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Date Published: 06/04/2022

ARCHIVED - Spanish MPs vote to give Mar Menor lagoon personhood and rights

ARCHIVED ARTICLE

After yesterday’s vote in Madrid, the Mar Menor will be the first ecosystem in Europe with its own rights

<span style='color:#780948'>ARCHIVED</span> - Spanish MPs vote to give Mar Menor lagoon personhood and rights

Spain’s Congress of Deputies, a session of all its MPs in parliament together in the country’s capital, had a less than typical day yesterday. First, the President of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelensky, called in by video to demand Spain get involved more in the defence of his country against Russia. A little while later, the new leader of the conservative PP party, Alberto Núñez Feijóo, took his oath of office after replacing the disgraced Pablo Casado. And after that the ministers voted on whether to give legal personhood to the Mar Menor, and thus ensure its rights to protection are enshrined in law.

The result was overwhelming – 274 votes in favour, 53 against and six abstentions. Of the 53 votes against, 52 belonged to the far-right Vox party, who called the move an initiative to “create a Soviet state in the Mar Menor where the fish can vote”. Following the reading of the result by the President of Congress, Meritxell Batet, the benches of all parties broke into resounding applause.

The Mar Menor, a natural lagoon in Spain’s southwest Murcia region, has been blighted for years by mismanagement of the wastewater system, by illegal runoff from farmers watering their crops, which washes pesticides and other contaminants into the water, and more recently by the torrential rain in Spain.

In its most dramatic episodes, this extreme level of pollution has led to shocking images of fish washed up dead on the shores of the Mar Menor in their thousands, bringing the plight of the ecosystem to global attention last August.

That’s part of the reason why a grassroots fight was set up for a Popular Legal Initiative (Iniciativa Legislativa Popular or ILP) to grant the rights of a person to the lagoon, with all that entails.

Almost a hundred supporters of organisations to protect the Mar Menor gathered in the streets of Madrid yesterday in the hopes that their legal battle would finally be recognized. They chanted slogans and sang songs in support of the ILP all afternoon.

When the news came through that they were successful, there was much jubilation. It is the first time in Europe that an ecosystem has its own rights, and the move will force Spanish legislation to be modified to accommodate this legal protection.

To make sure these rights are fully complied with, the lagoon is to have legal guardianship and representation by the public administrations, with the support of the residents of the local municipalities in the Campo de Cartagena, as well as a monitoring commission and a scientific committee.

Now, after being ratified, the document will return to the Ecological Transition Commission for its members to present amendments. If everything goes smoothly, these rights could be definitively drafted in autumn.

See also: Why is it so difficult to solve the current problems in the Mar Menor?

Images: ILP Mar Menor