PP and Vox are asking this Tuesday for the resignation of the Minister of Consumption, Alberto Garzón, for what he said in an interview in ‘The Guardian’ talking about livestock. The minister was asked in the British newspaper about that video that was recorded asking Spaniards to eat less meat to favor the fight against climate change, and for his criticism of the macro-farm model. And responding to that, Garzón said the following:

“Extensive livestock farming is an environmentally sustainable means of livestock farming that has a lot of weight in parts of Spain such as Asturias, parts of Castilla y León, Andalusia and Extremadura. That is sustainable; what is not sustainable at all are the so-called mega-farms … They find a town in an uninhabited part of Spain and put 4,000, or 5,000 or 10,000 head of cattle. They pollute the soil, pollute the water and then export this poor quality meat from these abused animals. ”

This interview was published in ‘The Guardian’ on December 26. However, this Monday, suddenly, the president of Castilla y León, Alfonso Fernández Mañueco, who is in full electoral pre-campaign, wrote on Twitter a message in which he criticized the minister and asked him to rectify or resign.

“What has Castilla y León done so that the Government of Spain attacks our farmers again. We will not admit it. They will face us in the defense of the men and women of the countryside. The Minister of Consumption has to rectify now or resign “, said the tweet of the Castilian-Leon president.

In the same vein, the leader of the PP, Pablo Casado, spoke on Tuesday: “It is unacceptable for the Government to tell the foreign press that ‘Spain exports poor-quality meat from abused animals.” Another attack on ranchers and farmers and on the image of our country. We demand responsibilities and immediate rectification “, stated Casado in his official profile.

So far the controversy was that of an opposition party calling for the resignation of a minister. But what supposes a qualitative leap in this controversy is that this same Tuesday night a regional president of the PSOE, Javier Lambán, president of Aragon, territorial baron of the party that governs in Spain with United We Can.

“These unfortunate and senseless statements are a direct attack on an important part of the Aragonese economy, which strives to be competitive and sustainable. The one who makes them cannot be Minister of Spain for another day. It is in itself an insult to intelligence, “Lambán has written.

Garzón defends himself against criticism

“I take this opportunity to publish the complete transcript of what I said in the interview, because for reasons of space the journalist had to exclude some elements that today, in the heat of the hoax and the lie that certain actors promote, are highlighted”, he has published in his Twitter account along with a screenshot of the interview.

“The interview took place on December 14 and was published in a narrated version on December 26. The hoax began on January 3 driven by the lobby of certain large companies that promote polluting macro-farms … and the rest you already know,” it is finished.