Spanish government announces 1.5 billion for trains in Catalonia... and little more than studies for Malaga and the Costa del Sol

The Spanish and Catalan governments reached an agreement on Monday to transfer no less than 1.52 billion euros to the Catalan administration, spread over the next three years, for the transfer of Rodalies (commuter trains). This will be more than a billion euros for the first phase of implementation, as well as a fund for research and university grants. In the coming months, the cancellation of 15 billion euros of Catalonia's debt with the rest of Spain will also be formalised. The agreement was signed by the central government and the Catalan government at a meeting of the joint commission on economic and fiscal affairs in Barcelona.

At the other end of the country, in Malaga, the second fastest-growing province in the country in terms of population growth, and with a severe lack of public transport infrastructure, the ministry of transport has little more than studies. In fact, 53 million is being invested to continue improving the mainly freight Bobadilla-Algeciras line through Ronda (as well as other sections in the province of Cadiz); and 1.3 million to design the doubling of the current Cercanías Malaga-Fuengirola C1 single track section in the Campamento Benítez area. In addition, there has recently been a commitment to carry out feasibility and informative studies on the future coastal train, and to evaluate possible discounts for workers and students on the AP-7 toll motorway.

In any case, these are minor amounts compared to the enormous amount of state funds that will be allocated during the legislature to pay for the commitments made for the investiture of Pedro Sánchez as president, to which is now added the interest in smoothing out the agreement between the PSC and ERC for the investiture of Salvador Illa as head of the Generalitat.

To serve as a reference, the latest study of the coastal train in Malaga, carried out by the consultancy firm ARCS and Analistas Económicos de Andalucía on behalf of Malaga city hall, the Diputación and Unicaja, has proposed a route with 88 per cent underground, close to the axis of the A-7, which would cost about 2.7 billion euros without IVA (Spain's sales tax), with an approximate term of eight years and which would serve about 44 million passengers a year.

Therefore, the 1.5 billion to be allocated basically to modernise the railway mobility in the metropolitan area of Barcelona would be half of the investment needed to bring the train to Marbella, something that, moreover, could be phased over at least a decade of projects and work, so its budgetary impact would be considerably lower.

Back to the situation in Catalonia, yesterday's agreement means the fulfilment of three commitments made between the PSOE and ERC for the investiture of Pedro Sánchez. Esquerra demanded the fulfilment of these commitments as a prerequisite for a possible pre-agreement for the investiture of Salvador Illa.

Both the minister for economy, Natalia Mas, and the minister for territory, Ester Capella, assured after the meeting that this agreement between the government and the Generalitat was "essential" in order to continue negotiating the election of Illa, but it is not enough to close an agreement. In this sense, the two republican councillors insisted that the key lies in the financing model. Catalonia must have the key to the coffers, it must come out of the common system of the autonomous regions.

Esquerra Republicana is not giving in to negotiations with the Socialists and on Monday, in an article in La Vanguardia, issued an ultimatum to the PSOE: either fiscal sovereignty for Catalonia or a repeat of the elections. The Republicans, through the five members of the negotiating team (Marta Rovira, Josep Maria Jové, Marta Vilalta, Juli Fernández and Oriol López), threatened the Socialists with leaving the table if there is no generous agreement on this matter.

The deadline for Illa's investiture is 26 August. If he does not succeed before then, elections will automatically be called for 13 October.