Several German deputies planned to travel to Spain this Monday to know the situation of the National Park of Donana due to drought and strawberry crops. However, the appointment has been canceled due, they say, to the electoral advance announced by Pedro Sánchez a week ago.
The German ambassador in Spain, Maria Margarete Gosse, has announced that “the Commission for the Environment, Nature Protection, Nuclear Safety and Consumer Protection of the German Bundestag has decided to forego his long-planned trip to Andalusia for the time being“.
The members of the delegation point out that “German-Spanish relations are nourished by intense exchanges at all levels and are characterized by a deep mutual respect for the other country’s democratic institutions and processes“. “Our two countries are united by a trusting friendship that has grown over the years,” he defends.
German deputies postpone their trip due to electoral advancement
Through a statement, they inform that in this sense and in view of “the high political importance” that the issues that they were going to deal with on the trip “have acquired in recent days in view of the next Spanish general elections”, the Commission has decided postpone “his planned trip to Andalusia”.
“He purpose of the trip was to exchange information and collect information on a topic that is of interest to both countries, namely climate change and its consequences,” they assert. “We are confident that we can continue this exchange in the future,” the document concludes.
In any case, Parliamentarians do hold the scheduled meeting with the Ministry for Ecological Transition and the Demographic Challenge (MITECO), which is held at this time. The Spanish Government agreed to allow the Secretary of State for the Environment, Hugo Morán, to receive the German delegation.
In a statement Sunday, the Department of Teresa Ribera pointed out that she does not value the initiatives of the Parliament of an EU Member State, nor does it give an opinion on whether or not it is convenient for said visit to take place during the electoral period.
This same Monday, the Junta de Andalucía has accused the national government of commit a “great betrayal” and a “great irresponsibility”considering that it has encouraged the “hoax campaign” against Huelva’s agriculture turning the “Andalusian countryside into a permanent electoral battlefield”.
The problem is that the President of the Government uses that visit to try to campaign at the expense of agriculture in Andalusia,” the PP said on Monday.
This was confirmed in statements to journalists by the Minister of Sustainability and spokesperson for the Andalusian Government, Ramón Fernández-Pacheco, when questioned about the statements by the vice president of the central Executive, Nadia Calvinowho has also criticized this Monday that the “irresponsibility” of the PP with Doñana has affected strawberry farmers.
All this in relation to the visit that was scheduled this week to Madrid and Seville. “The problem is not that a group of German parliamentarians want to come to Andalusia to find out how things are done here. The problem is that the President of the Government uses that visit to try to carry out an electoral campaign at the expense of agriculture in Andalusia”, stressed Fernández-Pacheco.
“Interested hoax campaign” from Germany
For the Andalusian spokesman, this attitude “It is tremendously irresponsiblewhich also has no precedents in a democracy.” “Never before has a president of Spain gone so clearly against the interests of Spain“, has held.
Regarding the visit of the parliamentarians, the Board had indicated that it would attend and explain “everything good” that is done in Andalusia. “We will explain all those acknowledgments that the Committee of the Regions itself and the EU have made about the climate policy that the Junta de Andalucía has been implementing, and we will dismantle the campaign of interested hoaxes that from some German sectors and with the sounding board that the Government of Spain supposes, it is being orchestrated against agriculture in Andalusia”, he had pointed out.
I would tell the PSOE that they already know what the Andalusians think of that irresponsible attitude. They have said it loud and clear in the last municipal elections,” says the PP.
Likewise, he regretted that the Minister of Agriculture, Luis Planas, do not respond to the “companions of the Governing Council” that give “echo” to these campaigns against the strawberry of Huelva and Andalusian agriculture.
“I would tell the PSOE who already know what the Andalusians think of that irresponsible attitude. They’ve said it loud and clear in the past municipal elections. If it is part of your electoral guide (…) we will continue to be responsible and saying loud and clear that Andalusian agriculture is responsible, that you don’t play with Andalusian agriculture,” he concluded before the cancellation of the visit was announced.
