The Andalusian PSOE is open to indemnify farmers in the area of ​​Doñana

Contrary to what happened in the last legislature, the Andalusian PSOE will mutate its abstention by a no when the autonomous Parliament votes next week on a PP and Vox bill to expand the irrigable areas in the Doñana environment.

The Andalusian socialists are committed to dialogue between the Junta de Andalucía and the central government and to resolve "case by case" the situation of those farmers who wield "historical rights" not recognized, according to them, in the Special Plan [de Ordenación de Regadíos del Condado de Huelva] approved by decree in 2014.

The general secretary of the PSOE of Andalusia, Juan Espadas, has asked the Andalusian president, Juan Manuel Moreno, this Monday, the withdrawal of this initiative because he considers it "illegal", at the same time that he has opened up to compensate farmers with water rights as it has been done "on other occasions" to guarantee the water of the National Park.

The way to buy farms is not new.

It already happened in 2015 when the Guadalquivir Hydrographic Confederation, dependent on the Ministry of the Environment with the PP Government, acquired the 1,000 hectares of the Los Mimbrales farm, in the municipality of

(Huelva), for 35 million euros.

To questions from journalists, Espadas recalled the "agreement to acquire farms" in the past, although he has said "not to prejudge" any solution.

So 35,000 euros per hectare was paid.

The purchase of land is provided for in the shock plan presented by the Minister of Ecological Transition, Teresa Ribera, in November 2022 in Almonte to save Doñana from its growing decline.

Of the 356 million euros planned to preserve the natural reserve from environmental deterioration, the Government draws 100 million to buy farms with water rights whose owners are willing to sell.

The Government can buy an entire farm, rainfed or irrigated, or acquire only the water rights to change the use of the land from irrigated to rainfed, or it could also exchange the land for others in the Guadalquivir basin.

The path of expropriation of land is not something that sounds strange in the Ministry of Sustainability, Environment and Blue Economy that is also directed by the spokesman for the Andalusian Government, Ramón Fernández-Pacheco.

Although this exit is not formally raised, it is being considered as a hypothesis, according to sources from the ministry.

Espadas has ventured that the PP and Vox bill poses a "dead end" that will lead to an unconstitutionality appeal from the central government, "a campaign against red fruit products" and a sanction from the European Union, as The General Director of the Environment, Florika Fink Hooijer, already anticipated this past March 17.

In a letter sent to the central Executive, the European representative warned that if the bill that would regularize these illegal crops goes ahead, the Commission will not hesitate to adopt "all necessary measures, including filing a new appeal before the Court of Justice in which he would request that pecuniary sanctions be imposed ”.

The legislative initiative of PP and Vox will go ahead because both groups have an absolute majority in the Chamber.

The general secretary of the Andalusian PSOE maintains that the bill generates "an absolute lack of legal certainty."

In his opinion, the proposal incurs several "illegalities" such as not having the opinion of the Doñana Participation Council, whose president has called a meeting for next Monday.

Also noteworthy is the report by the lawyer from the Andalusian Parliament, which raises legal objections to the proposed law by considering the use of this route to modify the 2014 decree as not “justified” or “reasonable”. Nor is there a report from the Andalusian Government in favor or against the processing of the proposal, something that is not usual, but is not mandatory.

On the same day that the PP and Vox initiative will be approved, Parliament will debate a non-legal proposal of the PSOE, agreed in all its extremes with the Ministry of Ecological Transition, in which the creation of a bilateral commission is proposed. -Central government to deal with everything that affects the National Park, among them, the "execution of pending hydraulic infrastructures".

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