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Date Published: 05/01/2022

ARCHIVED - President of Spain accused of overusing state aircraft for business trips

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The full details of Sanchez’s trips will not be divulged because of ‘security reasons’

<span style='color:#780948'>ARCHIVED</span> - President of Spain accused of overusing state aircraft for business trips

The Spanish government has caused a stir by refusing to reveal details of the trips President Pedro Sanchez made aboard both Army and Air Force aircraft during 2021, claiming that the leader’s movements are “a particularly sensitive matter, for security reasons”.

Mr Sanchez came under fire in November last year when he used the Falcon 900 and another plane to travel between Madrid and Alicante and Malaga for official meetings on several occasions, when many of the trips would have been much quicker – not to mention more environmentally friendly – by car or public transport.

The president has been ridiculed for what many consider his overuse of military aircraft, especially given the fact that he has proposed outlawing short haul flights within Spain in an effort to combat climate change, since shorter air journeys are known to be the biggest contributors to aviation emissions in Europe.

Last November, the PP spokesperson in the Senate, Javier Maroto, took advantage of a government control session to question Mr Sanchez about his trips in the Falcon and Superpuma to regional PSOE conferences. However, he lamented that the president would say “not a single word about his trips with the money of all Spaniards and accused Mr Sanchez of being “the president who pollutes the most”.

“Do not put the pin on the 2030 Agenda again until you begin to respect the Sustainable Development Goals”, Mr Maroto chastised.

As a result of the embarrassing events, right wing Vox has called on the government to prohibit the use of the Falcon for flights of less than 250 kilometres, “except when there is an imperative duly justified need”. The conservatives thus seek to regulate the use of the official fleet for government purposes in order to end what it views as the “private or partisan” abuse carried out by Pedro Sanchez’s administration.

Image: Moncloa

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