Karam el Shenawy
July 18, 2023
Despite everything, the executive led by Pedro Sánchez continues to study how to prevent this from happening.
In a utopian world, everything would work by barter or exchange and there would be no payment for objects or services. But in the reality that we have had to live, it is necessary to have to pay to use certain things that, for many, should be free markets, such as television or roads. Yes, because in the middle of the electoral process in which we find ourselves, it seems certain that the Spanish are going to have to pay for using certain roads. This was confirmed by the director of the DGT, Pere Navarro, in the Els Matins program on TV3 “by imposition of Brussels”.
It may interest you: The most expensive and cheapest tolls in Spain
Navarro’s statements came after the debate between the Prime Minister, Pedro Sánchez, and the PP candidate for the presidency, Alberto Núñez Feijóo, the latter told him that the Executive had sent a letter to the EU with the implementation of tolls, to which was added the statement by the Minister of Transport, Raquel Sánchez, who assured that this was not going to happen. Well, now Brussels itself has been in charge of denying everything categorically and according to sources contacted by the newspaper 20 Minutes “The Spanish recovery plan, which was proposed by Spain and subsequently approved by the Commission and the Council, includes Spain’s commitment to adopt a law on sustainable mobility and transport financing before December 2023.”
Hence, the government itself came out today and through its spokesperson, Isabel Rodríguez, at the press conference after the Council of Ministers when asked about the Executive’s negotiations to exclude highway tolls from the reforms agreed with the Union Union has insisted that it is working with the European Commission to see how maintenance of the road network is carried out without addressing it through pay as you go. “What the Government is doing with the European Commission, within the framework of the development of the Recovery Plan, is to see how we approach the maintenance of the road network without running into pay-per-use. A global plan that also involves more sustainable mobility, promoting other uses and other mobility, such as public transport and its free use, as we have done in recent months”has pointed out in this regard,
Meanwhile, the general director of Traffic, Pere Navarro, has “deeply regretted the” confusion created” by his words about tolls on the highways and has apologized for speaking out on a subject that is not within his competence and that “is not above from the table in any way”, adding that “this is indeed a great issue for an agreement between the two big parties”.
