The first vice president of the Junta de Andalucía and counselor of Presidency, Health and Emergencies, Antonio Sanz, has requested to intervene on his own initiative in the Andalusian Parliament in order to present the balance of the forest fires recorded in the community during the summer, the measures adopted by the Junta in response to the recent earthquakes in Granada, and the assessment of the Andalusian Executive regarding the response of the central Government in the fight against drug trafficking.
Sources from the Andalusian Executive have indicated to Europa Press that the request for appearance will be registered before the meeting of the Permanent Deputation of the chamber scheduled for this Thursday, although for now the date on which this intervention will take place has not been specified.
Last Tuesday, Sanz demanded from the central Government "a date" to reactivate the Coordinating Body for Anti-Drug Operations (OCON-Sur), after the letter sent by the president of the Junta, Juanma Moreno, to Pedro Sánchez requesting its activation.
In an audio broadcast to the media, Sanz criticized that "the Sánchez government has opted not to act, not to propose regulatory changes, not to propose more resources, because there are no more resources, because there is no more personnel and because there are no specialized units. On the contrary, it has eliminated them."
The demand from the Junta comes after two shootings that occurred at the beginning of the month in Isla Cristina (Huelva) and Utrera (Sevilla), which resulted in five fatalities, including a minor and the baby of one of the deceased women, who was pregnant.
In this context, Sanz insisted that "we demand actions from the Sánchez government, we accuse the Ministry of the Interior and the Government of negligence and irresponsibility for leaving the bodies and forces of state security abandoned and at their own fate."
At the same time, the Permanent Deputation of the Parliament is scheduled to debate the request from the socialist group to hold an extraordinary plenary session on the management of the fire declared in Niebla (Huelva), which devastated 33,000 hectares. Sanz has defended the actions of the Junta in the face of the fires and has emphasized that "more than half" of the budget of the Infoca Plan "is allocated to prevention" and that Andalusia "is the only community with a staff contracted 365 days a year."
The first vice president has already appeared in the last ordinary plenary session before the summer break, on July 23, to provide explanations about the forest fire in Los Gallardos (Almería), in which 14 people lost their lives.
In this new appearance at his own request, Sanz will also address the latest seismic episodes recorded in the province of Granada, including two earthquakes of magnitude 4.8 and another two of magnitude equal to or greater than 4, which have led to the activation of the Emergency Plan for Seismic Risk in Andalusia.
During his intervention in the legislative chamber, Sanz will also detail the functioning and deployment of this emergency plan, as well as the coordination of the different services involved in the response to these earthquakes.