Bicycles instead of cars: A large traffic island in Barcelona at the end of August
Image: The NewYorkTimes/Redux/laif
In Spain, right-wing populists and the conservative People’s Party are stopping the construction of cycle paths and environmental zones. In Barcelona, a court is demanding that the “superblock”, which has just been expensively traffic-calmed, be dismantled.
EThings are going backwards again in Spain. New cycle paths are disappearing, cars are getting more space, the establishment of environmental zones is being postponed for years. In Barcelona, a court ordered the largest traffic-calmed zone in the city center to be reversed. The incumbent left-wing government wanted to be at the vanguard of the energy and transport transition in Europe. But since the local and regional elections, the ecological pendulum has been swinging back in Spain.
There is still no new government in Madrid. This Tuesday, the candidate of the victorious conservative People’s Party is standing for election in parliament, but the PP does not have a majority. Since May, it has been in pacts with the Vox party in more than a hundred municipalities and five autonomous regions. There the right-wing populists are putting the brakes on transport policy. Valencia, Gijón, Logroño, Valladolid, Palma and Elche want to reverse cycle paths or allow cars on them again.
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