The president of the Cabildo de Tenerife, Pedro Martín, has confessed to the microphones of Cadena Cope that the project to build a train in the south of the island will mean the expense of “a fortune”, which “is not necessary to do in this mandate, the dogs we have we need for something else”. The socialist estimates that an investment of at least 2,500 million euros will be needed and that “not everything will come from Europe”. “From here we will have to contribute money to this very powerful infrastructure,” he commented.
The motion to promote the train from the south of Tenerife runs aground in the Cabildo due to “lack of consensus”
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On the other hand, Martín questioned the ability of the train to solve mobility problems on the island. However, he confirmed that “it has been left in the hands of the specialists, so that they are the ones who say, with a mobility study, what needs to be done”. During the radio interview, the politician also pointed out that such a study had never been carried out before: “That is why we have commissioned it and we will have the results this year,” he added, promising then to make a decision based on the conclusions drawn from the report.
Regarding the differences in criteria, Pedro Martín pointed out that both the Socialist Party and Sí Podemos Canarias, “reached an agreement to leave this project parked, pending the results of the study, to make a decision.”
It should be remembered that the vice president of the Cabildo de Tenerife, and councilor of the Roads, Mobility, Innovation and Culture Area, Enrique Arriaga (Citizens), last week withdrew a motion that he had presented to debate in the plenary session of the corporation on the promotion of construction project for the train in the south of the island. However, given the “lack of consensus”, Arriaga chose to withdraw it.
The PSOE, which holds the presidency in the Cabildo, supported the motion, but not Sí Podemos Canarias, which, although it is not part of the Government, supports the pact between socialists and Citizens with its votes. María José Belda, counselor of Sí Podemos, had previously indicated that supporting this “ultra-developmentalist macroproject that implies destroying our fragile territory, with kilometers of expropriations, works and inconvenience for years, without previously betting on improving the bus service and other non-invasive measures “It was to cross one of the “red lines” of the government agreement reached so that the motion of censure that ousted the Canary Coalition from the corporation would prosper. If it went ahead this Friday and the plan was promoted, the pact would be broken.
For their part, the PP and the Canarian Coalition showed their support for the initiative and accused Yes We Can of “threatening” the Cabildo, to which the party has responded that what it has done has been “value the programmatic agreements” signed with PSOE and Cs.
Arriaga expressed that, since it is such an important project for the island (something on which all the groups have agreed), it was to be hoped that it would have the full support of the plenary, and that, since it has not, it was better withdraw it. In addition, the PSOE clarified that, although it supports the project, “it is not a priority” at this time, in the midst of the crisis derived from the coronavirus pandemic.
