The reconstruction of the last meeting between the Government of Pedro Sánchez and the Government in relation to the expansion of the El Prat airport shows the support of the Generalitat for the project, despite the fact that hours later a tweet from the Catalan president, Pere Aragonès , made jump blown up the investment of 1,700 million euros necessary to carry out the new infrastructure. “
The Generalitat is not going to be the brake on the expansion of the airport and its development for its projection as an international hub.” Isidre Gavín , Secretary of Territory and a trusted person of Vice President Jordi Puigneró said in it, as recorded in the minutes of the telematic meeting held on September 3, advanced by ‘El País’ and to which EL PERIÓDICO has had access.
At the meeting, also with mayors of the area and representatives of the Foment employers’ association, the DORA (Airport Regulation Document) 2022-2026 was presented, with the detail of the expansion of El Prat agreed between the Minister of Transport, Raquel Sánchez , that a month before she was mayor of Gavá, one of the municipalities near the airport, and Puigneró, a strong man from Junts and a trusted person of the ‘former president’ Carles Puigdemont .
No lock
“The Generalitat is not going to be the brake on the expansion of the airport and its development for its projection as an international hub. We are in no way going to be in a blocking position or to paralyze the plan, ”said Gavín, who required support for Dora, but that the details to limit the environmental impact would be discussed in the master plan. The agreement between the two governments was just to approve the Dora before September 30 and postpone the other extremes in that master plan.
Along these lines, the representative of the central government, Raúl Medina , general director of Civil Aviation, responded that “the true planning document is the master plans and not the DORA.” Gavín took the opportunity to also claim, among other issues, to include in the Dora the high-speed connection with the Reus airport, also promised by the Executive.
Opposition of Podemos
In this way, opposition to the project was limited to United We Can and the commons. The meeting was expressed by the mayor of El Prat, Lluís Mijoler , and the second deputy mayor of Barcelona, Janet Sanz . The first stated that they will never accept that the protected area of La Ricarda is affected. “It does not make sense and we will resist until the end,” warned Mijoler, who announced that if the Dora went ahead, El Prat would open procedures “of patrimonial responsibility and criminal offenses” against those responsible. The Barcelona representative, who complained about attending the meeting as a guest, was also categorical. “It is incredible that in a situation like the current climate emergency this expansion is being considered,” he said.
The representatives of Castelldefels, who said that they also spoke on behalf of Sant Boi and Viladecans, and Gavá -all of the PSC- expressed their support with segregated tracks to avoid a greater acoustic impact in their municipalities and that the measures “are respectful of the criteria of environmental sustainability “.
From the vice presidency of Puigneró, at the end of the meeting, the message was released to the press that the DORA included what was agreed on August 2 and it seemed that the agreement would go ahead. However, the document leaked on social networks. With the tweet from Aragonès, in which he demanded the rectification of the Dora and affirmed that “preserving natural spaces is not negotiable”, it became clear that the support was only from Junts.
Since then the statements have been thick. The Minister of Transport in an interview with EL PERIÓDICO has stated that for this reason she sees “little margin”, but there are still 20 days to negotiate. In her response, the Regional Minister of the Presidency of the Generalitat, Laura Vilagrà, was open to doing so, but without the pressure of having to reach an agreement before the 30th of this month and with the inescapable condition that a “balance” between improving the aerodrome and respecting the natural environment.
