The PP of Extremadura considers that the ‘self-fine’ imposed by its Minister of Agriculture, Mercedes Morán, for having an illegal well on a plot declared as dry land, of which she is co-owner, exempts her from responsibility, but the PSOE has demanded “her dismissal or resignation” after the information revealed by elDiario.es Extremadura.
Morán owns a 3.5 hectare vineyard in the Tierra de Barros region (Badajoz), which is irrigated through a well that the Guadiana Hydrographic Confederation (CHG) has no record of and which is therefore illegal. The aquifer in this region was declared overexploited in 2015 and since then no rights have been granted for new uses.
According to the minister, her department became aware of the situation during a “field inspection” and the Ministry she heads has imposed sanctions in accordance with the law, which consist of penalties relevant to CAP aid and conditionality.
However, it is still unknown when the inspection was carried out, what the date of the file is and what exactly the sanctions that the Junta has imposed on the councillor’s brother, who is the one who exploits the plot, consist of, another argument that Morán highlights to exempt any responsibility. The PSPOE is going to take these questions to the Assembly of Extremadura and this Tuesday has asked that the Minister of Agriculture stop sitting on the governing council.
“If she does not resign, we will demand that María Guardiola immediately remove her from her duties,” warned the spokesperson for the Socialist Group, Piedad Álvarez, who pointed out that they had waited all weekend for Morán to resign, after learning of the existence of an “illegal and unlawful” well on land owned by her. However, since this has not happened, she has urged the president of the Junta to remove her from office because “we must act ethically and in an exemplary manner” and because Morán cannot be “judge and party” in this process.
Furthermore, he accused her of receiving community subsidies because “she claims to have a dry vineyard – on these properties – when in reality what she has is a vineyard irrigated with water and money from Europe.” With this background, Álvarez asserted, the councillor cannot sit on the Governing Council to carry out the modernisation of the countryside and the irrigation project in Tierra de Barros.
In response, the spokesman for the Popular Parliamentary Group, José Ángel Sánchez Juliá, has accused the socialists of creating “noise” with this matter because the minister neither operates nor has any kind of responsibility in this matter. For this reason, he has urged the PSOE not to create “smoke screens” and to explain why the Government of Spain does not want to contribute “even a cent” of euros to the Tierra de Barros irrigation project.
In this regard, the question has been asked who is lying, whether it was the Minister of Agriculture, Luis Planas, who stated in 2019 that the declaration of general interest of this project would be accompanied by financial aid, or the Secretary of State for Agriculture and Food, the former Extremadura councillor Begoña García Bernal, who said last week “that it cannot be done”.
According to the PP deputy, the PSOE does not want the irrigation project to go ahead “because of its electoral strategy.”
Source: www.eldiario.es
