The Regional MP for VOX in Andalucía, Manuel Gavira, has denounced Junta's supposed plans to cut down 500,000 olive trees to make way for mega solar plants.

He made this announcement during a visit to Granada where he met with several citizen platforms brought into being by those affected.

“They told us that they were going to cut down 200 olive trees per hectare, which is a high cost in environmental loss,” said MP Gavira, adding, “They [the Junta] are being dragged along by Brussels and they’re going to ruin agriculture on our land.”

For this reason, he accused the two major parties, the PP and PSOE, of “coercing and punishing” agricultural and livestock farmers with their environmental policies, “so that there will be no primary sector on the land, as can be seen from the proliferation of mega solar plants.”

He did say, however, that, “Nobody in VOX is against renewable energies; in fact we want all kinds of energy sources that will guarantee us energy sovereignty [energy independence].”

He said that the two major parties “are not rational, as although you can put solar parks on land that is not agriculturally productive, the major parties are doing in on productive agricultural land,” he considers, deducing, “What they want in Andalucía is that instead of olive groves we have solar-panel groves.”

He also considers that a proliferation of mega photovoltaic parks “is not going to make electricity cheaper and won’t stop blackouts occurring, like the recent nationwide one.”

Finally, he claims that the major parties are cornering farmers by dragging their feet on important irrigation works. A clear example, he claims, is that farmers on the Granada vega won’t be allowed to irrigate their crops, despite the amount of rain that we have had.

Editorial comment: OK, here’s a bit of background info for those who are not familiar with Spanish political parties. VOX is considered a far-right formation, in line with other far-right formations across Europe who align themselves with Trump with the seeming intention of sowing anti-EU sentiment in Europe in order to weaken it, thus eliminating the EU as a serious competitor for the USA.

The head of VOX, Santiago Abascal, was present in the international meeting of European, far-right parties in Madrid in February, attended by Marine Le Pen’s Rassemblement National (France), Viktor Orbán’s Fidesz (Hungary), Matteo Salvini’s Lega (Italy), Geert Wilders(The Netherlands), and Andrej Babiš (Czechia), among other parties.

(News: Granada, Andalucia)

Keywords: Santiago Abascal, Far Right, Ultra Nationalist, VOX, Olive Groves Eliminated, Mega Solar Plants, Junta de Andalucia

news, andalucia, granada, santiago abascal, far right, ultra nationalist, vox, olive groves eliminated, mega solar plants, junta de andalucia

Reader’s comment: “Politics aside there is enough non agricultural land that solar panels can be put on so it does make me question why take away agricultural land when it is not necessary?” – Jessica

Reader’s comment: “I agree with Jessica’s comment. Olive oil production in Andalucia is vital to the economy. Spain is actively promoting solar panel installations with the support of EU funding, aiming to boost renewable energy and reduce reliance on fossil fuels. But to what cost to jobs, the environment and the economy?” – Julie

Reader’s comment: “Agree also with Jessica” – Gino