ERC and Comuns, Soft on Illa and Tough Against 'Denialism' and Nuclear Power

ERC and Comuns have once again acted as a lifeline for Salvador Illa's Government, this time in the face of the blackout crisis. The President appeared this afternoon in Parliament to provide explanations about last week's power outage. Their allies ERC and Comuns have been lenient and have directed their criticisms at the right, climate denialism, and nuclear power plants.

ERC spokesperson, Ester Capella, criticized the Government for the "information blackout" that kept citizens on edge for hours. But she actually used it to attack others. "The Government was left in the dark, and that is fertile ground for those who continue with conspiracy theories," she said.

The republican deputy took the opportunity to say that "decarbonization is non-negotiable." The blackout "can't serve as an excuse for deniers to question renewable energies." For ERC "climate change is a reality" and "we must firmly commit to the energy transition."

By the way, ERC will vote in Congress alongside PP, Vox, and Junts to extend the life of nuclear power plants. Now in Parliament, they ask Salvador Illa to accelerate the deployment of renewables. However, they oppose macro-projects and oligopolies.

ERC has brought out their usual phraseology, talking about "energy sovereignty" and "public energy." They also call for a study commission (another one) to add more bodies to an oversized administration. In short, far from criticizing the Government, ERC has taken advantage of the crisis to attack the right and push their ideology.

Comuns Avoid Criticizing the Government

Comuns have been even more lenient with Salvador Illa. In fact, Jéssica Albiach avoided any criticism of the Government and used her intervention to attack the right and defend their energy model.

She said that "some, in a self-interested way, try to focus the public debate on saying that nuclear plants need to be extended and that renewables are a problem." For Comuns, "the blackout has been a pretext for the right and the energy oligopoly to return to a model based on nuclear power."

Albiach recalled that oligopolies have annual profits of 12 billion euros. She said that they have the support of the Catalan right (Junts) and the Spanish right (PP). She reproached them for voting against the energy tax "when one in five households suffer from energy poverty."

She accused the right of "taking advantage of the blackout to carry out a cultural battle of a Trumpist nature around the energy debate." She said that "in the face of denialism" we must "move forward more strongly toward a decarbonized and public model."