In July 2023, the media and Telegram channels disseminated information about the hypocritical act of the Spanish official. We checked whether everything really happened like that.
As reported, the Minister for Environmental Transformation and Demographic Problems of Spain Teresa Ribera flew to the environmental summit in Valladolid on a private plane, and then switched to a bicycle (in some publications - first to a limousine) and arrived at the place with an escort of two cars, however, running on gasoline. This behavior in the media was presented as self-PR, which hides indifference to environmental problems. The news was accompanied by footage of Ribera's bike ride.
Among the Russian-language resources that talked about this case is the TV channel “Constantinople", EuroAsia Daily, "Komsomolskaya Pravda", SVTV News, as well as numerous Telegram channels, in particular “KB"(252,000 views at the time of writing this analysis), "Solovyov"(227,000), "First People's" (158,000), "Evil proof" (151,000), "Pool N3"(144,000), "Ostashko! Important"(120,000), "From the scene" (92,000) and "Rhymes and punches"(78,000). They wrote about this in Europe.
On July 10–11, an informal meeting Ministers of Environment from all EU countries. Topics discussed included biodiversity, ocean plastic pollution and the fight against man-made climate change. The ministers gathered in Spain, since this country currently holds the presidency of the European Union.
Already on the morning of July 10, the official account of the Ministry of Environmental Transformation and Demographic Problems of Spain appeared tweet with a photograph showing the head of the department, Teresa Ribera, riding a bicycle in Valladolid. Apparently, the official decided to show by example that, if possible, we should abandon transport on internal combustion engines and, when possible, switch to safe for climate bike. The trip was also caught on camera video cameras.
That same morning it became known, that Ribera, who is also the third deputy prime minister of the country’s government, called the environmental program of the far-right party Vox “barbaric.” Very soon, early parliamentary elections will be held in Spain - the current ruling Socialist Party (Ribera is a member of it) polls takes second place, and the opposition Vox is third. The latter is also a member of the ruling coalition in the Autonomous Community of Castile and Leon, where the summit took place. Therefore, it is not surprising that one of the people thanks to whom the scandalous message about Ribera spread across the Internet on July 10 was the vice-president of the region of Castile and Leon, the leader of the local Vox branch, Juan García-Gallardo. He posted tweeted a link to the minister's statement and accompanied it with the comment: “She flies on a Falcon from Madrid to ride a bike around Valladolid, and at the same time allows herself to teach us about caring for the environment.”
By Falcon, Garcia-Gallardo meant one of the five small-sized aircraft of the Falcon D900 model, which are used members of the Spanish government on trips within the country and abroad. Apparently, the Spanish politician relied on the fact that he had scattered a little earlier tweet with screenshots of the route of this model aircraft from Madrid to Valladolid, as well as calculations carbon footprint, who left this board. Also in many popular tweets noted, that Ribera switched to a bicycle only in the last hundred meters of her journey from the airport, and before that she rode in an environmentally friendly limousine.
However, it's time to take a closer look at the facts. The screenshot of the Falcon D900 route map that contributed to the scandal was taken from the website falcondespega.es. There, in order to increase transparency, they publish data on all flights of Group 45 of the Spanish Air Force, which serves the government of the country. The only flight from Madrid to Valladolid on July 10, designated as a military man, and his arrival time was 11:38 local time.
At the same time tweet with a photo of Teresa Ribera on a bicycle was published by employees of her ministry at 10:37, that is, even before the aforementioned Falcon took off. In addition, Ribera's performance was appointed at 10 o'clock in the morning, that is, in all likelihood, the photo was taken even earlier.
If we compare the data from two consecutive flights of that same D900 with tail number LINCE03 on falcondespega.es, it turns out that it landed at 11:38:36, and 10 sec. later flew out back to Madrid. In practice, this is impossible, and there was simply no landing, as can be seen from the flight path over the airport.
After circling a little over Valladolid airport, the plane headed back to Madrid, which is confirmed by data from the Flightaware website, recorded both route segments as a single flight. As reported to the Spanish portal Newtral sources in the Air Force communications department, this plane without passengers was performing maneuvers in the area of Villanubla airport (Valladolid) on the morning of July 10.
This issue was put to rest by the same account of the Ministry of Environmental Problems and Demographic Transformations of Spain on Twitter, where on the evening of July 10 it appeared statement: “The Ministry refutes misinformation maliciously spread by government officials. Deputy Prime Minister Teresa Ribera did not fly to Valladolid from Madrid by plane - neither a commercial nor a government flight. Please be responsible for the information you disseminate."
As for how exactly Ribera got to Valladolid, our colleagues from Newtral in her department were told that the official arrived in the city the day before, July 9, by car. Other fact checkers received a similar answer from the project Maldita. True, at first the ministry mentioned the train, but then clarified that Ribera, unlike the rest of the delegation, was driving a hybrid car.
Thus, the information that Teresa Ribera, before switching to a bicycle, reached Valladolid on such non-ecological transport, like an airplane, turned out to be false. At the same time, the decision to demonstratively use a bicycle after traveling by car put the Spanish official in an awkward position.
Cover photo: @mitecogob
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