Environmental associations, citizens and the PSOE warned this Wednesday that they will look closely at the decree law in which the regional government is working to extend the urban moratorium in the Mar Menor environment. The veto on new developments expires this Thursday. And that same day, as LA VERDAD announced, the Governing Council plans to approve the new period of prohibition to build homes and other constructions whose files did not initially have the urbanization project approved before the entry into force of the Law on protection and recovery of the Mar Menor. This regulation has been in force for three years.
From the Pact for the Mar Menor, its spokesman, Ramón Pagán, referred to the reaction of the regional government hours after the Regional Assembly refused to debate a PSOE proposal in August to extend the moratorium. PP and Vox joined their votes, in the first case alleging technical errors and in the second considering that the brake on brick does not protect the lagoon or contribute to its recovery.
“Rectifying is wise, but this risky situation for the protection of the Mar Menor should not have been reached,” Pagán told LA VERDAD. «It was unthinkable not to have a new moratorium or a Territorial Planning Plan, which the Community has not yet approved. S was putting the town halls in trouble when it came to suspending planning licenses », he explained. And he interpreted that “with all this, whoever wins is citizenship, logic and the Mar Menor.”
«It had been much better that the defects detected by the PP in the Assembly had been corrected. If there were errors in the PSOE proposal, these could be solved in parliament itself and not give rise to having to approve a decree law against the clock in the Governing Council », he indicated. And he insisted: “What we could not do was enter a legal vacuum for months, a period in which the moratorium, contained in article 16 of the Mar Menor law, was in question.”
Pact for the Mar Menor was one of the citizen entities present at the rally last Monday before the Assembly to demand the extension of the moratorium. This Wednesday, in addition, Alianza Mar Menor described the measure now proposed by the regional Executive as a “patch”. And he demanded “serious, logical solutions based on endorsed scientific studies.”
ANSE: “A lost legislature”
The Association of Naturalists of the Southeast (ANSE) described as “essential that the decision be made as soon as possible”, so that the new moratorium enters into force immediately and that the text of the decree includes the “forcefulness” necessary to avoid new urban developments. “It would be very difficult to explain to the public that in the time that elapses between the end of the current moratorium and the entry into force of the new one, there is a risk that the processing of new urban developments will advance,” said the director of ANSE, Pedro Garcia.
In his opinion, what happened with this urban veto “is the culmination of a legislature lost in environmental matters by the regional government.” “The worst of all this is not that the moratorium is going to expire, but the breach of the Mar Menor law in its fundamental aspects by the Autonomous Community within the scope of its powers,” he criticized. And he cited as examples that «in four years the Territorial Planning Plan of the Mar Menor Basin has not been approved and that the social participation bodies established in the Mar Menor Law have not even been constituted and only advisory commissions of the own government.” “The same has happened with other key documents, such as the fishing management plan and the nitrate control plan around the lagoon,” said García.
In Ecologistas en Acción, its spokesman, Pedro Luengo, reacted like this: “It does not surprise us, since it is common for the ruling party to reject the motions and legislative proposals presented by the opposition”, among other things to “modulate the legal text to their own interests.”
According to Luengo, “everything points to the media strategy during the negotiations with Vox for the investiture” of Miras. In addition, he said, “we are sure that citizen pressure has also had a significant influence on the PP’s strategy” of now launching the extension of the urban veto.
PSOE: “López Miras lied about the town halls”
From the PSOE, the regional deputy Manuel Sevilla detracted from the initiative of the regional executive, affirmed that it is a rectification of the PP in the face of political and social pressure and charged against the regional president. “With this sudden change of position in just 48 hours, the PP of López Miras is acknowledging that he lied to the public when he assured that the city councils had sufficient instruments at their disposal to protect the Mar Menor,” said Sevilla. And he pointed out that “it is shameful that the PP of López Miras dedicates itself to transferring its responsibilities to everyone, both to the Government of Spain and to the municipalities, but does absolutely nothing when it is their responsibility to protect the lagoon.”
“This reinforces what we have been warning for a long time. The only thing that worries López Miras is protecting his chair. Faced with the enormous scandal and the possibility of an electoral repetition in our Autonomous Community, he has had no choice but to quickly and quickly pull out the announcement of a decree law, “he said.
For the socialists, “López Miras is solely responsible for having brought the Mar Menor back to an extreme situation for not complying with the law.” And he added: “We would not have reached this critical point if López Miras had done his job and approved a Management Plan for the Vertiente Basin to the Mar Menor, as set out in the Law for the recovery and protection of the Mar Menor for three years.” ».
«If the decree law is approved, we will study it with a magnifying glass to make sure that it is not just another ruse. We are not going to consent to a posturing or decaffeinated urban moratorium to try to deceive the citizenry once again and continue favoring particular interests, “warned the parliamentarian.
Likewise, Seville described as “tremendous irresponsibility that the PP has led to the expiration of the temporary urban moratorium.” And he pointed out that “thanks to the initiative presented by Pepe Vélez on behalf of the Socialist Parliamentary Group in the Regional Assembly and to social pressure, López Miras has been forced to rectify his position.”
Ribera: “suicidal ignorance or bad faith?”
This Tuesday, without the initiative of the regional government having yet been disclosed, the acting Minister for the Ecological Transition published a message on the social network X (formerly Twitter) in which she charged against PP and Vox. “How can it be! Suicidal ignorance or bad faith? It’s okay, please », she wrote about her refusal to hold an extraordinary plenary session in August to prolong the urban veto. The popular ones justified her decision by arguing that “there was no possibility of amending it and correcting” rulings such as having ignored the sections of the Law for the Protection and Recovery of the Mar Menor related to the temporary exclusion area for construction and its corresponding map.
Meanwhile, Vox justified its “no” by stating that the moratorium and the rest of this law do not contribute to improving the lagoon, while PSOE and Podemos framed the position of the right-wing parties in their negotiations for the formation of the new regional government, after the elections of May 28.
The deputy and spokesperson for Podemos-IU-Alianza Verdes, María Marín, demanded an “indefinite urban moratorium without exceptions.” The lagoon “is not going to improve in a year or two, but rather it will take us decades to recover it; this law decree is just a band-aid, she reasoned. And she considered the decree law announced by the regional government as “a new distraction maneuver of the PP of López Miras.” She also demanded that a brake be put on “the more than 500 homes that are currently being built around the Mar Menor”
The PP spokesman in the Regional Assembly, Joaquín Segado, stated that with the initiative of López Miras “it is demonstrated that the Popular Party is the only one that really acts forcefully to protect the Mar Menor.” And he urged the Socialists to “for once do something useful for the Mar Menor and vote in favor in the Regional Assembly of the validation” of the decree law.
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