BINNACLE
Ximo Puig and José Vélez are unable to stop Minister Ribera, although they will continue to press until the end, amid the growing discouragement of the irrigators after the last meeting
Within the Government of the nation there is no counterweight to Minister Teresa Ribera, determined to carry out her plan to change transfer to desalination, through the rise in ecological flows in the Alto Tajo. Pedro Sánchez already ruled against the transfers (this Transfer) four years ago in Albacete; while the Minister of Agriculture, Luis Planas, who would have to say something, is neither here nor expected. He already commented in Murcia that he was not talking about the Tajo-Segura. Thus, there is no one to stop the third vice president: the vote of the National Water Council, the opinion of the Council of State and the Strategic Environmental Declaration, the procedures that are missing prior to the Council of Ministers, will be almost a walk for Teresa Ribera , as it was for its predecessors in previous planning cycles.
The minister would only find a real internal opposition in the socialists of the Valencian Community and the Region of Murcia, who have reaped another failure, in view of the result of the meeting on Friday between the ministerial ‘staff’ and the irrigators of the Transfer. Ximo Puig and José Vélez, with their trades and behind-the-scenes pressure, are burning cartridges as the outcome approaches. An end that was scheduled for before the summer but will be delayed until the fall. There will be a greater margin to ‘mature’ the planning of the Tagus and the Segura, and make the fit of the Transfer, but without illusions.
In the PP they observe the drift of the Transfer thinking about the votes. The popular might have been upset if the irrigators had left the meeting with the minister satisfied or hopeful. The day before, they braked too much with the omen that Ribera was going to “deceive” them again, something that upset the honor of the irrigators, who are now grown-ups and have fought a thousand battles. With everything at stake, the Government of López Miras has no candle (negotiator) in this funeral due to bad relations with the Ministry. The feeling is reciprocal.
The pitcher of cold water
The PSOE is stronger by desire than reality
The delegate of the Government and head of the Murcian Socialists, José Vélez, remained hanging on the brush, after being “convinced” that the minister and the irrigators would find “positive solutions” on Friday. The meeting was a jug of cold water, although it was within the script that Ribera did not release a pledge. “If there is any proposal, a change in the roadmap, they are not going to tell us, and even less so now,” commented the president of the Scrats, Lucas Jiménez, upon leaving the Ministry’s headquarters. They tread carefully, although this looks like ‘see you in court’. Some prefer to think that there is still a match, and that if there is any change it will be in the last minute of the game or in the penalty shootout.
It is obvious that the Alicante and Murcian PSOE will continue throwing all the meat on the grill to cushion the blow to the Transfer, and that various formulas are being considered to apply the greatest ecological flow in Aranjuez with the least damage to Levante, but for now the wish to reality. Ximo Puig, the main political counterweight to Ribera’s plans, has not bent his arm to his party partner.
The double measuring stick
A transfer government, but anti Tajo-Segura
It is another obvious fact that the ‘rise’ in flows in the Alto Tajo is a political decision (like all water decisions), which will be covered with the necessary reports, with the necessary collaborators and under the trinity of climate change, Water and Sustainability Directive. Three principles that come to mind to cut ‘this’ Trasvase, and not others. It cannot be said that Pedro Sánchez and Ribera are anti-trasvasistas, since this film does not affect the rest of the aqueducts, which work at their own pace (they are even temporarily paralyzed, like the Negratín one) but in which nobody questions their closure. What’s more, the ‘Manchega Pipeline’ is being tested, a transfer from the head of the Tagus to the Guadiana basin, which apparently will not be affected by climate change at all. Miracle. The least that can be asked for in terms of water is coherence and technical rigor. No doctrines.
Friday’s meeting reminds me of those glamorous meetings in La Moncloa after the repeal of the Ebro Transfer and the urgency of the Segura drought decrees, sponsored by Vice President Fernández de la Vega: If you cannot give them more water, give them love and tax exemptions, he told himself to pass that drink.
Regarding desalination, it is not explained where the urgency of the Ministry is to expand the desalination plants, interconnect them and feed them with photovoltaic energy, which it intends to finance with ‘Next Generation’ funds within a very tight schedule. The agreements with the irrigators to increase production have not yet been signed, nor have the projects been tendered. It goes long. If this is the alternative to the Trasvase cut… one saint can be undressed without dressing the other. Too much risk.
We leave for another day the expected loss of 200 hectometers per year in the Segura basin due to the restrictions that will apply to overexploited aquifers before 2027. How do you plan to cover this important additional deficit?
#Trasvase #penalty #shootout