The president of the government of Extremadura, Maria Guardiola, has announced a match of 20 million euros for the Tierra de Barros irrigation project (Badajoz)an investment that, according to what has been said, will be considered in the next general budgets of Extremadura.
According to him, his government firmly believes in this project. and that is why they are going to finance it, but he asked the Spanish government for financing and a commitment “as it has done for other projects declared to be of general interest”, because, as he said, “we can no longer wait”.
He indicated that one of the approaches after learning that “it was not financeable with European funds” was to “resize and carry out a smaller project”, but the regional executive does not want to abandon the initial projectThis is why we will work with the irrigators of Tierra de Barros to carry out “the project that they want and that is good for the region”, and for which “the support of all administrations” is necessary.
Guardiola, who said he would not give up on “continuing to work with Brussels to obtain European funds for this project”, stressing that “Extremadura can’t wait any longer“, and that the Extremadurans need “certainty” and “rigor”, as well as progress through a “useful policy and a serious policy that can consolidate this change of trend that is occurring” in “only one year”.
Guardiola denies that this investment is a wink to VOX who has been his government partner and on whom depends the approval or not of the next Budgets. It was precisely during the plenary session yesterday, Thursday, September 12, that the Abascal party promoted a proposal to demand that irrigation works begin immediately.
This project had more than 250 million euros in financingalmost 1,200 farmers affected, 15,500 hectares of crops affected and 12 municipalities benefited. It is an initiative that was first announced in 1999 and was rescued in 2020 by the regional executive led by the socialist Guillermo Fernández Vara as one of the great assets to “guarantee the future of the Extremadura countryside”. Thus, in 2021 it was declared a project of general interest by the central government.
Project shutdown
It should be remembered that this project was paralyzed this summerWhen the Extremadura government announced that the 104 million euros of the European Agrarian Fund for Rural Development (PDR) were being diverted to other measures related to agriculture and the rural world, this item was going to become its main budgetary pillar.
In this regard, the Minister of Agriculture, Livestock and Sustainable Development of the Government of Extremadura, Mercedes Morán, stated that this measure was adopted on the “advice” of the European Commission, which These funds will be reprogrammed towards other measures “because the irrigation of Tierra de Barros would not be possible with this money” and, therefore, to avoid losing these 104 million by December 31, 2025.
This announcement raised eyebrows, and not only among those affected. Vox, then the PP’s government partner, gave Maria Guardiola an ultimatum: “either they financed the irrigation of Tierra de Barros or they will not approve the Extremadura budgets.”
