The government will take a motion to demand the dismissal of Minister Garzón for his attack on the meat sector

Benidorm government team will raise a motion to the next plenary session to demand the dismissal of the Minister of Consumer Affairs, Alberto Garzón, for "his repeated attacks" on the meat sector, one of the "strongest in our country" and that "has been improving for years its processes to guarantee the highest food quality and animal welfare”. The motion, signed by the spokespersons for the municipal group of PP, Lourdes Caselles and Mónica Gómez, comes in the midst of controversy over Garzón's latest statements to the British newspaper The Guardian, in which he assured that Spain "exported poor quality meat from animals maltreated".

As the motion points out, based on the data published by the Government of Spain, these statements "are flatly false" and demonstrate the "profound ignorance" of Minister Garzón, his "abysmal sectarianism" or "both things" . Likewise, it emphasizes that "it is not the first time nor is it the only Spanish productive sector attacked by the Minister of Consumption."

The proposal that will be voted on January 31 highlights that the meat industry is a sector that "employs hundreds of thousands of Spaniards", that it constitutes "a fundamental tool to fight against depopulation" and that "it complies with all the regulations related to animal welfare prepared by the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food” and based on “the directives” of the European Union. Hence, the motion urges the minister to "with the data available, immediately deny the claims" of his colleague Garzón and "launch a national and international campaign to defend and support the sector."

The text also includes some indicative data on the weight, development and characteristics of the meat industry in Spain extracted from the Annual Report of the Spanish Food Industry Period 2020 of the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food and that contradict what Garzón stated.
According to the report, 67% of the companies that make up the meat industry have less than 10 workers, and 92.7% do not reach 50; from where it is extracted that this industry "is predominantly made up of small family-type livestock farms that help create employment and wealth and, what is more important, to establish population in the rural world".
In addition, in 2020 this sector, which represents 11.9% of the national food industry, "contributed almost 9,000 million euros of exports to Spain's trade balance, helping to reduce the traditional trade deficit."

Likewise, in terms of efficiency, sustainability and respect for the environment and animal welfare, livestock meat production “represents only 5.8% of total greenhouse gas emissions worldwide; 80% of which are produced in developing countries”.

In view of this reality, the local government's motion recognizes "the great work done by the thousands of Spanish farmers" and by "veterinarians and agronomists" so that the sector "adapts to the new regulatory and social demands" in these areas, achieved "the highest quality standards".