The electoral program of the PP promises that if the popular ones achieve the government, they will remove the wolf populations north of the Duero from the List of Wild Species in Special Protection Regime (Lespre), which would allow these specimens to be recaptured with annual quotas established by the northern autonomous communities, something that the socialist government managed to prohibit, albeit with enormous difficulties and obstacles.
Measure 79 of the 306 scheduled in its electoral program states: “We will restore the wolf protection situation prior to 2021, to extract the populations north of the Duero from the List of Wild Species in Special Protection Regime (LESPRE), allowing control of the population of said species in that area”.
In this way, Iberian wolf hunting could once again be legal in these areas north of the Duero (Castilla y León, Galicia, Asturias and Cantabria). In this way, the PP joins Vox, which promises to end the protection of this animal in an attempt to attract voters from the rural world.
Spain declared the Iberian wolves that live north of the Duero river a protected species in 2021, thus completing the existing hunting ban throughout the country. Until then, the controlled hunting of these canids was allowed north of the Duero.
The PP considers hunting as “an essential activity and part of the cultural heritage rooted in a large part of society, which includes environmental benefits, improvement of population control and land management”, according to its electoral program The program promises to adopt “measures for a balanced development of the activity, and greater training in aspects such as security, as well as on the habitat or the production and handling of wild game”
The proposal is intended to appeal to ranchers, who say the government ban has led to more attacks on cattle. PP and Vox compete to attract voters from rural areas, traditionally a key demographic for both socialists and populares
The rural vote influences the two big parties. In fact, the Socialist Party was already forced to backtrack earlier this year on tightening animal welfare laws, following protests in rural areas over their potential implications for hunting with dogs. The leader of Vox, Santiago Abascal, has promised to repeal the laws if he wins, according to a statement published on the website of the Royal Spanish Hunting Federation (RFEC), reports Europa Press
Abascal also promised to annul the hardening of penalties for animal abuse recently introduced and to present a new plan to control the wolf population, according to the RFEC. These policies had harmed the socialist candidates in the last regional elections, the president of the RFEC, Manuel Gallardo, declared to Reuters, according to which the hunt moves some 4 million votes. In the last census of 2014, some 297 packs of Iberian wolves were registered in Spain.
