The PSOE and Unidas Podemos are entrenched in their positions on hunting dogs and keep the animal welfare law blocked

The Minister of the Presidency, Félix Bolaños, and the head of Social Rights, Ione Belarra. Eduardo Parra (Europa Press)

The PSOE and Unidas Podemos continue locked in their irreconcilable positions on the treatment of hunting dogs.

The Socialists are willing to overthrow the animal welfare law if the regulations, as the government's minority partner wants, are applied to these dogs, rehalas and other animals used in hunting and other tasks.

For Ferraz, it is a non-negotiable red line due to the fire that would cause them at the gates of an electoral year with regional and municipal governments in May and general ones at the end of 2023. The rivalry between the two members of the Executive and the different interpretations of how it would be the law has forced several recesses in the presentation, to the astonishment of the representatives of the rest of the parties due to the comings and goings within the Executive.

The only advance has been that this Thursday the opinion of the law will be debated in the Social Rights commission.

If it were to go ahead, it would reach the plenary session of Congress next Wednesday.

The PSOE insists that there will only be law if Unidas Podemos accepts its conditions.

For this reason, the Socialists maintain the amendment that they registered in September and that they have agreed with the rural environment and the entire sector, including the Royal Spanish Hunting Federation (RFEC).

In it they defend that the animal welfare law applies "exclusively" to companion animals and excludes hunting dogs and other animals that perform specific tasks (sports, herding, rescue or security tasks with the Armed Forces). , always attending to their obligations and care.

In addition, hunting dogs, rehalas (group of hunting dogs) and auxiliary animals will have their own legislation, as the PSOE has committed and following the provisions of the National Hunting Management Strategy.

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The Socialists have made ugly the minority partner who has "rushed" announcing an agreement early in the day that, after various readings, he says, "could generate clear legal uncertainty."

“The PSOE is not going to leave aside the rural environment and a sector so relevant to the economy of our country.

We said it, and we stand by it.

It is in the hands of Unidas Podemos that this law goes ahead, with a great consensus that includes the sector and the rural environment, ”said socialist sources.

The interpretation is different in the other group.

“This morning we have closed an agreement with the PSOE to unlock the first animal rights law in our country.

Unfortunately, this afternoon they told us that they were breaking it", assured the Minister of Social Rights, Ione Belarra, who calls on the PSOE to "return to the agreement".

United We Can is in the minority in defense of the application of the law to hunting dogs, just the same thing that happened to the PSOE on Monday with its amendment on gender self-determination in minors in the

.

The Socialists stress that they have accepted the result of the Equality commission and that is why they have redoubled the pressure so that the Department of Social Rights, in the hands of the general secretary of Podemos, renounces one of the objectives that they had set for themselves. law that, despite the latest row in the government coalition, would establish zero slaughter, the elimination of the sale of animals over the internet, the records of companion animals, the conversion of zoos - they will not be able to use wild animals - and the End of impunity for animal abuse.

The Social Rights project was approved by the Council of Ministers on August 1, but the PSOE presented in September, as soon as parliamentary activity was resumed —it was the first decision with the current spokesperson, Patxi López—, the aforementioned amendment to leave out of the text to hunting dogs, which together with rehalas and auxiliary animals would have their own legislation as established in the National Hunting Management Strategy.

This is the unwavering commitment of the main party of the Executive, as the barons of communities such as Extremadura, Castilla-La Mancha, Andalusia and Aragon had demanded of Ferraz.

The Royal Spanish Hunting Federation (RFEC), with a lot of influence in rural areas — the PSOE could risk the re-election of Pedro Sánchez in the interior provinces of the country,

The PSOE is determined to win this fight against United We Can after losing at the beginning of the week the one that it maintained the last three months for the tightening of the requirements to facilitate gender self-determination for minors in the

.

Belarra made a proposal last week to unblock the situation by partially applying the Castilla-La Mancha law in force since 2020, which establishes that hunting dogs are only exempt from the sanctioning application of the norm while they practice hunting work.

The rest of the time the law would apply to them like any other dog.

An alternative that did not even convince Emiliano García-Page himself, the president of that community, when making a partial application of the regulations of his administration without having all its wording.

The PSOE is prioritizing the relationship with the groups of the rural world and the RFEC despite the tidal wave that it entails with United We Can.

The Hunting Federation is the third with the most licenses in Spain (334,635 in 2020, according to the Higher Sports Council), only behind soccer (1,074,567) and basketball (376,352) and has a huge pull on the field.

The hunters already made a show of force last March with a demonstration that brought together tens of thousands of farmers, ranchers and hunters from all over Spain in Madrid (150,000, according to the Government Delegation and more than 400,000, according to the organizers).

Hundreds of hunters with PSOE cards attended the call in the capital, for which the regional hunting federations chartered 1,185 buses, of which 362 departed from Andalusia,

143 from Extremadura and 142 from Castilla-La Mancha.

Leaders of the entire ranks of the PSOE, from mayors to provincial secretaries and territorial leaders, warned months before of the flight of votes that it would entail, including Vox.

After that first warning came the socialist catastrophe in the Andalusian elections, in which the PP shot up to an absolute majority due to factors such as rural unrest with the drafting of the animal welfare law.

Ferraz and the PSOE barons took note and closed ranks.

There is a compelling reason: the nine regional presidents and 2,700 mayors of the PSOE are at stake for re-election in less than half a year.

And the socialists, if they have to choose, will make the law decay despite the fracture that it entails with United We Can.

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