The Minister of Culture and number 2 of Comuns-Front Ampli for Barcelona in the general elections, Ernest Urtasun, has advanced that, if the Frente Amplio manages to have enough weight in a potential Executive after the 29N, they will propose abandoning the plan to increase the maximum speed of the Barcelona-Madrid high-speed line to 350 km/h and to earmark those funds to strengthen the Rodalies network.
He set this out during an information breakfast organized this Friday by Nueva Economía Forum, in which the Minister of Social Rights and campaign spokesperson for the Frente Amplio, Pablo Bustinduy, served as host.
Urtasun defended that it is necessary to rationalize the expansion of high-speed rail, which in his view involves setting clear priorities. Among the projects he does not consider essential, he places the speed increase in the Barcelona-Madrid corridor: "What good is it for us to arrive a few minutes earlier in Madrid, while the majority of Catalans continues to lose hours and hours waiting for Rodalies?"
For this reason, he has assured that, if his political space manages to gain sufficient strength after the elections, "each euro of the 1,333 million that has already been committed so that the Madrid-Barcelona line goes at 350 kilometers per hour will go to Rodalies."
When asked about the possibility of taking on the Transport portfolio in a future Government, he answered that it would not pose a problem for him and that he would see himself in that role, indicating that it is a ministry that "would suit Spain well" if it were led by the Frente Amplio.
"We have practically already spent eight years in the Government of the State and, therefore, we are prepared to manage any management area that corresponds," he added, asserting the experience of his space in the central Executive.
Reversing the "liberalization" and strengthening maintenance
The minister has maintained that regaining citizens' trust in high-speed rail requires investigating what happened in the recent incidents, but above all reviewing the current model and significantly increasing investment in maintenance of the rail network.
Along these lines, he has considered it essential to "reverse the consequences of liberalization," review the separation between Adif and Renfe, and cancel outsourcing in the infrastructure maintenance tasks.
Rejection of the airport expansion and the R-Aeroport
Urtasun has reiterated his preference for strengthening Rodalies over other major projects, and has pledged to speed up the full transfer of the network to the Generalitat, as well as to halt the liberalization process and review the R-Aeroport: "A shuttle for tourists cannot have priority over the trains that people."
He has insisted that reinforcing Rodalies also involves "changing the investment priorities" in infrastructures such as the Barcelona Airport, an initiative to which he has again shown his opposition.
Corruption and the future of the coalition Government
Asked whether, after the railway accident and the change in political climate in the middle of the campaign, he sees it as viable to repeat the current Government, he answered yes, although he has clarified that "there will be an allocation if the Broad Front gets a big result".
Regarding the latest information about alleged cases of corruption in the PSOE’s orbit, he has reiterated his commitment to revalidate the progressive coalition in the Government, but he has criticized the way in which the Socialists have managed these accusations.
"We don’t like at all what has been said by the Socialist orbit when corruption cases have come out, namely that zero corruption is inevitable. First, because it’s not true, and second, because it conveys an image of very little trust," he has said, stressing that his political space has not had corruption cases during its time in the institutions.
General strike and housing as the campaign’s focus
In terms of housing, he has emphasized that it continues to be one of the main programmatic priorities of the Broad Front, and he has wished that the general strike of November 11, focused precisely on this issue, be successful.
He has also recalled that, the following day, the Standing Committee of the Congress of Deputies will vote on the decrees on housing, and he has called for Junts’ support: "Being up to the interests of the people of Catalonia means voting in favor".
Co-official languages and criticism of the PP and Vox
Urtasun has warned that a possible Government of PP and Vox will be dedicated to "pursuing" Catalan, as he says they have already done with the autonomous Executives in the Valencian Community and in the Balearic Islands, and he has rejected Cayetana Álvarez de Toledo’s proposal to reverse the use of co-official languages in the Congress.
For this reason, he has gone directly to the PP candidate for Barcelona, Xavier García Albiol: "The one who says that he wants to go to defend the Catalans and Catalonia, what is the first measure he plans to take is to eliminate the use of Catalan in Congress?".