Doñana reappears a week after 23-J and the clash between the Junta and the central government is revived
It was the great absentee during the general election campaign, but just a week later, the controversy over the irrigation law next to the national park promoted in the Andalusian Parliament by the PP and Vox has been reactivated again. The warnings of the Andalusian president, Juanma Moreno, about the consequences of the drought in the community and his intention to go to the European Commission for help have awakened in the central government the spirit of battle with the regional executive of the PP.
The acting Minister of Ecological Transition, Teresa Ribera, dispatched this Friday against Moreno, whom she criticized for making “a fuss” instead of taking decisive measures against drought and climate change. And, incidentally, he questioned him about Doñana.
Moreno has spent weeks, months rather, warning about the terrible impact that the most serious drought in the recent history of Andalusia will have on the economy of the region. This same Thursday, in Parliament, he warned of the loss of jobs that can occur in the agricultural sector at the return of summer if this autumn, like those of recent years, it continues without rain. In this line, it has made the requirement of the central government for hydraulic works a mantra that it repeats daily.
For Ribera, who has been the spearhead in the environmental battle of the Pedro Sánchez executive with Andalusia, the notices from the president of the Board are nothing more than “regrets” and he asked for “more action”, specifically, investments in “resilience and adaptation». «In water, soil, nature, coastline, well-insulated buildings and green cities. Doñana?», pointed out the acting minister.
“The problems of the Andalusians – and water and Doñana are some of the most important – are not solved with fuss, but with effective management,” the minister wrote in a thread on Twitter to respond to the message launched by Moreno in which he reported of his request to meet the president of the European Commission, Úrsula von der Leyen, to address the water problem.
Barely a week has passed since 23-J and the bloodiest open battle between the Junta and the central government, that of Doñana, threatens to escalate because, in addition, the Andalusian PP insists that they are not going to take a step back in the parliamentary process of the controversial law that will regularize between 700 and 800 hectares of irrigated land in the Condado de Huelva region, at the gates of the national park.
The unconstitutionality appeal against the law is taken for granted in the San Telmo Palace, but the intention, say the sources consulted, is firm: the rule promoted by the PP and Vox will see the light of day around the turn of the summer.
What's more, according to sources from the popular parliamentary group, the idea is to start in September directly with the last remaining paperwork, the presentation and the opinion and, from there, to the plenary session to be definitively approved.
With the electoral cycle over (except for surprise), with two elections in two months, in the PP they believe that the time has come to give the last push to a law that “is in our program” and that it comes, they insist, to repair ” a historical injustice” in the towns of the County.
If it is not already in force, it is, these sources admitted, because they did not want to make its approval coincide with the electoral processes, an argument that clashes with what happened with the regional elections of 2022, when Parliament processed the law just before the appointment with the polls. But it is true that in recent months it could be said that the legislative process has slowed down, if not frozen.
In the popular group they are reluctant to set specific dates, but they point to the second plenary session in September. So there would be time to solve the pending fringes. It will begin, these sources insisted, in “the first week of September, as soon as possible.”
Strawberry crops under plastic in the surroundings of the Doñana park, in the Condado de Huelva region,
In fact, they added, if it has not approved before the summer break, it has been because it has not given time and, before those who see a slowdown, they assure that even with the summer involved, the law will be approved “in five months” and the last five urgently processed laws have taken between eight and ten months.
In the PP they consider it impossible at this point that a dialogue channel can be opened with the PSOE to agree on the law: the progress of the procedures and the socialist refusal even to present amendments close almost all the doors.
And in Juanma Moreno's party they reiterate that they are not going to give in to pressure: “there will be no change in any way, we are convinced that we are doing what we have to do,” they affirm.
In the Andalusian PP they expected that the 23-J would radically change the scenario with a victory that the government would give to Alberto Núñez Feijóo. Assuming that this is impossible, the situation returns to that of open confrontation.
In this sense, the executive is preparing to return to the battlefield with the central government, even though it is in office.
The Minister of the Presidency, Antonio Sanz, was in charge of responding this Friday and demanded that Pedro Sánchez's executive stop “attacking and mistreating” Andalusia and join Moreno's request to the European Union on the need to allocate funds for the construction of hydraulic works to combat the drought.