The Minister of Culture and number 2 of Comuns-Front Ampli for Barcelona in the general elections, Ernest Urtasun, has announced that, if the Frente Amplio has enough strength in an eventual Government after 29N, they will propose giving up the project to bring the high-speed line between Barcelona and Madrid to 350 km/h, to invest these resources in the Rodalies network.
He said this at an informative breakfast organized this Friday by Nueva Economía Forum, and presented by the Minister of Social Rights and campaign spokesperson for the Frente Amplio, Pablo Bustinduy.
Urtasun has defended rationalizing the expansion of high speed, and that this involves prioritizing projects; One that he does not see as a priority is the increase in speed on the Barcelona-Madrid line: "What good is it for us to arrive in Madrid a few minutes earlier, while the majority of Catalans continue to waste hours and hours waiting for Rodalies?"
For this reason, he said that if his party has enough strength after the elections, "every euro of the 1,333 million that have already been committed for the Madrid-Barcelona line to go at 350 kilometers per hour will go to Rodalies."
Asked if he would run to be Minister of Transport in a new Government, he responded that he would not mind, and that it is a portfolio that "would do well" for Spain to manage by the Broad Front.
"We have been in the State Government for almost eight years now and, therefore, we are prepared to manage any corresponding management area," he added.
The minister has stated that regaining confidence in high speed after the accident in Adamuz, Gelida and Urda involves investigating what happened, but especially rethinking the model and increasing investment in maintenance.
Furthermore, he has considered it necessary to "reverse the consequences of liberalization", rethink the separation of Adif and Renfe and revoke outsourcing in network maintenance.
Urtasun has also reiterated its commitment to strengthening Rodalies in the face of other large projects, and has committed to accelerating the transfer of the network to the Generalitat, but also to slowing down the liberalization of the network, as well as to rethink the R-Aeroport: "A shuttle for tourists cannot have priority over trains for people."
The reinforcement of Rodalies, he maintained, will also occur if investment priorities are "changed" in issues such as Barcelona Airport, a project to which he has again shown his rejection.
Asked if, after the train accident in Toledo and having changed the climate of the campaign, he believes that it is still possible to reissue the current Government, he answered yes, but that "there will be a departure if the Frente Amplio gets a great result."
And regarding the latest information regarding alleged cases of corruption around the PSOE, he responded that his bet is the revalidation of the progressive government coalition, but he has questioned the socialists' management of this issue.
"We do not like at all what has been said by the socialist orbit when cases of corruption have arisen, which is that zero corruption is inevitable. First, because it is not true, and second, because it conveys an image of very little trust," and he has claimed that his political space, in his time through the institutions, has had no cases of corruption.
Regarding housing, he has stated that it continues to be one of the Frente Amplio's campaign priorities, and has wished success to the general strike of November 11, whose central axis is this issue.
He also recalled that, the next day, the housing decrees will be voted on in the Permanent Deputation of the Congress of Deputies, and he has asked Junts for their support: "Being up to the interests of the people of Catalonia is voting in favor."
Urtasun has also warned that a hypothetical Government of PP and Vox will dedicate itself to "persecuting" Catalan, as he says the regional Executives have done in the Valencian Community and the Balearic Islands, and has criticized Cayetana Álvarez de Toledo's proposal to reverse the possibility of using co-official languages in Congress.
