The spokesperson for Fomento of the PP in the Cortes of Aragón, Antonio Romero, has registered a parliamentary initiative with which he intends for the Government of Spain to nullify the informative study that, in his opinion, causes the Cantabrian-Mediterranean corridor to lose its status as a strategic infrastructure and be considered of second category.
Romero believes that the decision of the central Executive represents one of the greatest railway frustrations for Aragón in recent times and qualifies it as a direct aggression to the interests of Teruel and the entire Autonomous Community.
"The Sánchez Government has decided that the Cantabrian-Mediterranean Corridor ceases to be strategic when it reaches Teruel to become a second-class Corridor. And it has done so in black and white, through the publication of the informative study of the Teruel-Sagunto section where it confirms the renunciation of a high-performance infrastructure with double electrified track and opts to maintain a single-track infrastructure," he stated.
The popular deputy maintains that the informative study once again exposes the PSOE, "which when it comes time to invest in Aragón, cuts ambition, cuts performance, and hinders the future of our Community." In his view, the Ministry has squandered the opportunity to project a high-performance infrastructure, capable of accommodating the increase in freight and passenger traffic in the coming decades and, "in a profoundly political decision," has opted for "the most comfortable, cheapest, least ambitious, and least future-oriented option," Antonio Romero expressed.
According to Romero, the very technical document admits that the chosen alternative reuses almost entirely the current layout, which, in practice, implies renouncing a real transformation of the corridor and limiting itself to "touching up the existing line."
The PP parliamentarian has emphasized that "while Aragón leads a historic industrial transformation, with 90 billion euros in investments linked to data centers, technology, energy, and logistics, the Government of Spain responds by condemning Teruel to be the bottleneck of the Cantabrian-Mediterranean Corridor with a single-track infrastructure to connect with the Port of Valencia, the main freight port in the country," the 'popular' parliamentarian has stated.
COMPLICITY SILENCE OF THE PSOE
In parallel, the spokesperson for Fomento of the PP in the regional Parliament has criticized the "complicit" silence that, according to him, the PSOE of Aragón and its general secretary, Pilar Alegría, maintain regarding this project.
"We have heard the rejection of the Government of Aragón, of the Generalitat Valenciana, of the Teruel businessmen, of the social organizations, and of all those who believe in the future of this land. But we still do not hear the voice of the Aragonese PSOE."
"What does Pilar Alegría have to say? Does she share this decision or does she prefer to remain silent so as not to discomfort Pedro Sánchez? Her silence is no longer neutrality, it is complicity. Remaining silent in the face of a project that relegates Teruel to a second-class infrastructure is to consent to a new grievance to this province and a new lost opportunity for its development," he opined.
For Romero, what happened with the Cantabrian-Mediterranean Corridor evidences the territorial model of the President of the Government. He asserts that "while he allocates billions and grants tailored investments to the territories whose votes he needs to remain in La Moncloa. Aragón is once again paying the bill for not being decisive for his political survival. Sánchez has turned public investment into a political bargaining chip, and Aragón is among the biggest victims of this permanent trading with the resources of all Spaniards," he pointed out.
From the Popular Party, they emphasize that "we are not going to accept that Aragón is treated as a second-class territory. We are not going to accept that the major European corridors become mere conventional lines when they cross our land. Aragón does not ask for privileges, it demands respect, it demands equality, it demands to receive the same treatment that other territories receive and it demands that the future of our community be decided with criteria of general interest and not with the calculator of cuts," concluded the popular deputy," concluded Romero.