Red Eléctrica, a subsidiary of Redeia and 20% owned by the State, has accused the City Council of Valladolid (PP-Vox) of censoring an exhibition on energy transition “for political reasons”. The entity points to the Councilor for Culture and Education, also deputy mayor, Irene Carvajal (Vox), for preventing the inauguration of the exhibition Connected to the future. Energy transition for “disagreeing with content related to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the 2030 Agenda”. The opening of the exhibition was scheduled for Friday, June 7 at the Science Museum of Valladolid, after passing through Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Tenerife, and Granada, but the council’s interference prevented it. Carvajal has attributed the cancellation to alleged “incidents” denied by the organization.
According to the company, the day before the opening, the councilor “expressed her opposition, alleging political motives, those of ‘a party that has a directive’ against the Sustainable Development Goals, the basis of a plan of all UN member states to combat poverty, inequality, or environmental degradation.” The councilor allegedly requested the manipulation of the exhibition modules related to that subject to hide the logos and deactivate a series of links with information related to the Sustainable Development Goals and the 2030 Agenda. Carvajal would have threatened Redeia that, if they did not follow her orders, “the exhibition will not be inaugurated”. The entity refused to allow “for partisan reasons to modify or censor an exhibition designed to promote knowledge of the energy transition and the active role consumers will play in the future”.
“The exhibition is developed through an explanatory narrative, which includes the relationship of the actions of the Energy Transition and its connection with the contribution to Sustainable Development Goals,” the company stresses, indicating that the assembly was ready to receive the public and that Redeia had assumed “very high costs to offer relevant and interesting content for free both to the Museum and the citizens of Valladolid”. The entity provides more details in its statement and indicates that on May 28, the Municipal Culture Foundation, chaired by Irene Carvajal, signed an agreement for the Museum to host the exhibition between June 7 and November 22. At that time, the Foundation included a clause boasting of promoting culture as a way to achieve 2030 Agenda goals through education. The company sent a dossier indicating the content, including the part dismissed by the City Council. Despite this agreement, on Wednesday they received a letter “claiming the need to make adjustments and identifying some incidents that conditioned the inauguration”. However, it did not specify “the necessary adjustments or the incidents detected, which according to the organizing company do not exist”.
The PSOE, through its spokesman, Pedro Herrero, has criticized the actions of Culture and Education: “The fanaticism of Vox, explicitly tolerated by the Popular Party, has been evidenced in the censorship of an exhibition in what constitutes a very serious fact, unprecedented in the democratic history of this city”.
