The president of Foment del Treball, Josep Sánchez Llibre, denounced this morning “15 years of non-compliance” in the Mediterranean corridor. The president of the Catalan employers’ association regretted that “an important part of the Spanish territories, which make up 40% of GDP and 50% of exports, are not connected by railway line”, in the presentation of the event organized by the Quiero Corredor platform in the Catalan capital.
The movement promoted by the Valencian Association of Entrepreneurs has gone to Barcelona this weekend to find a louder speaker for their demands. The new action with which the movement is turning these weeks has been located in the Plaza Universitat, the center of the city from which they will seek complicity with the Catalan citizens. “We have to build the future and for that we need consensus, dialogue and demand, convince and seek the complicity of the State Administration so that non-compliance and delays end once and for all”, said Sánchez Llibre, who has described today’s meeting as “an act of protest by Catalan civil society and Catalan business society”.
The event was attended by several businessmen, including Marc Puig, president of the Puig firm and the president of CECOT, Xavier Panès; in addition to the general secretary of CCOO Catalunya, Javier Pacheco. The director of Social Responsibility and Business Relations of Mercadona, Paula Llop, has also been involved in the claim; the director of Mercadona’s External Relations in Catalonia, Bernat Morales; the director general of the Food Distribution Companies Council of Catalonia (Cedac), Roger Gaspa, and the founder of Casa Tarradellas, Josep Tarradellas, among others.
On behalf of the Valencian businessmen, Diego Lorente, general director of AVE, has intervened, who has recalled the activity of the platform since 2016 in response to what he has called an “anomaly”. “We thought that how could it be that the second and third largest cities in Spain were not connected, being the country with the most high-speed kilometers after China and with 25 provincial capitals already connected”, explained Lorente.
“When businessmen unite and civil society unites, politicians have no choice but to give support and that is what happened,” said Lorente, who emphasized that the platform has united the business associations of the four affected territories. Likewise, he has estimated at 600 attendees who have already confirmed their attendance at the next annual Quiero Corredor event, which will be held again in Madrid on November 16.
The proposal that they have presented this morning in Barcelona is a labyrinth that includes the delays in the Mediterranean corridor, milestones to be met that the movement has recently re-analyzed in its Biannual Checkup published a few days ago, in which it has criticized that the works are not going at the required rate.
The action, which will be in Barcelona all weekend, has previously passed through Cartagena and Antequera and from July 14 to 16 it will visit the city of Alicante, with the purpose of raising awareness in society about the problem of the corridor with an immersive experience for all audiences. The installation collected more than 500 signatures in Cartagena and more than 700 in Antequera, figures that they hope to surpass these days in Barcelona.
