In the midst of a bureaucratic avalanche of wind farms and with environmental and neighborhood groups stopping several of them in court, the Xunta de Galicia has just announced that it will intensify the simplification of the procedures for large industrial projects, a process that Alberto Núñez Feijóo already began in his stage of regional president. His successor, Alfonso Rueda, explained the measure this Monday during his speech in the debate on the state of autonomy, the last one before the first regional elections that the PP faces without Feijóo as headliner. Rueda has made more promises just a few months before the elections, from tax cuts to a universal bonus of 5,000 euros per year so that families can finance home care for dependent people.
Rueda has justified the plan to speed up the processing of industrial projects in “this time of extreme competitiveness”, with an eye on neighboring Portugal and the investments it is attracting. The Xunta has decided to declare as strategic all those initiatives that “create 25 or more jobs, have funding of two million euros or more and have a significant territorial and socioeconomic impact.” These companies will be guaranteed one year of processing, from the presentation of all documentation to its approval. And if this period is exceeded “for reasons attributable to the Administration”, the Galician Government will compensate the promoter with 1% of the total amount of the project, up to a limit of 500,000 euros. Investments of more than 800,000 euros will have a single window at the Xunta, processing times will be cut in half and “the support of the Galician Government will be guaranteed in the event that municipal permits are delayed without reason.” The Xunta could issue the works license, Rueda explained.
His speech has included tax cuts. The Galician president will reduce taxes on buying second-hand cars by five points (from 8% to 3% in general) “to promote sustainable mobility”, and by one point (from 9% to 8%) the property transfer tax. homes that are not new. He assured that the Xunta, highly criticized by the opposition for the meager stock of protected flats in the community, will promote 1,900 public rental homes and “another 3,000 from private developers.” He also announced an expansion of the staff of the Galician health service (Sergas) with “stable contracts” without giving figures, and an extension of the presence of clinical psychologists in health centers throughout Galicia, for which he did not provide data or deadlines. .
In one of the oldest territories in Spain and the community with the fewest publicly funded residence places, the Galician Government will promote a bonus of 5,000 euros per year so that people with any level of dependency can be cared for in their homes, help without income limit that sources from the Galician Executive defend as unique in the State. In cases where home care is not possible, those who already receive a subsidy to go to a private center will receive an annual supplement of 1,200 euros, which will also not take into account income or degree of dependency. The Xunta will also create a card with discounts in shops for people over 65 years of age.
The negotiation of the investiture of the socialist Pedro Sánchez with the pro-independence parties has slipped into the Galician Parliament. “The constitutional framework cannot be a bargaining chip for short-term electoral interests,” Rueda has criticized. “A president cannot win an extension of two months or a few years at the cost of sacrificing the most basic principle of equality between all citizens.” The popular leader has assured that the agreements that may be reached affect Galicia economically because, in his opinion, they will attack the “sustainability and equity of the Welfare State.” “Would a resident of the mountain of Lugo understand that he is not going to have better mobile coverage because he has to pay the bill for an investiture?” he asked himself.
With the possibility still alive that Feijóo will have another opportunity to be president of Spain, Rueda has proclaimed that he will never subordinate himself “to the interests of the central Executive he touches, whatever its political colors.” He has listed Galicia’s demands before the central Administration that remain pending, even since the times of the popular Mariano Rajoy in La Moncloa. He has cited the transfer of the community’s main toll highway, the AP-9, which PP and PSOE governments have denied; the improvement of the rail connection to Portugal, the investments in the northwest freight corridor, or the delay of the Avril trains that will allow the promised times of the AVE to Madrid to be met. He also other claims with less history such as the VAT reduction for meat and fish, the autonomous management of the coast or the co-management of the Minimum Living Income. And with his party’s pacts with Vox’s denialism in the background, Rueda has demanded that the central government create specific gender violence courts in the five Galician cities that do not have them: “We will not rest until we manage to eradicate the most painful machismo, which is gender violence.”
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The national spokesperson for the BNG, Ana Pontón, considers the “recital of announcements, promises and propaganda” in Rueda’s speech to be an “insult to intelligence” and a “lack of respect” for Galicians. In her opinion, she has tried to “convince” the public that “she is going to do everything” that the PP “has not done” during its 14 years of government. The parliamentary spokesperson for the PSdeG-PSOE believes that Rueda “has drawn a scenario typical of an ivory tower.”
Just before the beginning of the debate, in the corridors of the Chamber, the socialist deputy in Congress José Ramón Gómez Besteiro has confirmed that he will run in the socialist primaries to once again be a candidate for the Presidency of the Xunta. Besteiro was the headliner in 2016 but had to resign months before the elections due to the accumulation of judicial charges for alleged corruption. Now that he has been exonerated from all of them, the former president of the Lugo Provincial Council returns to the political front line. He probably has a rival. Former Secretary General Gonzalo Caballero has announced that he is also considering running in these primaries, which do not yet have a date.
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