Bridge opens to the rescue of the most costly freeway in Spain and the one that almost all unites Galicia | Spain | EUROtoday

The AP-9 isn’t just a nuclear freeway. It is the vein that articulates and constructions Galicia, permits the every day mobility of nearly all of its residents, hyperlinks its 5 massive cities, its three airports and its 5 state ports, and can be the wild card of an unlimited transversal discomfort of any dialog in that territory, far past the ideological or partisan. The Congress of Deputies ratified this Wednesday, with a big majority, a movement by the BNG deputy to proceed with the rescue of this infrastructure from a non-public firm into public arms consistent with what the Galician Parliament accepted unanimously on September 25 and with what many of the events have been demanding, besides Vox, for a few years now. Not all and never all the time. The Government doesn’t refuse, however it’s prudent. It was this Wednesday the minister, Óscar Puente, who requested discretion and opened himself to on the lookout for options. The debate served to corroborate, as soon as once more, that the choice is so costly and sophisticated that PSOE and PP, in Galicia and Madrid, have failed to meet their guarantees, commitments and schedules to finish the most costly tolls in Spain many years in the past. In the identical session, the minister was disapproved on the request of the PP in a movement about “the multiple incidents and problems that have occurred in recent months on the Spanish railway network.”

A Seat 1430 with a Pontevedra license plate opened the primary part of the AP-9 between Santiago and A Coruña 45 years in the past and commenced to differ rather more than the arterial configuration of an autonomy a lot deserted for many years. The AP-9 now runs for 220 kilometers, connecting the complete Atlantic axis of Galicia from the area of Ferrol to Vigo, offering every day service to some 61,500 customers and has change into the important community for any exercise. But it is usually costly and there appeared to be no indicators that its tolls, 7.95 euros to go from Santiago to A Coruña or 11.45 to hyperlink the Galician capital with Vigo, the primary cities, would ever finish. On the opposite, charges elevated by 6.55% in 2024.

In this Wednesday’s debate in Congress, an virtually carbon copy of different related ones lately, the Minister of Transport, Óscar Puente, who has barely been in workplace for a yr, inherited all of the recurring reproaches that completely different spokespersons, however particularly the BNG deputy, Néstor Rego, investiture associate of the Government, has been speaking concerning the scenario of that freeway for many years. The BNG included that time of rescuing this work for the Autonomous Community within the checklist of primary calls for that it signed with the PSOE a yr in the past for the investiture of President Pedro Sánchez. Puente, who had studied the issue, arrived with an preliminary argument that this lack can’t be attributed to the present Executive as a result of the Government of José María Aznar licensed in 2000 the extension and privatization of that expensive 2023 concession, questioned even by the European Union. till 2048. He then delved into the thought put ahead by completely different Cabinets in La Moncloa, from the PSOE and the PP, that the street is a part of the State Highway Network of General Interest, as a result of its specific structural circumstances, and, subsequently, He commented that his switch now to the Xunta de Galicia “seems tremendously difficult.”

That beginning assertion from Puente appeared like one other insurmountable wall for the wishes of all of the deputies from completely different events who participated within the debate, however then, in the long run, the minister tremendously certified that opposition to the purpose of even permitting a manifestation of hope from the nationalist deputy Néstor Rego. . Along the way in which, the controversy served to confirm how the PP has modified, at the least apparently, in its place and tone with respect to this unanimous demand in Galicia.

The common deputy for Ourense, Celso Delgado, conscious of Puente’s usually controversial methods, tried a presentation that he referred to as “constructive” to get the minister to make some dedication in favor of the rescue and consistent with the conclusions of a latest examine commissioned by the Xunta of the favored Alfonso Rueda for professors from the University of A Coruña, which units the price of this operation at 904.7 million euros.” In the top, this BNG movement was voted on individually by factors and all three had been accepted, however this parliamentary defeat doesn’t imply that the Government will essentially execute it. The common deputy, in fact, subtly acknowledged errors inherent to his get together, the PP, and of the Xunta and the Governments of Aznar and Mariano Rajoy, by not demanding the switch of that freeway for a very long time, though he took the chance to snap on the present minister that his predecessors from the PSOE, corresponding to Josep Borrell, had signed extensions of that strategic concession with Felipe González in La Moncloa in 1994. The “and you more” additionally labored on this dialogue, which at instances appeared to get difficult within the local weather of accusations crusades for corruption circumstances.

Celso Delgado, former president of the Congress Promotion Commission in these PP governments, tried to get away from the newspaper library that may persecute the favored ones as a result of abandonment of that work, privatized by Aznar and now within the arms of the Itínere agency, which acquired it in 2003 for 1,622 million, commenting that when his get together and its former presidents opposed this switch previously, it have to be thought-about that “that page was left far behind” and that it’s now the present central Government and the Congressional Board which have paralyzed or blocked the processing of this virtually common demand in Galicia. The former common president of the Cortes, Ana Pastor, former Minister of Development, additionally blocked these parliamentary procedures a number of instances though on the time she criticized the extension.

The Vox spokesperson instantly reminded Delgado and the PP of their very particular obligations on this case, however opposed the switch as a result of the extremely formation isn’t about to decentralize something, least of all of the roads. Manuel Lago, from Sumar, framed his place on the overall restoration of free highways as a part of his transportation mannequin and even provided some information on the price of bonuses and help that the Government now offers (which with the most recent information and will increase already signify 3,500 million euros per yr) to argue that the ransom worth (between 900 and 1,500 million) would even be helpful in the long run for the general public coffers.

The minister ended up bragging about all these bonuses and reductions which can be already being carried out and requested, with uncommon prudence, for discretion relating to the dialogue of the prices of a attainable rescue to level out this open hypothesis of figures: “I don’t know if it is the best for a good future port in case it generates more difficulties when it comes to recovering the concession.” Puente added to create some consensus on that time: “I’m not saying that it is not possible to rescue it, I am saying that it is difficult and expensive, but the future is not written.” And given the chance that in some unspecified time in the future even the European Commission will formalize its rejection of how the extension of the AP-9 was formulated in 2000 by the Aznar Government, as a result of it suspects that it was adopted to revalue the street earlier than its privatization, the chief socialist added: “We don’t know what situation we are going to find ourselves in or what we will have to do and obviously if this rescue occurs or not the difficulty will be in setting the price.”

The session didn’t finish there or with that hopeful ambiance. The PP then insisted on a movement on “the multiple incidents and problems that have occurred in recent months on the Spanish railway network.” It was accepted by 186 votes in favor, 156 in opposition to and three abstentions and the favored ones went house after one other difficult week with the achievement of their bag of getting failed once more, with the assist of two Catalan nationalist events and Podemos, which the consultant Cristina Teniente described because the “killer unscrupulous number 1” in reference to Pedro Sánchez.