The project managed by the Government of the Generalitat de Catalunya—and advanced by La Vanguardia— to expand the El Prat airport with a runway located over the sea, one mile from the coast, and about 3,400 meters long It has raised various criticisms among political sectors, at a time very focused on the electoral pre-campaign for the municipal elections of Barcelona at the end of next May.
The candidate for mayor of the capital for the Catalan socialists, Jaume Collboni, has indicated that he has positioned himself alongside the first secretary of the PSC, Salvador Illa, highlighting that the proposal “does not meet the essential requirements”: that it be efficient from the point of view of from an economic point of view —the proposal of the Government of Pere Aragonès would cost 2,100 million euros— and that it has the minimum environmental impact.
Collboni does point out that the existence of this proposal reflects that “the debate, as the PSC pointed out, should be a technical issue”, which, according to his point of view, has been achieved thanks to the budget agreement reached between ERC and the Catalan socialists “contemplate a technical commission that puts on the table alternatives for enlargement”.
On the same subject, the first secretary of the PSC, Salvador Illa, recalled that the agreement sealed by the Government and the PSC to approve the Generalitat’s budgets for 2023 provides for the airport to “gain capacity” and, throughout this year, it will be necessary to study “technically” how to do it.
“What matters to me is that the airport gains capacity, and does so as soon as possible,” Illa stressed.
For his part, the Minister of Culture and Sports, Miquel Iceta, defended this Saturday the expansion of the Barcelona-El Prat Airport, although he has raised doubts about whether building a new runway over the sea would be the best option: “I don’t know whether this can be endured environmentally or not”.
“The experts have to say it,” Iceta said in statements to Catalunya Ràdio. The minister has highlighted the change in position of the ERC Government, which until now was resistant to contemplating an expansion of the airport: “It is still curious that there was a problem to expand a runway and now it seems that not only is there not a problem but that we will do it on the sea”.
According to Iceta, “there is more and more consensus that the airport must be expanded and we must have more powerful instruments to ensure a future economic progress”, so “it is logical that various options are being evaluated”.
From ERC, the Republican candidate for the municipal elections in Barcelona, ??Ernest Maragall, sees positive that there are several proposals on the airport and that Aena’s “has disappeared”. “Now we have the possibility and the will to objectify the debate”, has expressed Maragall, who believes that now it will be possible to “compare” the initiatives and then make decisions.
The Government and the PSC agreed within the framework of budget negotiations to set up a technical commission between the Catalan and Spanish governments to address the future of the airport.
“It is good that ideas, proposals and possible solutions appear,” said Maragall, who celebrated that now the initial project that Aena had put on the table is not being discussed. “There is no longer talk of this project, now there is talk of possible technical solutions,” he stressed. And he asked “not to have more time to stop” decisions on an infrastructure as important as the airport.
The spokesman for the communes in Parliament, David Cid, has argued that it is necessary to have “a serious debate on the Catalan airport system and not occurrences of the last century.”
He explained that this proposal was already put on the table around 30 years ago and criticized that “it seems that they want to turn Barcelona and Catalonia into the Qatar of the Mediterranean”.
He has also ruled on the frequency of the R8 line of Rodalies and has assured that “now that there are Budgets from the Generalitat it is necessary to advance in the increase in frequency”.
The last to join the debate was Jordi Puigneró, from Junts, who through his social networks commented: “ERC said no to a 400-meter “soft” extension of the 3rd track (without touching the Llacuna de la Ricarda) and now they are going to eat a full-blown extension.
