“The main infrastructures for the competitiveness of the Catalan economy, and therefore of the Spanish economy, are progressing very slowly and in some cases work has stopped.” The employers’ association Foment del Treball, which has never been suspected of pro-sovereignty propositions, spoke out again last June to denounce a problem endemic to Catalonia: the lack of investment in public works, particularly by the state. It is not trivial that in the most recent exercise of political pragmatism already carried out by ERC at the end of this campaign, two of the three conditions set by Republicans for Pedro Sánchez’s reinvestment as president are directly related: the reduction of Catalonia’s denounced budget deficit and the complete relocation of Rodalies, the main cause of public transport incidents in the municipality. These are the main Catalan stewards, without considering those of the political conflict – “keeping the dialogue table alive is the third request of the ERC” that the government that emerges from this Sunday’s elections will have to deal with, and they are not very different from those that Sánchez already found in 2019 after his election.
In full campaign, the government, through the Ministry of Transport, has put out various projects to tender that show the intention of a change. One of them is the informative study on the upgrading of the Rodalies line between La Garriga and Centelles, which is relevant because it ensures the start of the preparatory work for the double-track line on the R3 line that connects Barcelona to Vic and Puigcerdà, one of the most unsuccessful lines in Catalonia, although there is none that does not experience constant technical failures.
Although budget execution in Catalonia has been well under budget during this term, the government has opened the project execution processes expected in recent years on many works on the railway network. From the transformation of Plaça Catalunya station to Sants station and the extensive operation of L’Hospitalet de Llobregat, which will serve to decongest Barcelona’s current network while ending the division in the community caused by the tracks. The completion of the La Sagrera train station is another upcoming milestone. The big question is that the new executive will not delay the work and, once it is done, will budget it and order the start of some work that may last at least until the end of this decade.
Just in case, the government is pushing to complete a full transfer of the Rodalies network and to overcome the current situation where it has little control over schedules. That would mean that the Generalitat would take over the infrastructure and control of the tracks, as is the case with FGC, but they want to make sure that the state does not transfer debts to them up front and protect the upcoming investments in order not to end up in the situation that the rail network has found itself in.
Another project that is almost in the preparation phase is the construction of an additional lane on the Ronda Litoral between Can Tunis and El Morrot. The measure must relieve pressure on a road that sees slow traffic at times every day and speed up the entry and exit of lorries from the port of Barcelona.
The government must also negotiate with La Moncloa to extend the Fourth Belt, or B-40, which now ends in Terrassa, but which the various administrations involved – municipal, regional and state – managed to disband a few weeks ago to reach neighboring Sabadell. According to the protocol signed in July this year, in a few months the Generalitat and the State should sign an agreement and begin the procedures for construction. But a change of government could shake up the current agreement — negotiating sources say — in which the state, the owner of the road, hands over the wording of the project and the definition of the route to the Generalitat, a concession that remains to be seen if the PP respects it.
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However, none of the above projects have attracted the attention of the business community and opposition from part of the population, such as the possible expansion of El Prat Airport so that it can handle the take-offs and landings of aircraft flying overseas routes more flexibly. The Generalitat and the state had to set up a technical commission – and they didn’t – to discuss whether this expansion and the €1,700 million investment promised by the plant’s owner, Aena, were necessary, but controversy surrounding the project ignored it during the electoral campaign that began with local elections in May.
financing model
The other, more complex issue is the financing model. Neither Mariano Rajoy nor Sánchez dared to open the thunder can, even though the current system is outdated. And no pro-independence government wanted to negotiate, given the attrition involved and the fact that sovereign beliefs would betray the discourse that claims the state itself.
In any case, Aragonès Sánchez has indicated that if he wants his support, he must commit to reducing Catalonia’s budget deficit – between 14,000 and 20,000 million euros according to the latest calculation by the Generalitat – which means more direct funds for the Generalitat or an increase in the investment post in Catalonia or transfers for some powers, such as healthcare.
The Barcelona chapter
In 1989, the then Minister of Culture, Jorge Semprún, announced that the central government wanted to build a large library in Barcelona. Until 2023, the building in which the cultural infrastructure is to be built next to the Francia train station has not been demolished. An investment of 55 million is expected, but the opening is not expected to take place until 2027 at the earliest. The individual parts of the project must be approved by the new government.
The Barcelona Police Headquarters building is another facility that will either continue its security-related function or be converted into a library or memorial to the tortures carried out at the facilities during the Franco regime. What happens in this police station depends a lot on the government agreements made or the support for the candidatures.
If the government fears the arrival of a PP-Vox government in any area, it is in education, and language in particular. One of the first actions of a possible new Conservative executive is expected to be the drafting of a new organic education law that will increase the presence of Spanish in Catalan classrooms. The current Lomloé language, due to the intervention of the ERC, does not fix percentages and allows the weight of each co-official language to be modulated according to the reality of each center, provided that full mastery of both languages is achieved at the end of ESO, a line followed in later Catalan regulations.
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