The Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, Luis Planas, has criticized that the PP wants to turn a “false premise” such as the cut in aid from the new Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) “into truth” after ensuring that 2022 and 2023 They have represented the largest budgetary contribution that has been made to the primary sector in the history of Spain.
Specifically, the head of the branch, after swearing in his position as a member of the Government before the King this Tuesday, has appeared in the Senate following the Popular Group’s request for his appearance following the recent reform of article 182 of the regulations, by which two groups parliamentarians or a fifth of the chamber can make a member of the Government appear on an important issue, according to Europa Press.
“It is a real pleasure to be accountable before this House because Spain is a country that has solid and functioning democratic institutions. The opposition asks and the Government answers, but the opposition asks and risks the Government’s response and the truth,” he said. indicated.
Thus, Planas was pleased with his presence in the Senate Plenary. “We started well and looking at the question, it is not necessary to have studied logic. Wrong conclusions are always drawn from a false premise and I believe that the Popular Group starts from a false premise that it wants to turn into truth,” he criticized.
The head of Agriculture has not hesitated to remind the senators that for the period 2021-2027 Spain will have 47,724 million euros, which represents 86.7 million euros more. “They will say that it is what is eaten for what is served, but it is especially valuable that Sánchez achieved in Brussels the great success of Spain maintaining the funds taking into account the reduction in the community budget,” he stressed.
The head of the branch has taken the opportunity to clarify that direct aid payments “are not territorial compensation funds”, but are paid to farmers, ranchers and farms with the purpose of producing safe, quality, accessible and affordable food for all. Thus, he has stressed that this CAP is the one that dedicates the most funds to maintaining the income of producers, through basic income aid, which represents 61% of the direct aid budget, around 2,934 million euros.
In this way, Planas thanked the Popular Group “very much” for asking this question, since he was able to remind them that 2022 and 2023 were “not from this century, but from the history of Spain”, the budget years where the primary sector has had more public support.
“The aid from the CAP is higher than the amount from the previous period, plus the direct aid from the Government of Spain, plus the aid to Agrarian Insurance, the Next Generation EU funds represent the largest budgetary contribution that has occurred in the history of Spain to the primary sector,” he concluded.
Regarding the current political context in the autonomous communities, after the regional elections of May 28, Planas regretted that in some regions where the PP governs, the ministries of Agriculture and Livestock have been transferred to representatives of Vox. “I don’t know if it is by request or because they consider that agriculture and livestock is not so important and that is why they have transferred some of them to Vox or to people linked to Vox,” he indicated.
“What do we want to do? Do we really want to help farmers, ranchers and the rural environment? My answer and that of the Government is yes, but now it is up to you to say what you want to do, use it as a springboard agitation against the Government of Spain or solve the problems. If they want to help the primary sector there are only two options, cooperation or conflict,” he concluded.
Regarding the livestock situation that is going through a complicated moment due to the presence of the epizootic hemorrhagic disease and at the request of the ‘popular’ senator Jorge Domingo Martínez Antolín for the call of a sectoral meeting, he has asked for “responsibility and containment” and has urged the PP to be ” rigorous” on these issues.
“If your Vox partners incite you, do not make the mistake that the Government of Castilla y León made, because otherwise I will immobilize again as I did in May in the first place to defend the ranchers of Castilla y León, and I will do it again as many times as necessary, in defense of the livestock sector of Spain and the European Union and our normal health status,” he noted.
Planas has advanced that the axes on which his Department will work in the next period will be “generational change, innovation and digitalization and undoubtedly modernization of irrigation to provide income and sustainability.” “We are going to continue working together with whoever wants to collaborate without a doubt, whoever doesn’t want to, well they will know,” he concluded.
Finally, Planas has acknowledged that in his farewell it was going to be “very heavy” after having heard from some senator that his intervention had been “heavy or anodyne”, listing all the aid that the Government has approved, while at the same time requested the autonomous communities to “complement these funds that the Government is providing.”
For his part, the senator of the Popular Group Jorge Domingo Martínez Antolín has congratulated Planas for repeating as Minister of Agriculture. “But I don’t know what is more dangerous for the countryside, for him to be minister again or for Mrs. Ribera to be minister of the Ecological Transition again. She has spoken here about how well the common agrarian policy and that famous and wonderful plan are going. strategy that you created and that you almost approved alone, but the reality is that the sector is against it,” he pointed out.
Martínez Antolín has requested the holding of a monographic sectoral agricultural conference to address emerging diseases in the Spanish livestock herd. “Not to the lack of commitment that you are having with the epizotic hemorrhagic disease, I would like you to treat the farmers and ranchers as you treat the independence supporters,” he indicated.
He has also regretted the rise in food prices, highlighting that “they are becoming more and more expensive.” “Access some products that are becoming authentic luxury products such as fruit and know, Mr. Minister, that many Spaniards like fruit,” he concluded, alluding to the phrase of the president of the Community of Madrid , Isabel Díaz Ayuso, during Pedro Sánchez’s intervention in the investiture debate.
An allusion to the ‘fruit’ that has been censored by the senator of the Socialist Group José Latorre. “It especially hurts me that he ended his speech using the phrase that the president of the Community of Madrid uses to insult the president of the Government of Spain. I think it is having bad taste,” he said in his appearance.
For his part, Vox senator Angel Pelayo Gordillo has asked Planas to radically rectify “his policy”, in addition to demanding that he “above all listen to Spanish farmers, ranchers and fishermen.”
“They get used to making ugly the Popular Group that collaborates with Vox in the autonomous communities in which we are part of the Government because apparently we fuel the confrontation. I remind you that if we are part of regional governments it is for one main reason, because they have voted for us and not to you,” he said, while describing the aid package promoted by the Government as “totally insufficient.”