The Andalusian PP freezes the processing of the irrigation law in Doñana until after 28-M

Not a single paper will be moved in the Andalusian Parliament, until after the municipal elections of 28-M, on the PP and Vox bill that expands irrigation in the surroundings of the Doñana natural park.

That is the firm intention that PP sources have conveyed this Thursday about the controversial initiative that turned on the red lights in Brussels from the moment that right-wing groups registered it in the Andalusian Chamber on March 3.

The PP wants to wait to see the electoral harvest of the debate.

Despite the position against Unesco, the scientific community, the European Commission, the Government of Spain and the environmental groups, the popular ones continue with their proposal, although they are willing to modify it through negotiation, as they have reiterated today the president of the Junta, Juan Manuel Moreno Bonilla, in the control session of the Andalusian Parliament.

“We cannot withdraw anything until there is an alternative,” he stressed.

In any case, the processing will be hibernated for a while.

The PP and Vox bill aims to expand the irrigable agricultural areas in the Condado de Huelva region, whose owners were left out of regulation when in 2014, by decree, the so-called strawberry plan, the Special Plan for Huelva County Irrigation Management that affects five municipalities (Almonte, Bonares, Lucena del Puerto, Moguer and Rociana del Condado).

The initiative does not clarify how many hectares this expansion of irrigation will affect, but, in a letter sent to the European Commission in February 2022, the Junta de Andalucía detailed that these would amount to 748.62.

The PP says that these crops will be irrigated with surface water from the transfer of the Tinto, Odiel and Piedras rivers, not with water from the Doñana aquifer.

But environmental groups fear that it will eventually affect the park.

The Andalusian Parliament agreed on the urgent route for this project, which halved the time.

Last day 2 ended the term to request appearances.

Now the Board of the Development Commission had to approve the final list and set a date for these appearances.

But PP sources maintain that the table will not be convened before 28-M.

So there will be a parenthesis for the municipal elections.

However, the PP does not renounce approving the law before the end of the current session in July, as insisted by the Government headed by Juan Manuel Moreno and the popular parliamentary group.

In any case, at the gates of the campaign, both the Junta and the central government rule out opening a negotiation at this time to modify the bill.

The Minister of Ecological Transition, Teresa Ribera, calls for the withdrawal of the law to start talking;

and Moreno demands "an alternative" before backing down.

"We are willing to talk, to dialogue with everyone," the Andalusian president insisted, noting that the proposal can be changed during the parliamentary process.

For now, the left-wing groups in Parliament maintain their decision not to present amendments and leave the PP alone in that debate.

The president of the Board is also squeezed by Vox, his ally in the previous legislature and the ultimate cause of the PP registering the proposal to expand irrigation in the surroundings of Doñana.

"I hope they don't back down, we're not going to do it," warned Vox spokesman Manuel Gavira, who accused Moreno of "being an accomplice in the green suffocation of farmers."

Although Moreno acknowledged 15 days ago the political wear and tear caused by the proposal to expand irrigation in the park's surroundings — "I'm leaving tatters," he said — the PP has counterattacked with the drought and the lack of execution of water works in Andalusia.

“Pedro Sánchez is the enemy of the farmers, he is the enemy of the Andalusians.

His motto is neither Andalusia nor water, ”the PP spokesman, Toni Martín, affirmed today.