The socialist spokesperson for Environment and Energy, Miguel Ángel Luengo, on Wednesday described the Department headed by María González Corral as "the poor sister" within the Community's draft budget for 2027. Likewise, he lamented that there is no specific mention of the development of the Forestry Firefighter Statute with a defined timetable nor of the Environmental Agents Law.
In response to these criticisms, González Corral has shown her "surprise" at the objections of the socialist representative and has recalled that the recognition of the figure of the forestry firefighter was already included in the two decrees that did not come to be approved in the previous legislature.
"We are going to continue working on all of this and I hope to count on your support in the coming months to continue working hand in hand with the sector and we do so with dialogue, with commitment and with a willingness to reach agreement with everyone, with the representatives of the workers and with the different parliamentary groups, because among everyone I am convinced that we will be able to reach solutions to have a more solid, effective and prepared forest fire prevention and extinction service," the councillor replied.
Luengo has described the Environment and Energy accounts as "continuist", "lacking political ambition" and "far removed from the needs" of the citizenry. In his view, it is "striking" that the items for advertising, institutional communication and promotion receive "a much more generous attention" in the budget project "to build a triumphant management narrative" than others aimed at the real needs of the territory.
The socialist representative has also questioned the PP councillor on how she intends to articulate a coherent environmental policy when she is conditioned by her Government partner, Vox, whom he has accused of questioning climate change, discrediting scientific evidence and turning Agenda 2030 into a political adversary.
"Climate change is not an ideological whim, it is a scientific reality that is aggravating the risks and making prevention and extinction conditions more complex," Luengo emphasized.
In the final stretch of her intervention, the PSOE prosecutor formulated five "very specific questions" to the councilor, among them whether she commits to maintaining a public and professional fire prevention and extinguishing operation active 365 days a year "without any reduction of workers in the crews," as well as the detailed calendar to put into operation and apply the professional and labor framework of forest firefighters.
In addition, she asked that the budget execution objectives and the specific measures be specified so that renewable energy production translates into storage, industry, and employment in Castilla y León. She also demanded from González Corral data on the "new and effective financing" intended for town councils for fire prevention, forest management, and water supply adapted to climate change.
Along the same critical line, the UPL prosecutor, Alicia Gallego, has accused the PP and Vox coalition government of "suffocating" the prospects of the rural world through the "budget crumbs" assigned to the Ministry of Environment and Energy, which, according to her complaint, represents a "humiliating" 3.02 percent of the general budget of the Community.
Gallego has also denounced the "investor axing" of the Ministry in the provinces of León, Zamora, and Salamanca and has reproached the Junta for systematically evading parliamentary control through the use of foundations such as Patrimonio Natural or Santa Bárbara.
The Leonese prosecutor also appealed to the Vox Group, which in the previous legislature supported the taking into consideration of the bill of the Corps of Environmental Agents promoted by UPL and Soria ¡Ya!.
"I don't know what fear they have taken of being able to debate it in the Cortes," Gallego pointed out, who specified to González Corral that, in addition to recognizing the work of the Infocal operation, it is essential to guarantee its labor rights, offer adequate training, and comply with the basic state legislation that, in her view, the Junta "is failing to comply with".
In representation of the Vox Group, the prosecutor Silvia Guilarte has defended that the draft budget of Environment and Energy respects the Government agreement in Castilla y León, especially "where it was most needed, in the countryside," she emphasized.
"In his Department the agreement is noticeable," Guilarte has stated, who has given as an example that the new Directorate-General for Fire Prevention and Extinction will have 200.49 million, 42.65 percent more than in 2024, and that aid to forest owners to prevent fires has been tripled, going from 13.8 to 42.6 million.
From the Popular Group, the procurator Mercedes Cófreces has highlighted the fulfillment of the commitments of the president of the Junta, Alfonso Fernández Mañueco, and has emphasized the 43 percent increase earmarked for the INFOCAL Operation. She has also underscored that, in June of next year, 89 of the 111 ground crews will be integrated into this public regime, which will be completed in 2028.
"These are the data, these are the facts and these are the commitments in figures," Cófreces has concluded.