The Congress Timba by a vote The proposal of the PP to increase the flow of the Tajo-Segura transfer | Spain
Rarely an regional leader speaks from the lectern of the Congress of Deputies, which on Tuesday has lying for only one vote a legislative initiative of the Murcia Assembly on the transfer of the Tagus-Segura. Before, to defend it, the president of the Region of Murcia, the popular Fernando López Miras, has intervened before the Hemicycle. The popular baron has fueled the Water War by asking the lower house that the parameters to calculate the transferred flow rate return to the 2014 levels, prior to the change introduced by the Ministry of Ecological Transition and Democratic Challenge in 2023. The modification – which establishes an “ecological flow” endorsed in several sentences by the Supreme Court. The Congress has thrown down the initiative with 171 NOES, 170 Sies and 4 abstentions, by Podemos. Vox has given its support to the proposal of the popular, although from the gallery they had criticized it before, insufficient.
In its battle from the southeast flank of the Peninsula, the Region of Murcia goes hand in hand with the executives of Andalusia and Community Valenciana (both of the PP), and receives the frontal opposition of Castilla-La Mancha, although the popular deputies of that community have voted in favor of the initiative. In Madrid, López Miras won his photo on the hemicycle surrounded by a large delegation of positions from his region, which followed his intervention from the guest tribune. But he stayed alone in the defense of the norm. Not even Vox, former governing partner and with whom regional budgets negotiatehe opted from his side.
« I address you with the satisfaction that things that affect all Spaniards should be approached in the Courts and not from unilaterality. »
The president of the Region of Murcia focused his defense of the proposal of law approved in the assembly of his community-and debated in Congress for affecting other autonomous communities and because the water policy is state competence-on the argument that any decision made by Pedro Sánchez breaks the “consensus” of prior agreements, such as the materialized in 2014 on the transfer of the Tagus-Secure. A decade later, in January 2023, the Coalition Executive promoted Hydrological planning of the 12 river basins that are in their competence, with a current strategy until 2027. and with the rejection of the Valencian Community, Murcia and Andalusia.
Thus, for the first time, the Ministry for Ecological Transition set An ecological flow for the Tagusas required by five sentences of the Supreme Court, European regulations and the Aguas Law for 22 years. But establishing that flow – that is, that flow of water that must at least circulate through the river – has consequences beyond the basin: in Alicante, Murcia and Almería.
The initiative now transferred by the Murcia Assembly to Congress – and which came forward in 2023 in Murcia with the votes in favor of PP and Citizens – consists of a unique article that aims to return the levels to the situation prior to this modification introduced by the ministry then led by Teresa Ribera. The debated text emphasizes that the Region of Murcia has suffered with that change a « cut of more than 100 cubic hectometers of water per year » and « the elimination of at least 15,000 hectares of irrigation. »
Contradiction in the PP of Castilla-La Mancha
The stumbling block for the popular ones, who intended with this vote « portraying the PSOE of Murcia » – indicated in private – is that the deputies of the Castellanomanchego PP can enter into a contradiction. « The Popular Party of Castilla-La Mancha will constantly fight to get water for this land, » said the leader of community formation on Monday, Paco Núñez, in Toledo, together with the general secretary, Cuca Gamarra. Of course, both the popular leader yesterday and López Miras today agreed to demand from the government a new « National Pact of Water » that « responds to joint planning without territorial divisions. »
The first to take the floor in Congress after the president of the Region of Murcia, was the deputy of Podemos, Javier Sánchez Serna, who entered slaughter against the Popular Baron, for his assistance to the April Fair. « How about the Seville Fair? Have you danced a lot? I am not going to ask you about the farmers of the Northwest Murcia affected by the hailstorm that same day, with orange alert preferred to go to drink chamomile, in that it coincides with Mr. Mazón, before the catastrophe, ventorro and Sevillanas. » An accusation that caused the protests of the popular bench and that López Miras reproached with gestures from the seat.
The baron of the PP also had to face its former partners in the regional executive. « This reform does not deactivate the Aguas Law. It does not eliminate the ecological flow, so they will have achieved the vote of their deputies of Castilla-La Mancha. To propose this reform is a recklessness and it is a hoax, » said Deputy Ultra Lourdes Méndez. While the PSOE put his finger in the sore of his previous agreements with the formation of Santiago Abascal. « To deny climate change is to abandon Murcia to his fate with a future with increasingly frequent droughts. Enough of lies, the PSOE will not close the transfer, the Socialist Party has a road map to guarantee the transfer, » said the PSOE parliamentarian and general secretary in the Region of Murcia, Francisco Lucas.
