The Socialist Parliamentary Group backed this Wednesday, in a public roll-call vote, a motion by the Vox Parliamentary Group with 24 proposals on agriculture and livestock, despite considering it "feeble" and "a sham meant to save Soldier Pino --the Vox Councillor for Agriculture-- from the most absolutely nothing that means the management he has carried out to date".
Socialist procurator Miguel Ángel Blanco has argued that "We don’t hide, we are going to face it" and has registered five amendments for his recorded vote, all rejected by Vox, in order to strengthen the text and urgently include an extraordinary fund of 150 million in direct aid for the producers of Castilla y León that, he has reminded, PP and Vox overturned in a previous plenary "behind the back of a ballot box".
"They’ve forgotten, for whatever reason," Miguel Ángel Blanco said with irony, dedicating a large part of his speech to asserting the "dignity" of politics and of the countryside. In that context, he cited the resignation of until yesterday the Minister of Transport and Sustainable Mobility, Óscar Puente, which, as he pointed out, has left PP and Vox "up to the ears in mud". "Ask for forgiveness," the socialist demanded, who predicted "a divorce in sight" between the coalition partners and advanced that, in his view, it will not be amicable.
From Vox, its parliamentary spokesperson, David Hierro, responded with an ironic "Welcome to Vox" by announcing from his seat the favorable vote for the initiative of his own group, which has managed to push it through unanimously 24 "very specific" measures born "from listening to the countryside". The presenting procurator, José Antonio Palomo, defended that they seek for farmers and ranchers to be able to produce, compete, and achieve decent profitability, and he reproached the PSOE for using the agricultural sector "as a political tool".
Palomo warned that "You can’t claim to be listening to the countryside while ignoring demands that its representatives have been raising for years: fair prices, production costs, fair competition, mirror clauses, commercial agreements, a fair CAP, less bureaucracy, generational renewal, environmental regulations, animal health, wildlife, the wolf, agricultural insurance, water and irrigation, the food chain, extensive livestock farming, agricultural prosecutor’s office, depopulation", referring to the content of the 24 measures approved this Wednesday in the Cortes.
The motion by Vox proposes to review, at the national and European levels, the requirements derived from the European Green Deal, the 2030 Agenda and its associated strategies when they entail a disproportionate increase in production costs, limit the production capacity of farms, or add administrative burdens without proportional benefits.
On behalf of the Popular Parliamentary Group, the attorney Antonio Jaime Mendoza Toribio has put the emphasis on the idea of continuing, arguing that much of the policies advocated by Vox are already in place in Castilla y León. "There is dialogue, there is prior work, there are concrete measures that are being advocated," he said, before calling on the Government of Spain to support a strong CAP for the countryside, guarantee the funding of aid and the access requirements, and move forward on administrative simplification, security for farmers and ranchers, and the incorporation of young people, maintaining a CAP that takes into account the particularities, "working with the autonomous communities and with the sector itself." "You cannot defend the rural environment and its people with words and harm it with facts," warned the PP representative.
From the Mixed Group, its spokesperson, the woman from León Alicia Gallego, has announced her support for the motion, which she described as a "advertising pamphlet" and a "inflamed protest banner speech" in a "clumsy attempt to dodge responsibility" toward the authorities of Madrid or Brussels "who also have their own [share]." "Put in money, because we're talking about budgets," the parliamentarian from León demanded.
The attorney from Soria ¡Ya!, Ángel Ceña, has turned to a Castilian proverb to remind [them] that it is not the same to preach as it is to give wheat, and has challenged the groups that support the Junta on when they will stop preaching and start "doing something real for the farmers and ranchers" of Castilla y León.
The initiative has also been backed by the attorney from Por Ávila, Pedro Pascual Muñoz, who has agreed on the urgency of simplifying the CAP, reducing bureaucracy, improving agricultural insurance, ensuring water resources, and promoting generational renewal, in addition to demanding reciprocity in imports. Immediately afterward, he asked that agricultural policy not become an ideological battlefield.