Murcia demands a "180 degree turn" to Madrid and maintain the Tajo-Segura transfer

The president of Murcia, Fernando López Miras, urged Wednesday that the Spanish Government "turn 180 degrees" to its "road map" and maintain and guarantee the Tajo-Segura transfer.

Speaking to the Spanish media during his visit to the Murcia pavilion at the Fruit Logistica in Berlin, a key fruit and vegetable fair at European level, he added that his government will support the protest that the agricultural sector is organizing at the end of February.

In his opinion, the Spanish Government should give "certainty and stability" to the agricultural sector, instead of reasons for "concern" and that happens to guarantee access to water, a "basic resource", to the Murcian countryside.

The Executive "would have to change the road map, a 180-degree turn" to "maintain the Tajo-Segura transfer" and "guarantee water contributions to the Spanish east" and "in no case, as it is doing now" close This transfer.

The closing of the transfer is "an injustice, they are unilateral, political, arbitrary decisions" against the technical criteria, he added.

"So far we have been 40 years of stability through a transfer that nobody has ever questioned, of which more than 300,000 families live and that is favoring 20% ​​of fruit and vegetable exports throughout Spain," he said.

In this regard, the Government of Murcia is preparing a "forceful response" in the form of an appeal -which will be approved shortly- against the plans of the Central Executive and is willing to "implement all judicial and administrative measures" within its reach .

The agricultural sector is also currently "concerned" with the "reforms", the "minimum interprofessional wage" and the "disparity between the price at the source and the final price", as well as the pressure on the prices that the large distributors exert on the producers.

Farmers "need the president of the Government to be with them, to meet with them, to know about their problems, their demands and needs. And to put solutions," said the president.

López Miras, however, does not see the Spanish Government supporting the sector: "Farmers, like the million and a half of Murcia, do not have the president or wait for him. Because every time he has to intervene it is to harm the region of Murcia. Every decision is to harm the agricultural sector. If it has to be positioned, it will be to hinder more than solve. "