“I am not opposed to the exchange of transfers, but nobody on the planet defends that today”

The president of Castilla-La Mancha, Emiliano García-Page has referred today to the issue of water in Valencia. “I am not opposed to a general transfer exchange policy, if it were global. But honestly, if we are serious, nobody on the planet defends that today.”

He has claimed that "there is no lack of water in Levante" but "neither in Castilla-La Mancha". This has been assured during his intervention in the forum of the Valencian Association of Entrepreneurs (AVE) when a journalist has asked him about his vision about the "solidarity context" that the Castilian-Manchego president usually preaches about water, and in particular the Tajo-Segura transfer.

“The key question would be that if Murcia and Castilla-La Mancha were the same autonomy… How would the problem be approached? Surely there would have been less political noise, but not more water. The Tagus is not the Rhône”, he said.

In his opinion, the debate on water “is not going to be fixed by politics. It is an environmental and political intelligence issue "because the underlying issue, he assured, is that in Spain" we do not have water ".

He recalled that the current transfer from the Tagus to the Segura “is made from dry Spain to dry Spain. And so it has been since the dictatorship. I am not a fanatic on this subject. If Spain wants a system of transfers that raises it and we do plumbing, but from some rivers to others”, he has claimed, without the Tagus having to be the only one to give up its resources.

It has also made opposition to desalination plants ugly. “It was a problem. The transfer has been broken for two years. Without a drop of water. How has it been drunk and watered here?, he said in allusion to the Valencian Community. ”It has been based on desalination plants. Do I propose it as the only alternative? Nope".

“The Madrid hubbub conditions us more than necessary”

At this point, he focused on the political centralism practiced from Madrid to criticize it. "And I'm not talking about the autonomous community," he clarified. “One leaves 50 kilometers from Madrid and realizes that Spain is different in the way of seeing things. The Madrid hubbub conditions us more than necessary. You have to agree. Does the national hydrological plan mean hooking up all the pipes in Spain? Okay, but everyone." The rest, he said, is "demagoguery."

“If tomorrow in Madrid they saw that the Canal de Isabel II lacks water, they would already see how the debate would end. Madrid would not run out of water at the expense of a transfer”, he assured.

He has also criticized the very infrastructure of the Tajo-Segura transfer. "A 300-kilometer pipeline that has not yet been amortized by a German bank that lent the money and was deceived," he assured. “It is an open-air pipe that evaporates and that is at the expense of any fanatic doing outrageous things. Pretending to make the entire economy of a region depend on that is reckless.”

The Mediterranean Corridor is "impeccable" but you have to "think with a peninsular mentality"

In the same forum, the castellanomanchego president has referred to the future Mediterranean Corridor of which he has assured that "it is convenient, urgent and necessary" but clarifying that before "a problem of certain collapse must be resolved" in reference to the high economic concentration in the Spanish Mediterranean arc to the detriment of other parts of the country. “When in Spain we decided to look at Europe as a country, we did it very well. We looked at the Mediterranean and turned our backs on the Atlantic” and that, she added, has led to “75% of growth being concentrated in the Mediterranean arch. It is not a criticism but an analysis”, she clarified.

Now he believes that Spain “needs a certain Peninsular perspective” because “in the Mediterranean Corridor there is already so much economy that it is physically difficult to place something”. He maintains that the Mediterranean Corridor is "unstoppable because it responds to a previously existing need and the Mediterranean economy cannot catch a cold", but claims not to stop other corridors in Spain and to look at the global perspective of the Iberian Peninsula.

“If we want to be serious as a country... Poverty is very expensive and so is the lack of social cohesion and equality. Spain needs a certain Peninsular look. The infrastructures should not only be radial, but also support the Peninsula, with Spain and Portugal”. About the neighboring country he said that “it is doing the task ahead. For example, it has changed its position with the AVE” and has also commented that “it is expensive for the Mediterranean arch to maintain other areas of the country in constant emigration”. That is why he has advocated for “balanced social, economic and territorial cohesion. What many entrepreneurs do is a success: think with a peninsular, continental or global mentality. Why put doors on the field? ”, He ditched.

In addition, it has opened the Castilian-Manchego territory to business investments. “What businessmen cannot spend in other areas, we can. We will invest all the European recovery funds that other autonomous communities do not invest, and with better taxation.”