Union of the Leonese People (UPL) has expressed this Sunday its deep discomfort with the Junta de Castilla y León and the Popular Party, denouncing the “repeated non-compliance” with various resolutions approved in the regional courts aimed at protecting the primary sector. The Leonesistas consider that, given the crisis that farmers and ranchers are going through in provinces like Salamanca, “more involvement is needed with our primary sector and less posturing and talk”, directly urging the ‘popular’ to “abandon the talk and move from promises to actions.”
One of the most notable points of friction is the lack of updating of the Agricultural Price Observatory. UPL recalls that in March 2025 a resolution was approved to “include, within the data collected in the Agricultural Prices Observatory, the evolution of the production costs of farmers and ranchers, thereby expanding the data currently offered, which is limited to the prices received by farmers and ranchers for the product leaving the farm.” A year later, the formation regrets that the Board continues not to reflect critical costs such as feed, diesel or fertilizers for strategic sectors in Salamanca such as beef or legumes, preventing professionals from “obtaining fair remuneration for their productions.”
The security situation for Salamanca farms also focuses criticism, especially in the face of wildlife attacks. UPL criticizes that, after approving measures to protect livestock from vultures, the Department of the Environment limits itself to alleging that there is no “sectoral regulatory regulation that allows the development of a specific protocol for necrophagous species and enables compensation for damage caused to livestock farms.” For Leon supporters, it is “absurd that when we ask them to take measures against these attacks, they respond simply by saying that there is no specific protocol,” since its creation depends exclusively on the Executive. Furthermore, they describe as “a mockery towards those who are suffering these attacks” that livestock farmers are urged to deposit “animal remains from livestock activity in the protection zones for feeding necrophagous species of community interest” to complement the birds’ diet.
From the Ministry of Agriculture, the response has been limited to referring those affected to the subscription of insurance policies, stating that “annually a line of subsidies is called for the subscription of agricultural insurance policies” and that this “has proven to be an effective risk management measure for the livestock sector.” UPL maintains that this position “has not contributed anything” to a “very serious problem”, stressing that “we have no evidence that the Board is doing anything or taking complementary measures either in the face of vulture or wolf attacks.” They warn that professionals in the Salamanca field feel “neglected and helpless before a Board that does not go beyond promises and empty announcements, since it does not execute them.”
The Leonese party insists that administrative inaction has real consequences in the province, where “our ranchers continue to feel defenseless in the face of this lack of proactivity from the Board, which does not seem to be concerned about the death of more than 600 heads of cattle in Salamanca by wolves in the last year with official data and the recurring attacks and deaths that continue to occur, both from wolves and vultures.” They criticize that, despite the regional powers, the Executive “ignores it, as if it were not a thing with them”, while the profitability and survival of the farms are threatened.
Finally, UPL has described it as “a terrible theater” and “the height of impudence is the circus that the PP is creating with the agreement with Mercosur.” They denounce the incoherence of Alfonso Fernández Mañueco in being against the agreement during the electoral period while his party blocks similar initiatives in the Cortes or in Europe. According to the formation, “Mañueco says that the PP defends one thing, but in the Cortes of Castilla y León and in the European Parliament they have been voting the opposite,” and they add that, after Von der Leyen’s announcements, “either they have not found out that Von der Leyen is from their own party, or they are trying to deceive people by saying one thing here and doing the opposite from Brussels.” For all this, they demand that the ‘popular’ “make themselves clear and coherent, and above all that they once and for all put themselves in the shoes of the ranchers and farmers and act accordingly, not just with words.”
