Maia, Portugal, July 2, 2024 (Lusa) - The Eixo Atlântico organisation distanced itself on Tuesday from the joint statement by the Galician regional government and the Northern Regional Coordination and Development Commission (CCDR-N) on the high-speed train, describing it as a "propaganda act".
"Eixo Atlântico declined the invitation to join the manifesto promoted by the Galicia regional government 'Galicia-Portugal high-speed link: an obvious priority', which it describes as a propaganda act and from which it totally disagrees," according to a statement sent out today.
Today, in the former customs house of Valença (Viana do Castelo district), next to the International Road-Rail Bridge over the River Miño, the Galician Junta and the CCDR-N signed a joint declaration in defence of an armoured commitment to have the Porto - Vigo high-speed train by 2032, with "no excuses" for delays from central governments.
For the Eixo Atlántico del Noroeste Peninsular, a cross-border organisation that brings together 42 municipalities from the north of Portugal and Galicia, "the rail link between Galicia and Lisbon is fully guaranteed, since the Portuguese government is completing all the procedures on schedule".
On the Spanish side, says the Eixo Atlântico, "the government has unblocked the exit south of Vigo, and the first section, Vigo - O Porriño, is at the preliminary informative study stage, and the government is also currently making progress on the preliminary informative study for the O Porriño-Portuguese border section."
"Eixo Atlântico hopes that the procedures for the new bridge over the Miño will be decided at the Iberian Summit scheduled for the autumn. We therefore consider both the manifesto and what the secretary-general [Xoán Mao] defines [as] a 'propaganda soiree' with no practical effect and, above all, no need, to be unnecessary," says the organisation.
For Eixo, if the council really wants to invest in the high-speed link, "what it should do is call all the social, economic and institutional players to a prior meeting to reach a consensus on the strategy, the content of the communiqué and the decisions, instead of inviting them to sign up to an insubstantial manifesto".
According to the organisation, today's signing was "an act of greater glory by the president of the Junta [Alfonso Rueda] in which the institutions and civil society reserve the mere role of applauders".
"The only purpose of this act is to position itself to claim as its own a success and results that are already guaranteed and that are the patrimony of all the collectives (among which was not the Junta), which we have defended for years," considers the institution with headquarters in Maia (Porto district) and Vigo (Galicia).
Eixo Atlântico also points out that the Galician Junta "never supported the proposal for this rail link that Eixo Atlântico proposed to the Portuguese government six years ago", and that "it's surprising that this manifesto appeared after the change in the Portuguese government and not when António Costa [former prime minister] promoted and realised this rail link".
"This manifesto and this act seek to divert attention and mask the council's inaction on these infrastructures that fall within its remit and on which it has done nothing in the last decade," accuses the Eixo Atlántico.
The secretary general of the Eixo, Xoán Mao, also expressed "his gratitude to Costa's Portuguese government, which definitively promoted this link, and to [Luís] Montenegro's current government for taking on the previous government's commitment and continuing to promote the line", as well as recognising the Spanish government "for having unblocked the southern exit from Vigo", which is crucial for the development of the high-speed line.
The link from Porto to Vigo, in Galicia, which is being developed in parallel to the high-speed line between Porto and Lisbon, includes stations at Francisco Sá Carneiro Airport, Braga, Ponte de Lima and Valença (Viana do Castelo district).
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