Friday, March 29

The Government rules out withdrawing the energy saving decree: “The PP does not help at all”


“The decree is what it is” and “there will not be any kind of postponement.” The Third Vice President and Minister of Ecological Transition, Teresa Ribera, reiterated this Monday that the decree with measures for energy saving that the Government approved last Monday will continue forward and will unfold its effects on Wednesday, August 10, as planned. The Popular Party has demanded this morning a withdrawal of the decree, something that Ribera has rejected. “The PP does not help at all”, responded the vice president, who recalled the Executive’s commitment to the EU to reduce energy consumption in the face of the crisis caused by the war in Ukraine. A reduction that has to reach 7% and that, only with this plan of measures, half of this percentage would already be reached, as indicated by Ribera.

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“The royal decree is what it is, despite the noise and the lies that we have been hearing,” said Teresa Ribera. The third vice president has affirmed that the package of measures, with initiatives such as limits on air conditioning, lighting in shop windows and the obligation of door closing mechanisms in businesses with access to the street, has not been modified after the meeting held this Monday with the autonomous communities.

“The Government is respectful of the Constitution. Now the communities have to see how it is applied, we cannot replace the powers of the communities”, Ribera insisted. “We have heard high-sounding expressions out of place. I have heard how important they say it is to respect the Constitution and the rules”, she pointed out in reference to how the PP has clung at other times to compliance with the law.

Those high-sounding words have not been at the meeting, where the Governments of Andalusia, Murcia, Galicia, Madrid and Castilla y León have requested the withdrawal of the royal decree. “The high-sounding expressions have been in public and on social networks”, since it was the president of the Community of Madrid, Isabel Díaz Ayuso, who said on networks that her government would not comply because the plan “scares tourism” and “ it causes darkness and sadness.” As a result of these statements, in recent days the PP has had to balance itself so as not to disavow Ayuso, because the president of that formation, Alberto Núñez Feijóo, had demanded days before measures similar to those approved a week ago by Moncloa.

A counselor has denied climate change

Ribera has assured that the communities have been cordial in the meeting and that all have shown their willingness to implement a plan of saving measures. However, Ribera has pointed out that “there has been a counselor who has denied climate change; the rest have been very correct”, although he has not said who.

The third vice-president has also ruled out that there has been any type of improvisation in the plan of measures, because it is in line with what Brussels demands, which has opened the door for the cut in gas consumption in Spain to be 7%, when in other countries it has to be 15%

“Whoever speaks improvises before reading the royal decree,” criticized Ribera. “Who does not know the labor legislation improvises”. “In case of any doubt, we are in a position to respond and work together. All the communities have highlighted their willingness to make proposals”.

They will do so, the minister assured, with a view to the approval of a contingency plan in September, which will include the bulk of measures to reduce consumption and strengthen energy supply guarantees. The communities will have until August 31 to present their proposals.

Before the meeting, the Madrid Minister for the Environment, Housing and Agriculture, Paloma Martín, had acknowledged that they will comply with the measures included in the Royal Decree “whether we like it or not”. “We believe that the plan must be aimed at lowering the price and that the measures must be recommendations for the private sector, incentives, and cannot be imposed measures, which is what is established with this royal decree,” said Martín in an interview on RNE.

At the same time, this weekend, Feijóo had already asked to make the institutional leap and that the coordination to apply the measures, which come into force at 00:00 this Wednesday, be discussed at a conference of regional presidents who urge to convene Immediately.

This Monday, the PP has stepped on the accelerator in criticizing the measures approved by the Executive and the Deputy Secretary of Territorial Organization of the Popular Party, Miguel Tellado, has requested the withdrawal of the Royal Decree. “Let him listen to the street, talk to the merchants who are frankly worried. Unfortunately, the President of the Government is at an altitude of 5,000 feet. The Government needs to step on the street ”, he assured at a press conference at the Genoa headquarters, in statements made before the meeting between the Executive and the regional councilors ended.



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