ERC and Junts join in Congress at the pressure on the right so as not to close the nuclear | Spain
They are not just the PP, Vox and the lobbies Pronuclear. The electric superapepa last Monday has revitalized the debate already on the treasury about whether it proceeds to extend the useful life of nuclear centrals in Spain, They have a drooping calendar from 2027 to 2035 already agreed with the affected companies. ERC and Junts, who supported the investiture of Pedro Sánchez and that many laws and actions of the PSOE and add coalition executive are usually supported, also defend that it is not time to proceed to throw that padlock. Not at least for now. ERC and Junts defend the importance of nuclear for economic competitiveness and employment. The PP will promote different initiatives in the Cortes to cause government problems with this matter.
The PP will take another proposition not of the law on Tuesday (NLP, parliamentary initiative with which it is intended that the Chamber express its position on a specific issue, but that is not binding on the government) to discuss a « comprehensive strategy for a clean, fair and competitive energy transition ». The proposal raises in its second point: “The elaboration of a National Plan for Energy Supply Security that will reconsider, in accordance with its holders and with a favorable report of the Nuclear Safety Council, the programmed closure of the Nuclear Generation Park to extend its years of operation that contribute to reduce the cost of electricity, to reduce emissions and reinforce the stability of the electricity network and the electrical production that ensures the supply”. The nuclear closure calendar, which would begin with the closure of the first reactor in Almaraz in 2027, is the result of a government agreement with electricity. Although there are voices that question this calendar, for the moment the energy have not presented to the Executive any alternative, according to the Ministry for Ecological Transition.
On the same day of the blackout, the vice -secretary of Economy of the PP, Juan Bravo, made a visit to The Almaraz Central (Cáceres), the first one that is planned to close and now contributes 7% of the country’s energy and generates 7,000 jobs, to support the prolongation of the activity of the five centrals existing in Spain, which add seven reactors. That was one of the key demands that Bravo raised to the Minister of Economy, Carlos Body, to provide the votes of his party to the decree against the tariffs of Donald Trump that has to be validated this Thursday in the plenary. The PP, at least since the arrival of Alberto Núñez Feijóo, is clear about its commitment to nuclear energy In the mixed energy package for the whole country. Vox too. The current government much less.
He President Pedro Sánchezthe third vice president and Minister of Ecological Transition, Sara Aagensen, and the second vice president and leader of Sumar, Yolanda Díaz, have expressed these days after the great blackout More than doubt that the solution to this crisis passes through more nuclear. Both Sánchez and Aagensen or the president of Electric Redthe former socialist ministra Beatriz Corredor, have even pointed out that the nuclear were more part of the problem than of the solution, because they were standing. Díaz, asked this Thursday in TVE, did not show up that a debate about nuclear in Spain in Spain is activated with what is happening in other European countries, but the parliamentary left in general is not for that work. We can neither, nor EH Bildu, nor the PNV.
The most obvious problem is other executive members and, in particular, ERC and Junts, as seen in Congress this last February 12 before a vote caused by the PP in which it was claimed to extend the life of the nuclear reactors in Spain and that came forward thanks to the abstention of these two Catalan separatist formations.
The deputy of Junts Pilar Calvo has registered this week in the lower house a series of questions to the Executive interested in the causes of the blackout, the possible responsibilities and, also, on whether before this situation the government has planned to reth The National Energy and Climate National Plan (PNIEC) and carry out the necessary efforts to obtain in time the authorizations of expansion of the operating licenses of the centrals ”. Calvo already advanced in February the position of Juns that no one could guarantee that in a few years the Catalans will be able to do without that type of energy, which now consume one in two citizens with three active reactors in that territory.
The spokesman in the matter of ERC, Jordi Salvador, is equally forceful despite being contrary to nuclear energy. ERC, in this matter, is defined as « realistic and pragmatic » and although in the votes they would now be portrayed on the side of the PP and Junts, which already generates serious problems and “discomforts”, they distinguish their background reasons: “Our position has nothing to do with that of together, they move through the interests of the electric and energy that nuclear continues because there is no other energy or economic alternative for now for the affected areas. ”
Salvador speaks from Tarragona, province where the two operational plants of Catalonia are. ERC deputy accuses the PSOE government and add « hypocrisy and not having done their homework » to facilitate another exit to the nuclear, although it also admits that the Catalan Generalitat in which they ruled either did, for example, when it comes to implementing enough central renewable energy. « ERC, in these conditions and situation, is forced to endorse right -wing measures such as closing nuclear because the government has not launched a conversion and relocation of workers and compensation to an area that has been very generous for decades assuming so many centrals, because without energy there is no industry and not to leave people lying and without work, » the Republican deputy rises. ERC, in addition, would advocate also to open in this debate the melon of the nationalization of all strategic sectors.
