Spanish pivot<\/p>\n
The pivot from the Spanish lawmakers, traditionally the staunchest supporters of deepening ties with Latin America, reflects the sky-high pressure building upon the European Parliament.\u00a0<\/p>\n
In the Parliament\u2019s hallways, EPP lawmakers from other countries have noticed the shift. \u201cWe always thought they were rock solid, but then lately there was some nervousness,\u201d said one senior MEP, who was granted anonymity to discuss the sensitive situation. They added that the Spaniards had not expressed themselves directly to the group yet but expressed confidence they will ultimately support the deal.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt seems they have a heated internal debate ongoing,\u201d one EPP official said. \u201cMembers of the group are feeling the heat of farmers and the Spaniards have three elections upcoming.\u201d French, Polish, and Austrian center-right lawmakers are opposed to the deal over concerns it will hurt farmers.\u00a0<\/p>\n
A second center-right MEP warned that a Spanish rejection of the deal \u201cwould be the end\u201d of Mercosur, adding that Madrid\u2019s backing is as instrumental as that of Germany\u2019s, which both countries described as the \u201cmotor\u201d of the agreement.<\/p>\n
Were they to turn against the deal, the Spaniards \u2014 who are the second biggest national delegation within the EPP, with 22 seats in the hemicycle \u2014 could blow the deal as a whole. The vote is expected to be tight, with four Parliament officials from the EPP, S&D, and Renew groups agreeing the result will be \u201c50-50,\u201d with a margin of just a few votes.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Domestic pressures<\/strong><\/p>\n The PP\u2019s doubts about the Mercosur deal are driven by electoral considerations at home. Regional elections are set to be held in Arag\u00f3n on Feb. 8, in Castille and Le\u00f3n on March 15,\u00a0<\/strong>and in Andaluc\u00eda later this spring, and the rural vote is decisive. The Aragonese economy depends on livestock, \u00a0Castille and Le\u00f3n is Spain\u2019s breadbasket and Andaluc\u00eda is the country\u2019s largest agricultural producer.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Spanish pivot The pivot from the Spanish lawmakers, traditionally the staunchest supporters of deepening ties with Latin America,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":699191,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5312],"tags":[113856,1213,768,1194,28,33,2000,299,112857,6644,1824,27647,11665,22708,22709,5111,5338,11666,2822,48,104,1201,6862,1220],"class_list":{"0":"post-699190","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-spain","8":"tag-alberto-nunez-feijoo","9":"tag-americas","10":"tag-borders","11":"tag-budget","12":"tag-buildings","13":"tag-elections","14":"tag-eu","15":"tag-europe","16":"tag-fair-trade","17":"tag-farmers","18":"tag-germany","19":"tag-livestock","20":"tag-meps","21":"tag-mercosur","22":"tag-paraguay","23":"tag-parliament","24":"tag-pedro-sanchez","25":"tag-produce","26":"tag-regions-cohesion","27":"tag-rights","28":"tag-spain","29":"tag-trade","30":"tag-trade-agreements","31":"tag-ursula-von-der-leyen"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115903086094279354","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/699190","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=699190"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/699190\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/699191"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=699190"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=699190"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=699190"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}