The plenary session of the Cabildo de Tenerife has approved this Friday two motions of the Nationalist and Popular groups, with the rejection of PSOE and Sí Podemos and the abstention of Ciudadanos, a member of the government team, in which it requests the inclusion of the project of the train of the south in the railway network of general interest in order to access financing funds. The project has an estimated cost of more than 2,500 million euros. The Corporation’s vice president, Enrique Arriaga, has called these initiatives “irrelevant” because Congress has already approved requesting funding for the project, which is why he has questioned the “opportunism and tactics” of both parties.
After the slowdown at the port of Fonsalía, the aspirations of builders and hoteliers for a train to the south of Tenerife are rekindled
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The motions had 15 votes in favor (CC-PNC and PP) while the two Ciudadanos councilors abstained and the PSOE and Sí Podemos added 13 votes against.
A Cs motion supported by all the groups and rejected by Sí Podemos has also been jointly debated, in which support for the construction and commissioning of the BUS-HOV lanes on the TF-1 and the TF-5 and the defense of the Island Plan for Sustainable Mobility.
The initiatives were debated jointly and their original text, both the Sí Podemos Canarias group and the Socialist group, presented amendments to the whole, which were rejected.
The nationalist spokesman, Carlos Alonso, has pointed out that mobility is a problem “of the first magnitude” on the island that requires political leadership, management capacity and social consensus. With this last point, today, it does not count, since the project is rejected not only by Sí Podemos Canarias, but also by environmental groups, who have described it as “economic nonsense” and “environmental destruction”, and the mayor de Arona, José Julián Mena, considering that the south of the island has other prioritieslike a hospital.
Despite this, Alonso has said that “the majority” of the island’s population is in favor of the project and “increasingly strongly”, although he has not explained the basis for making that statement. He has lamented that the “obvious fragmentation” of the government group plus the external partner –Si Podemos– could slow its development. Along these lines, he has commented that Yes We Can threatens to break the pact, Cs “wants but cannot” and the PSOE “neither can nor wants to”.
Alonso has lamented that very little progress has been made in this legislature because not even steps have been taken to process the environmental impact statement and, although he has supported the construction of the BUS VAO lanes, he has specified that “time has been wasted”.
He has also said that the train now has an “important financing opportunity”, thanks to the arrival of European funds, and has insisted that the Cabildo must decide that, due to lack of support, all the funds are not derived to the Gran Canaria project, where there is unanimity, he said.
Manuel Fernández, spokesman for the Popular Group, has lamented that the government group only wants to “save their seats” because there is unanimity in the Congress of Deputies and in the Parliament of the Canary Islands [Sí Podemos votó también allí en contra] but in the Cabildo the socialists “are caught by their partner.”
He has charged against the insular president, Pedro Martín, because he says that “he is still mute” [Pedro Martín ha dicho en diversas ocasiones que “no es el momento” debido a que cuesta “un dineral“] but he has urged him to remove “the rope” from Yes We Can and with the support of the PP, promote the large projects that “the island needs”, he believes, in the remainder of his mandate.
Fuel the “island lawsuit” to promote a multimillion-dollar project
Javier Rodríguez, spokesman for the PSOE, recalled that the regional president of the PP, Manuel Domínguez, was against the project in 2015 and has called Alonso a “fickle and unstable” politician due to the “changes in position” throughout the mandate as if he were a “teenager”.
He has pointed out that mobility problems in Tenerife must be faced with a “comprehensive vision” and not focus exclusively on the TF-1 and the southern train and for this reason the development of a sustainable mobility plan has been commissioned.
He has said that his group “is not against” the southern train but that the current context indicates that “it is not the right time”, stressing, however, that “the most relevant” is the vote that went ahead this Thursday in a committee in Congress.
Aarón Afonso, insular director of Coordination and Support to the President, has said that “tacticism” does not favor the debate on mobility on the island and has urged CC to inform the population that the southern territorial plan “has problems” and unfavorable reports from the Government of the Canary Islands, instead of stating that everyone supports it.
The president of the Cabildo de Tenerife, Pedro Martín, has only specified that the opposition has invented phrases and used the insular lawsuit to defend the motions, for which he has urged them not to “manipulate or misrepresent”.
No feasibility study or data on homes that would be expropriated
María José Belda, spokesperson for Sí Podemos, has defended that the project does not have social support since environmental platforms have been mobilizing against it since 2008. In addition, she has demanded a “real citizen participation” and of the 31 municipalities of the island and that they know all the alternatives to the train, since a feasibility report on its economic and social impact is not yet known.
He has warned Arriaga that the train “is going to be decided on the island, not in Madrid” and has wondered how much land the project is going to consume, how many houses are going to be expropriated and how much employment is going to be created.
In front of the southern train, he has said, that public transport by bus is a priority.
The Vice President of the Cabildo and Minister of Roads, Enrique Arriaga, has commented that a sustainable mobility plan is needed and to finish the planned infrastructures “for more than 20 years”.
It has also supported public transport “in all its modalities”, both the BUS VAO lanes, with the aim of going from 3 kilometers to 50 kilometers in this mandate, and the southern train, although in this project it has requested that there is “consensus” because its execution will last several legislatures. For this reason, he has asked all the groups to “look high” given that the train has already been supported in Congress and in Parliament.
Arriaga has blamed CC for the “paralysis” suffered by the island due to lack of planning and made the PP ugly because “they did nothing” when they governed the State.
In fact, he commented that the motions debated this Friday were “irrelevant” because Congress has already approved requesting financing, which is why he has questioned the “opportunism and tactics” of the opposition.
