The extraordinary plenary session held by the Bierzo Regional Council has approved the institution's budget for the 2022 financial year, which amounts to a total of 4,162,301 euros, including the amounts allocated to the Regional Tourist Board, the Biosphere Reserve of the Leonese Ancares (Rbale) and the Ponfeblino Tourist Train Consortium.

The accounts went ahead with the support of the PSOE, Coalition for El Bierzo (CB), USE Bierzo and the unassigned advisor Manuel de la Fuente. For their part, the PP and Ciudadanos (Cs) groups abstained. The new regional budget reflects a reduction of 48,346 euros compared to last year, a reduction of just over one percent.

At the beginning of the speaking time, the president of the institution, Gerardo Álvarez Courel, stressed that the accounts are "based on austerity and the search for efficiency" and urged the Board to fulfill the commitments made in 2020 to update the contribution of the Autonomous Executive to the regional entity.

Among the groups that supported the accounts project, the non-attached councilor Manuel de la Fuente lamented that "with this budget little can be done" and has asked the public representatives to take "good note" of the situation in the region. "We are sinking into fucking misery," he stressed.

Along the same lines, the spokesman for USE Bierzo, Samuel Folgueral, has demanded that the claim be maintained before the Board so that the allocations corresponding to the new agreement are made effective, allowing the institution to become "the great entity that provides services to the Shire". Similarly, he has demanded to allocate 20,000 euros to the installation of four monuments in homage to those reprisals by the Franco regime in different parts of Bierzo.

Similarly, the spokesman for CB, Iván Alonso, has asked the regional Executive to get involved in financing the Banco de Tierras project and in putting the Bierzo Mycological Park into operation. Alonso has called for greater effectiveness in the management of the small works plan for neighborhood councils and missed a debate that addresses the specificity of Bierzo in the regional fit.

Finally, the PSOE spokesman, Antonio Cuellas, has encouraged the councilors to "continue to be vindictive" in demands such as the new headquarters of the institution. "Help us claim in Valladolid," Cuellas snapped at the PP spokesman, Julio Arias.

In his response, Arias highlighted the increase in funding of 1.2 million, included in the latest agreement signed between the Board and the regional institution. The 'popular' spokesman described the budgets as "continuists" and has opined that municipalities and associations should cede powers to the Council.

In a similar vein, the Cs spokeswoman, Ruth Morales, has underlined the "reduced room for maneuver for real political action" of budgets whose funds come entirely from other administrations, which makes the Council a "manager of delegated powers" . According to Morales, it is necessary to claim more powers and funding to provide autonomy and political capacity to the regional institution.

The plenary session began with the act of inauguration of Paulino Bello as the new director of the PP political group, replacing José Manuel Cela. The "popular" also made official the resignation of Rosa Luna and the appointment of Julio Arias as spokesperson for the group.