We will not facilitate it either actively or passively. The...

We will not facilitate it either actively or passively. The notice is from Consuelo López, United Podemos candidate for mayor in the municipal elections on May 28. It is a statement made this Friday and refers to the underground lithium mine that is projected in Valdeflores . She made this comment in an already electoral scenario, alluding to the city model defended by the coalition of Podemos and IU that are once again running in the elections together. This matter will be in the electoral debate. But when it will become relevant it will be in the post-electoral negotiation if the PSOE needs the councilors of United We Can to get the necessary votes to win the mayoralty.

Then it will be seen how this condition will influence the negotiation. If it had happened four years ago, I wouldn't have had any. The PSOE was also in total disagreement with the project. But now the PSOE has taken a step to the side by changing the extraction to underground. Between now and May there could be no progress on the project, which would allow local socialists to continue showing an ambiguous position: neither yes nor no to the mine, all depending on the reports and the environmental impact.

But in these months the study of scope that the Board must contribute to the company should be known so that it serves as a basis for the drafting of the environmental impact study. Here will appear the assessment, technical, of the town hall. It is not a political position. But you can reopen the debate in the weeks before the vote and the investiture. And then the question will be: Will United We Can give the mayorship to a party that is not clearly contrary to one of the bases of its city model, a model in which a mine does not fit, even if it is underground?

A similar, not similar, situation occurs on the other side of the political arc. Vox, through its national president, Santiago Abascal, has shown its position in favor of the exploitation of the underground mine. She did it three weeks ago in an intervention befo
re the Congress of Deputies. His argument, without going into other considerations, was that if you have one of the largest lithium deposits in Europe, in reference to the Valdeflores deposit in Cáceres, it would have to be exploited to avoid energy dependence on other countries. This defense of the exploitation of the underground mine will have to appear, logically after what Abascal said, in the local electoral program and will become relevant if the PP needs the votes of the Vox councilors to win the mayoralty.

The PP, like the PSOE has done, has been diluting its refusal to the project since it was announced that the mine would be underground. His move to the side, similar to that given by the PSOE, is less noticeable because it is not as visible as that of the PSOE, which must show it every time an official position of the city council is requested. In this case, the question will be: Will Vox give the mayor's office to the PP if it does not show a clear position that lithium resources have to be exploited so that Spain does not depend on third countries?

The mine will not be the only thing, nor perhaps the most important, of the electoral programs that the parties present in the next elections. But we must not forget that the mine depends a lot on what the next council corporation decides.


https://www.elperiodicoextremadura.com/caceres-local/2023/02/12/mina-elecciones-82815423.html