The councilor of Presidency, Justice and Sports, Diego Calvo, has emphasized that Galicia was the first community in Spain to implement voluntary merger processes of municipalities, with the cases of Oza Cesuras in 2013 and Cerdedo Cotobade in 2016, and has highlighted that the regional Executive will maintain its commitment to the shared management of municipal services.
This was indicated when responding in the plenary session of the Parliament of Galicia to a question from the PSdeG deputy Paloma Castro, who referred to the tenth anniversary of the union of Cerdedo Cotobade to state that it was "a political decision that had already been made before the neighbors could express themselves" and demanded an independent audit on these ten years of operation of the merged municipality.
During his speech, Diego Calvo insisted that the merger is a voluntary tool, framed in the defense of intermunicipal cooperation, and pointed out that the new Local Administration Law of Galicia, which is currently being processed in the Chamber, deepens this philosophy by updating the framework of Galician municipalism and expanding the ways of collaboration between councils.
Among the possibilities included in the future regulation, he mentioned the creation of functional areas of temporary validity, the grouping of personnel so that several municipalities can share specialized professionals, and the voluntary mergers themselves.
Regarding the specific case of Cerdedo Cotobade, he highlighted that, ten years after the union, the resulting municipality has more resources, maintains the absence of debt, applies a lower tax pressure, and has greater capacity to invest and provide services. He indicated that these results are supported by data and by the study "A planta local galega: impulso a los procesos de fusión muncipal," prepared with the collaboration of the Juana de Vega Foundation and the three Galician universities.
The councilor has assured that the balance of this merger is "positive" and has specified that the municipality received 12.3 million euros through various collaboration lines from the General Directorate of Local Administration, of which 10.6 million come from the Merger Fund.
It has also emphasized that the municipality has zero debt since 2019, which, in its opinion, reflects "efficient" economic management, and has highlighted the reduction of several municipal taxes and fees, along with other favorable indicators.
PUBLIC ROAD TRANSPORT IN LUGO
At another point in the session, the parliamentary spokesperson of the PSdeG, Lara Méndez, has questioned Diego Calvo about the "persistence" of "problems" in public road transport in Lugo and has criticized the Xunta for labeling them as "isolated incidents."
"The problems persist and the solutions do not arrive, what does arrive are the deficiencies, because we also do not see that projects or investments or services arrive," the socialist deputy has pointed out.
In his response, the councilor has reproached the PSdeG that, "just like the BNG," every time a "problem" arises, they try to elevate it to "category," and has defended that what would be "truly rare" would be that "there were none" among 168,000 daily passengers and 9,300 buses that operate routes every day. "That would indeed be really surprising."
During the debate, Diego Calvo has highlighted the increase in users on the Conecta Line between A Coruña and Lugo, promoted by the Xunta in January 2025, and has explained that, although the initial demand forecast was for 40,000 people, the first year closed with 80,000 travelers.
According to the councilor, these figures demonstrate the substantial improvement that this connection represents for mobility between both cities, with more services, more direct links, and a greater number of buses and available seats.
He has added that, on the dates when maximum occupancy was reached, reinforcements were activated, and has criticized that the Lugo City Council, governed by the PSOE, questioned the launch of this line.
In this regard, Lara Méndez has indicated that it was criticized that the Xunta "made a line for the people of Lugo to go shopping at Marineda." "The mayor, Paula Alvarellos, came out, and the Lugo Federation of Commerce came out, because their concern was to take the people of Lugo to shop at Marineda and not to provide them with services," she has pointed out.
In response to these words, the councilor has replied by asking if the socialist really "believed that." "Because if she really believes that, I will not continue talking," he has concluded.