The Government charges against the president of the Junta for Doñana: “From his arrogance as a gentleman, he is doing immense damage to the Andalusians” | Climate and environment

The fourth vice president and minister for the Ecological Transition, Teresa Ribera, has charged against the president of the Junta de Andalucía, Juan Manuel Moreno Bonilla, and against the intentions of PP and Vox to carry out an autonomous law to regularize nearly a thousand illegal hectares irrigation in the surroundings of the natural area of ​​Doñana. “From his arrogance as a gentleman, he is doing immense damage to the Andalusians,” Ribera lamented in a statement in La Sexta. In her opinion, it is not a case of “ignorance”, but of “bad faith”. “The PP is out of control,” lamented the Minister of the Presidency, Félix Bolaños, this Wednesday, when this rule is expected to begin its processing in the regional Parliament thanks to the votes of the right.

The legalization of these illegal hectares goes against the interests of Doñana, as denounced by environmental groups and numerous scientists, since, far from reducing the pressure suffered by the aquifer from which this emblematic Andalusian space lives, it could worsen its situation. This same week, the experts from the Doñana Biological Station, dependent on the CSIC, presented a devastating situation report in which they advance the “unsustainable critical point” that the reserve is going through due to the “executive inaction” of politicians. These experts have demanded that the Andalusian right (PP and Vox) withdraw their bill to increase intensive agricultural irrigation near the park, for lying and creating “false expectations.”

In addition, the European Commission will observe at the end of March the consequences that the approval of this legalization may have. The Director General for the Environment, Florika Fink-Hooijer, sent a letter to the Government of Spain on Friday warning that if this proposal goes ahead, the Commission will not hesitate to adopt “all necessary measures, including the filing of a new appeal before the Court of Justice in which he would request that pecuniary sanctions be imposed”.

But the PP and Vox plan to start processing this rule, urgently, this Wednesday in the regional Parliament, and Brussels has once again insisted on its threats. A community spokesman has seen an EL PAÍS: “The Commission will not hesitate to take all necessary measures to ensure that Spain complies with the CJEU ruling.” This speaker is referring to the ruling of the Court of Justice of the EU that already condemned Spain for not guaranteeing the good state of Doñana due to the pressure on water resources exerted by agriculture and the tourist center of Matalascañas, boxed in within this space protected.

But that 2021 sentence did not lead to a sanction. If the Commission decides to report the case again now, this time it would ask for fines. “Is Mr. Moreno going to pay out of his pocket?” Ribera asked himself this Wednesday. “It is very good not to be afraid when he pays another”, he added. “It is roasting sausages by burning the paintings of the Prado Museum”, the vice president said about this plan to legalize irrigation in the area of ​​Doñana, which she has described as an “arrogance of the gentleman who shoots with the king’s gunpowder”.

The vice-president has admitted to being very angry about the plans of the Andalusian Executive. She has explained that in recent weeks she has been in contact with the Andalusian Government to warn her not to go ahead with that rule. Her department has made it clear that she does not rule out going to the Constitutional Court to stop that law. If the Executive appeals, that rule would be paralyzed provisionally for at least six months.

Meanwhile, from the Andalusian Executive it is defended that supposition of law will not allow extracting water from the aquifer, although it will discover in regular soils that today are not and will open the door for hundreds of farmers to claim surface water from the hydrographic confederation.

In the letter that the Commission sent to Spain in March, the government was given a month to answer about the Andalusian government planes. And at this moment Brussels continues “evaluating the observations sent by Spain”. Meanwhile, the United Left MEP Sira Rego has also filed a complaint with the Commission asking Brussels to “intervene to avoid the drastic and irreversible damage” that Doñana will suffer if the legalization of these irrigation systems is approved.

And the environmental groups have come out again in droves before the intentions of the PP and Vox. The WWF organization qualifies this proposal as the “anti-Doñana law” and has announced that it will also “bring to the attention of the European Commission and international authorities this new step that constitutes a flagrant violation” of that 2021 sentence. “It will worsen the delicate state of conservation in which Doñana is found”, has pointed out WWF.

Greenpeace, for its part, understands that the regulation “pardons decades of systematic theft of water in the Doñana National Park and encourages new looting.” “This new irrigation law of the Junta de Andalucía is a legislative outrage that endangers the survival of one of the most valuable natural spaces in the world,” protested the director of Greenpeace Spain, Eva Saldaña. “We demand the Andalusian government to stop this nonsense, which is only conceivable as an electoral and short-term claim,” she added.

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