2023-07-19 21:29:39
BarcelonaYou only have to listen to a rally by Santiago Abascal to see how the extreme right has turned the agricultural sector and rural Spain into its priority objective to capture votes. Taking advantage of an unease that is real, and an endemic crisis that successive governments have not been able to solve, Vox has managed to make many farmers and ranchers see them as the only ones who care about their interests.
The problem is that Vox sells demagogic solutions that are unrealistic, such as skipping the environmental regulations imposed by Europe or implementing a protectionism that, first of all, is also not acceptable in the European context, and then goes against a a sector that has traditionally been an exporter and that has always fought against the protectionism of other countries, for example France (with the historical images of French farmers emptying Spanish trucks carrying fruit or vegetables).
On the other hand, Vox directly deceives the farmers when he promises them that new irrigation systems can be put in place without limit (as has been tried to do in Doñana), when water is a good that will become scarcer every day precisely because of climate change, which they insist on denying. There is no doubt that if Vox enters the Spanish government and – as it has done to the executives of Castile and León, the Valencian Country and Extremadura – asks for powers over agriculture, it will once again put on the table the nefarious idea of making a transfer of the ‘Hebrew. Another contradiction is that the people of Abascal are also in favor of macro-farms, which is precisely a system that mistreats the small owner and, above all, pollutes the aquifers and rural environments to the point of degrading them.
The other leg on which Vox builds its image as a rural party is the defense of hunting and all kinds of traditions, including those involving animal abuse, such as bulls on the street in the Valencian Country. And they have been able to feed very skillfully the image that the decisions that are taken, for example in matters of animal protection or the environment, are made from an urban perspective and threaten the lifestyle of the most authentic Spain and genuine
Vox makes farmers believe that urbanites threaten the lifestyle of the most authentic and genuine Spain
In any case, it must be recognized that these arguments are necessary above all because there has not been a convincing response from the left to the demands of the sector and perhaps it has been treated with excessive paternalism. As with the issue of immigration, what cannot be done is to ignore the specific problem and leave all the ground free to the extreme right. Fortunately, it must be said that in Catalonia the national factor acts as a brake against the advance of Vox, but this does not mean that the same demands as in the rest of the State do not exist. In short, it is better that the democrats become aware of the strategic importance that, from all points of view, a vigorous and powerful primary sector assumes. For economic reasons, but also social and territorial balance.
#Editorial #Vox #field