López Miras, Aragonès and Puig demand greater speed with the Mediterranean Corridor

The president of the Region of Murcia, Fernando López Miras, the president of the Catalan Generalitat, Pere Aragonès, and the president of the Valencian Generalitat, Ximo Puig, as well as 1,500 businessmen from Catalonia, the Valencian Community and Murcia demanded this Thursday that the Government accelerate the works of the Mediterranean Corridor, the railway infrastructure that must connect Algeciras with the French border, in Girona. The Minister for Transport, Mobility and the Urban Agenda, Raquel Sánchez, present at the event held in Barcelona, ​​ratified the commitment that the connection between Almería and the French border can be ready by 2026.

The president of the Valencian Association of Entrepreneurs (AVE), Vicente Boluda, organizer of the event, asked for more speed in the works and saw it possible that in 2026 the part from Murcia to the border would be finished, but not from Algeciras: «Not even in the By the year 2035 it will be finished» all the infrastructure, he pressed.

López Miras assured that “it is time for the Government of Spain to move from words to deeds” in the deployment of the Mediterranean Corridor. In addition, he asked that the central executive “stop prioritizing some communities over others when executing infrastructure” and treat all territories equally.

«It must materialize and be executed as soon as possible, with facts, without more words. We need decisions and work executed », although he predicted that he will leave the sixth edition of this meeting with more doubts than certainties. López Miras affirmed that the Region of Murcia is “isolated” due to the treatment that has been given to it in the last forty years in terms of infrastructure and literally reproached the Executive for delaying the arrival of high speed in the Region.

For his part, Aragonès did not pose in the group photo, but attended the event, unlike his predecessors. Quim Torra planted the organizers in 2018, despite the fact that the event took place in Barcelona. This is the first multilateral act together with other regional presidents in which the Generalitat participates. The Republican leader, who defends a bilateral deal with the State, assured that the Mediterranean corridor until now was “an economic and territorial imperative”, but now it is also environmental.

“We are late, it should have been underway for a long time and every year that we do not have the full corridor is a year that we lose in greater competitiveness and a year that we lose in the fight against climate change,” he said. “I give my support to this infrastructure that is key,” he said. Aragonès criticized the “absolutely centralist and radial” vision in infrastructure planning by the Government.

The Murcian delegation that attended the event in Barcelona this Thursday to claim the Mediterranean Corridor.

Puig, meanwhile, assured that “to strangle the growth of the Mediterranean arc is to strangle the growth of Spain and also of Europe to a great extent.” Puig claimed “to speed up all the works to finish the construction of the corridor ahead of schedule.” “The weight of radial Spain continues and produces a vacuum and concentration effect in the center of the peninsula that ends up being very negative for the country as a whole,” he concluded. However, in his opinion, the Government “in recent years has accelerated” the construction of the corridor.