The Congress of Deputies has approved this Thursday the Animal Welfare Law, the first norm that legislates in Spain for the protection of almost all animals at the state level. Its purpose is to stop their mistreatment, abandonment and sacrifice. However, the Socialists have won the battle against their coalition partner for the law to exclude hunting dogs. “We have come as far as we can with the forces we have,” acknowledged Minister Belarra during his speech in Congress. “Not as far as we would have liked”, he lamented after accepting that the rule will not affect the hunting sector.
Despite the discrepancies between the coalition partners, the PSOE has not changed its position. Podemos always pointed out in private that he would not drop the law and that everything would depend on the parliamentary partners of the executive, who were not at all favorable to the socialist amendment. But the PSOE has managed to convince everyone in the last few hours. Unidas Podemos, ERC and Bildu have decided to vote in favor even if the law leaves, according to the words of the Republicans, “scuchimized” from Congress.
The bill goes ahead with the votes against the opposition -PP, VOX and Ciudadanos– and other habitual partner of the executive. Among them, More Countrywho has defended hunting dogs at all costs until the last moment, or the PNV, which considers that the norm threatens the powers of the Autonomous Communities, with stricter legislation in some cases for a long time.
The star norm of Podemos, about to derail
The norm has hung by a thread until the last moment. The bill, led by the Minister of Social Rights, Ione Belarra, was one of the star initiatives of Podemos of this legislature. He came out ahead of the Council of Ministers with the approval of the coalition government as a whole. But its parliamentary process almost derails the norm because of the amendment of the Socialist Party that asked to exclude hunting dogs, considering that they do not have the same rights as other animals. “The amendment of shame”, the purple deputy, Juan Antonio López de Uralde, has come to describe it in full.
During their debate in committee, Podemos allowed the law to reach its last and final debate in Congress as a way of putting pressure on the Socialists. “The PSOE has one last chance to rectify before reaching full power,” Podemos came to defend last December. That rectification has not arrived and that has forced the purple sector of the Government to choose between saving hunting dogs or other animals.
The Minister Belarra has justified her vote in favor of “the rights of animals, not to be mistreated or abandoned.” Although with direct attacks on the socialists for his amendment. “The forces that today are left out of that consensus are going to have to admit that they were wrong”, has assured without losing hope in being able to change the text of the law during its processing in the Senate. “We do not give in to pressure, we are firm in defending the country we love. The hunting lobby is going to want to slow down everything, but it is not going to succeed, ”he concluded.