In a letter sent to the President of the Government, the head of the Xunta, Alfonso Rueda, urges Pedro Sánchez to accelerate, given the current economic situation, “the urgency of adequately developing pending issues and projects” in the Community. “A stronger Galicia in all areas, such as the one I am determined to pursue, also contributes to making a better and more thriving Spain,” Rueda tells the Chief Executive in the letter, dated this past Thursday, May 19, in which requests “as soon as possible, a hearing in which we can establish a first contact (…) and start, with the best will, this new stage of relations between the Xunta de Galicia and the Government of Spain”.
On the first day of the investiture debate, in the regional Parliament, the then still candidate to preside over the Galician government announced, in his speech, that in his first week in office he would ask Sánchez to meet and address a decalogue of “commitments” for which Galicia is still waiting. This Wednesday, in statements to the press, he stated that he had already requested two hearings not only with the President of the Government, but also with the King, out of “institutional respect”, and that he hoped that they could take place as soon as possible, always taking into account the respective agendas. However, the letter sent to La Moncloa is dated Thursday.
In the two-page letter, the president of the Xunta conveys to Sánchez that “among the commitments that I sealed with the Galicians, I highlighted as a priority that of maintaining the institutional loyalty that Galicia has been practicing in recent years.” “My purpose is none other than, from the defense of this Community, to serve with constructive zeal and a spirit of collaboration in the general interest of our country,” he abounds. “Our administrations are both inserted in an autonomous State that serves the same citizens, hence my desire is to continue reinforcing this model from mutual collaboration and fulfillment of commitments”, underlines the Galician president. Loyalty, yes; to keep quiet, no, because it would mean, in fact, disloyalty. The idea that he has also transferred to the regional Chamber.
Rueda recalls that “inflation aggravated by the War in Ukraine, the energy crisis or the difficulties that family economies are going through” urge to address those issues for which Galicia continues to wait, but which, face to face, hopes to “address (.. .) with due depth». In his intervention in O Hórreo, he already advanced where the shots of his demand would go, reeling off in the Chamber a decalogue of issues that are still pending. And he alludes to them in his letter.
In the first place, it refers to two “strategic initiatives” that are intertwined with the National Recovery Plan: the textile fiber plant in Palas de Rei (Lugo), promoted by the Portuguese company Altri, and a biogas plant for the management of purines. “To guarantee the execution of these initiatives, the support of the Next Generation Funds and their fit into the criteria established in the Pertes presented by the Government, or within the framework of other support for tractor projects, is essential,” he indicates.
In the automotive framework, Rueda asks Sánchez to consider in the corresponding Perte «Galicia’s high potential in the industry and its main project —Autoancora—, led by the leading national vehicle producer (Stellantis)»; he again requests the support of European funds. In addition, he demands that the difficulties for the maritime-fishing sector posed by the national coastal regulations be taken into account; and conveys its concern about the contribution of the State for dependency care, the creation of training places for family doctors and the launch of the emergency and emergency medicine specialty.
There is no lack, as was also advanced in O Hórreo, in the field of infrastructure, from the Atlantic corridor, highway and train connections in the province of Lugo; the involvement in the State Pact by Ferrol; and progress in the transfer of ownership of the AP-9 toll road. Rueda, who directly maintains the powers of tourism, which he had already been exercising in the first vice-presidency, does not forget either the “joint impulse” to Xacobeo, “whose impact and prestige far exceed the territorial scope of Galicia”, which “would require turn of the coverage of the staff of our attached police.
The letter makes a “separate mention” of “the necessary revision of the regional financing system”, and here it brings up the institutional declaration of the Santiago Forum that Alberto Núñez Feijóo captained last November. “Demographic criteria must be taken into account to a greater extent in order to respond effectively and fairly to the needs of all citizens, wherever they live,” Rueda underlines in this regard in the text.
In statements to the media this Friday, from Vigo, the president expressed his confidence that the issues he raises will be “read carefully”, and recalled that both Sánchez and his ministers “know them perfectly”, since they are issues “that are already They have been trying and they need continuity.” They are not new at all. See, as he specifically recalled to the press, the commitment to extend the AVE to all of Galicia, beyond Orense, for which the arrival of the Avril trains was promised in time for the summer. An example of the “urgency” involved in several of the commitments contained in the letter.
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