Partido Popular and PSOE accuse each other of being to blame for the closure of the thermal plant in Andorra
The PSOE and the PP have become involved this week in a spiral of accusation on account of which government was to blame for the Andorra thermal power plant closing in 2020. While the conservatives accuse the third vice president, Teresa Ribera, of promoting the decision of Endesa when stating in 2018 that lignite was not competitive, the socialists lament the “negligence” of Mariano Rajoy for not taking measures to maintain the plant as the strategic reserve that is today, for example, the 27 German coal facilities which will be put into operation until spring to save Russian gas.
The controversy was initiated on Wednesday by the president of the PP of Aragon, Jorge Azcón, who during his visit to Andorra thought “absolutely unpresentable” that the thermal plant has been closed for two years “and the Fair Transition Agreement has not even been announced” by the Government of Spain. The mayor of Zaragoza also described Ribera’s position against coal installations as “posturing” without taking into account the “energy sovereignty” of the country.
On Thursday, during the presentation ceremony in Andorra of 33 photovoltaic energy projects promoted by Forestalia and Bruc for 1,522 megawatts (MW) in four Aragonese counties, the President of the Government of Aragon, Javier Lambán, complained that the closure of the plant due to the “negligence and lack of adoption of measures in times of the government of Don Mariano Rajoy”, who “left this plant (in Andorra) and others in Spain sentenced to death because, without investments, it was impossible for them to be maintained”.
Rajoy left Moncloa in June 2018 after a motion of censure presented by the current Prime Minister, Pedro Sánchez. Five months later, Endesa announced that it would not undertake the environmental investments of 180 million euros to extend the useful life of the facility, as it was not considered profitable given the increasing CO2 rights. On June 30, 2020, the deadline to install the filters, closed due to the imperative of the European emissions directive.
The PP strikes back
Yesterday, the PP spokeswoman in the Cortes of Aragon, Mar Vaquero, reiterated that it was a socialist government that closed the thermal.
Despite the fact that Lambán announced on Thursday 184 million euros for the mining basin -92 from the European Union and 92 from the Government of Aragon- and said that the agreement “is practically ready” for its signature, “there is no agreement for a just transition , neither companies, nor employment”, lamented Vaquero.
The spokeswoman valued the efforts of the PP, with the former Minister of Energy, Álvaro Nadal, at the head, “who did everything possible to extend and maintain the life of the plant until 2030.”
Vaquero said that, “far from sterile controversies”, you only have to go to the Official State Gazette of July 2020, which, with the PSOE at the head of the Government of the nation and “with the PSOE of Lambán” at the head of the regional Executive , “decreed the closure of the thermal plant in Andorra”.
The parliamentarian recalled that it was Teresa Ribera who “said that coal was not profitable or competitive and the plant had to be closed.” Vaquero stressed that it was Lambán “who walked” the minister through Andorra “to say that the signing of the agreement would take place before the plant closes”, who in the electoral campaign “said that five companies would come to Andorra to create miles of jobs” and who “has resigned himself in these two years, as Pedro Sánchez’s man in Aragón, and has not claimed and has not been able to carry out the signing of that agreement”.
Guillen: “Ashes”
Vaquero also had a response, this time from the PSOE spokesman in Parliament, Vicente Guillén, who was convinced that years of business initiatives and job creation await Andorra and the Mining Basins and reproached the PP for its desire to “ the worse, the better” and its “hypocrisy”, because it was the Government of Mariano Rajoy that in 2012 requested the Mining Closure Plan.
Guillén accused the popular of being “ashes” by transferring “restlessness and uncertainty” to the mining regions just when two companies have announced an investment of 1,000 million -300 in Andorra- in photovoltaic projects, to which is added the project of Oxaquim for 370 million and 380 jobs in Andorra.
“Lambán’s commitments are being fulfilled to the misfortune of the deaf and the blind,” Guillén stressed, citing some of the “misdeeds” of the PP, including the privatization of Endesa by the Government of José María Aznar. The PSOE spokesman also stated that the PP hides that Nadal’s efforts were “an absolute failure.”
“Meanwhile, President Lambán said that cushioning the closure of the thermal plant was going to be one of the objectives of his legislature and that is how it is, attracting companies and employment and demonstrating that the province is attractive to investors. Despite the PP”, settled Guillén.