El Prat airport reopens cracks in Catalan politics

• El Govern Airport closes ranks on the expansion of El Prat and will not endorse any project "that affects La Ricarda"

• El Prat La Ricarda: the environmental obstacle that stands in the way of expanding the airport

The budget agreement reached between the

and the

has aroused criticism from both sides of the Catalan Parliament chamber.

and the

accuse

of ending the independence process to put themselves in the hands of a new tripartite, while

,

and the

point to the Socialists for propping up the weak Executive of

as a counterpart to the Republican support in Madrid for the Government by

.

But the addendums scratched by the party led by

in the negotiations to approve the Generalitat's accounts for this year have also revived old quarrels between the very political formations that endorse the regional budget.

The expansion of the

, which was kept in a drawer a year and a half ago, promises to be one of the workhorses of Catalan politics during the second part of this legislature.

Last weekend, both Illa and the parliamentary leader of

,

, exchanged opposite messages about the future of airport infrastructure.

"We will comply," said the first secretary of the PSC bluntly when questioned about the agreement with ERC to increase the capacity of El Prat and go from the current 70 operations per hour to 90. The former minister also advised the

"not to be so categorical about some things", in response to the words pronounced the same Saturday by Albiach, who assured that no expansion of the airport will be undertaken, since the agreement signed by the Republicans and the Socialists does not include any budget item to for this purpose and only contemplates "creating a technical commission to study the airport model of Catalonia".

In his opinion, it is about the "failure of the PSC,

and

model to return to macro-projects that are no longer useful".

Ricarda

The controversial expansion of the Barcelona aerodrome was frozen in September 2021, when negotiations between the Government, Aena and the Generalitat broke down to agree on a reform that would obtain the approval of the

, since one of the affected areas, the lagoon de

, is classified as a protected area by Brussels within the so-called Natura 2000 Network.

Even then it was a project with as many supporters as detractors.

Employers and other civil society entities have been demanding the expansion for years so as not to lose ground to

and boost the Catalan economy.

On the opposite side, environmental groups, neighborhood platforms and several neighboring town halls express their rejection of a reform that could put the biodiversity of the

river delta area at risk .

The division even occurred within both Executives.

The discrepancies in La Moncloa between the

and

had their reply in the Palau de la Generalitat, where Esquerra sided with the detractors and Junts was in favor.

What remains to be seen now is the route of the umpteenth attempt to study an expansion of air traffic at the renamed

airport .

What does underlie the role played by the PSC in the budgets of the Generalitat, with other assignments achieved, such as the drive to build the

highway

, is its role as the current reference party for the Catalan economic powers, who with the extinction of

and the uncontrollable drift of Junts, see Illa or

, in Barcelona, ​​as their most reliable interlocutors.

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