The president of Aragon, the socialist Javier Lambán, paid more than 7,000 euros to the British newspaper ‘The Guardian’ after publishing the interview with the minister of consumption, Alberto Garzón, in which he attacked the quality of Spanish livestock and, therefore, of your meat. The Aragonese government, led by the PSOE and Podemos together with the sovereignists of the Chunta and the PAR, chose to pay ‘The Guardian’ for an advertising campaign in that newspaper with which to counteract the bad image that the interview with Garzón had caused in the meat industry.
The livestock sector employs almost 20,000 people and concentrates 3.6% of the region’s GDP, according to data from the Aragonese Government itself, which justifies this payment to ‘The Guardian’ as a measure to defend the quality of the meat it produces Aragón, one of whose foreign markets is the British.
In reality, the words of the communist minister Alberto Garzón had a higher public cost for the Aragonese coffers, because that advertising campaign in ‘The Guardian’ was only part of what the Lambán government carried out after those controversial statements by the minister of consumption. As a whole, the campaign amounted to 115,000 euros, of which 6,500 euros plus VAT was the part that was inserted in the British newspaper.
This is stated in an official response that the Government of Lambán has given to the regional deputy of the PP and parliamentary spokesman for Agriculture, Ramón Celma, to which ABC has had access. The PP asked the regional Executive to detail how much that campaign had cost to compensate for the damage caused by Garzón’s words in the Aragonese meat industry, and the Government of Lambán has replied with these data.
According to this official response, the campaign was carried out “at a regional, national and international level, under the slogan ‘Aragon, quality meat'”. It was announced after the controversial statements by Minister Garzón, but without detailing how much public money it was going to cost the Aragonese coffers. The parliamentary question of the PP has now allowed knowing that amount, coinciding with a new controversy carried out by the same minister and for questioning the consumption of meat in a report commissioned by his Ministry.
After his interview in ‘The Guardian’, Lambán was one of the socialists who criticized Minister Garzón. Now, faced with this new controversy, the PP asks the Aragonese president again if he is going to cost the Autonomous Community more public money. “Is it planned to start a new advertising campaign from the department to counteract the Ministry’s report, and what will be the economic amount that will be allocated if so?”, Regional deputy Ramón Celma asked for his parliamentary response.
This parliamentarian has proposed that Minister Garzón be dismissed, and that the money that his statements cost the Aragonese public coffers be used to support the agricultural sector with measures that directly help the sector, such as agricultural insurance bonuses, aid for young people farmers or irrigation infrastructure.
