 28, Andalusia is outside this electoral process, since it held its elections last June. Then, a traditionally socialist region, granted the PP the first absolute majority since the Transition.For this reason, the Socialists have the main interest in recovering that electorate, which has always been key for the PSOE candidates to reach La Moncloa.
The Government has prepared an ‘ecological 155’ to wrest competition over Doñana from Andalusia
As ECD announced, Ferraz considers that one of the main problems with the vote on the left is abstention.
Precisely, the intention of the socialist leadership happens because crises like the one in Doñana punish the Popular Party, and allow the left bloc to mobilize a fundamental electorate to maintain the city councils that it administers and snatch some important square from the right, such as the mayor of Malaga.
With the general elections scheduled for the end of the year, the May elections are extra important because they are presumed decisive for the road to La Moncloa.
The president of the PP, Alberto Núñez Feijóo (i) and the president of the Junta de Andalucía, Juan Manuel Moreno Bonilla.