Since Vox announced its intention to modify law 3/2020 on the Protection and Recovery of the Mar Menor, the response of the PP of the Region of Murcia, which governs in coalition with those of Santiago Abascal, has been unchanged for months: “We will not give a step back in the protection” of the coastal lagoon. This ecosystem has been throughout the entire legislature the point of maximum confrontation between the two parties, which this Wednesday in the Regional Parliament once again staged their differences when the popular ones abstained, preventing the approval of the reform proposal of the law that the ultra party had drafted. Nor have they voted in favor of another PP initiative related to the urban planning moratorium in the area. However, the popular ones have taken a new turn on this matter to now defend that the law in force can be "improved" and a new regulation must be developed "as a result of the greatest possible consensus."
He has defended it during the plenary session, and also in a press conference after the session, the party's parliamentary spokesperson, Joaquín Segado, who has proposed opening a commission in which all the sectors involved appear, from the agricultural organizations to the town councils, through real estate developers, fishermen's associations, scientific experts, environmental groups, and representatives of the tourism sector. After listening to everyone, “a presentation will be created that, within three months, will prepare the text of the bill as a result of the greatest possible consensus.” The proposal will be debated in another plenary session, since it was not part of today's agenda, but for the first time the popular ones openly affirm their intention to change this rule.
A red line for Vox
”Now, the PP, in its parliamentary immobility, seems to have taken one more step, and recognizes that the Mar Menor law must be modified,” said Rubén Martínez Alpañez, parliamentary spokesperson for Vox. The deputy has shown his surprise at the behavior of his government partners (PP), because if they had directly supported the initiative without presenting another, the reform process would have been opened with the introduction of amendments and changes by the rest of the parties. This blockade has also aroused the anger of the president of Vox in the Region of Murcia, José Ángel Antelo, who holds the vice presidency of the autonomous Government, and who has warned that, "given what has happened today", he will summon the president of the community, Fernando López Miras, to review the investiture pact because for the ultra party “it is an absolute red line to modify the law of the Mar Menor”, and they will not give up their efforts until they achieve it.
The investiture pact referred to the salt lagoon in the fourth of its 30 points, but without express reference to the current protection law, but rather stated in a generic way that its recovery "is a priority of the Regional Government's action" and It established the commitment to continue “developing all the executive and legislative actions necessary for its protection, with the construction of new infrastructures that contribute to its conservation.” In any case, asked if Vox will support this new PP reform proposal in the next plenary session, Martínez Apañez has limited himself to insisting that “the [protection] law has to be changed now”, and has lamented the lack of “ bravery” of their partners. Vox's proposal, he said, was going to force political representatives to comply with the provisions of the law or “be sanctioned” for not doing so. What the ultra party presented this Wednesday sought to reduce all current restrictions on agricultural and livestock farms in the area to the level of regulations and leave those that are now mandatory for farmers in the strip closest to the area to voluntary measures. lagoon. It also excluded from the scope of application of the rule the town of Fuente Álamo, where there is intense livestock activity, with some 250 registered pig farms, relaxed the prohibition on building new marinas and substantially toughened the obligations of the town councils in matters of purification and sanitation.
Both PSOE and Podemos have expressed the opinion that the request made now by the PP to reform the law is nothing more than “a kick forward” and the initiative “of a vulgar shell to delay” in non-compliance with the current law, in the drafting of which , they have recalled, the same agents who are now proposed already participated.
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