“We want a public Romareda, but we are not going to paralyze the project”

2023-05-13 21:42:39

In 2019 they were just over a thousand votes away from entering the Zaragoza City Council. How have these four years been?

These four years have been complicated and hard. For us and for the city, because there have been four years of repression with the policies of the right, which have been very negative for the development of Zaragoza. We have lost many opportunities and now we have to shake the city, which needs Aragonese policies.

How does the fragmentation of the left affect you?

We have always gone to the elections with our initials. We would have liked forces that have traditionally gone together, to have done so.

What “wiggle” do you need?

Social and environmental policies must be turned around. No one can be left out and we have to do everything possible to meet the objectives of the 2030 Agenda. Last summer we were roasted with heat and even so here we dedicate ourselves to marketing, uploading photos to Instagram and political makeup, which This is what Jorge Azcón and Natalia Chueca have been doing these four years. Chueca arrived in 2019 without knowing the town hall and that has been noticed, which is why she has dedicated herself to marketing.

What are CHA’s priorities?

Social and environmental justice. We would also give participation a spin after the cuts in the PP. The Zaragoza that we know is the result of neighborhood participation and the large European cities are going to differentiate themselves by participation.

“Tram line 2 would have to follow the same route as the bus route 24”

Let’s talk Mobility.

It can’t be that mobility is a problem. We have to have an urban but also a metropolitan vision. Aragon is a land of pacts and we want to promote a political and social pact. We have a very clear roadmap and we understand that the concession system is not the one that Zaragoza needs, it has to be municipal.

Does line 2 of the tram fit into that consensus?

At CHA we consider ourselves promoters of the first line. The benefits of the north-south axis have been shown to outweigh the costs. Where the tram passes you can breathe better air and walk better. We have an obligation to promote that same model of success in the east-west zone. We agree that the city has that second line.

What route does it propose?

It is curious that the bus line that concentrates the most uses is 24, which could be the route of line 2. While this arrives, because it will arrive, we have to be able to provide solutions to that axis.

“Jorge Azcón and Natalia Chueca have dedicated themselves to marketing, uploading photos to Instagram and political makeup”

Does the city council have the capacity to assume an investment that would exceed 230 million?

Let’s hope it has European and state funding. I don’t know if Zaragoza can get into debt, but it does have the capacity to knock on the door of Europe and Spain to ask for help.

How would the start-up of line 2 affect the bus?

You have to eliminate stops that are a few meters from each other, and make shorter and more direct lines so that they are more efficient and do not accumulate so much delay. Politicians are not bus users, they do not know what happens inside the vehicles. There is a lot of work ahead that must be done with consensus. We have to be aware that the bus cannot take us from home to where we want to go.

Are you a soccer fan?

A lot, yes.

So you want Zaragoza to have a new soccer field.

This is the one million question. Let’s see, yes, of course. If CHA is known for something, it is because in the 2003-2007 Government we promoted the creation of a new field that would now be done. It is not because there were parties that put sticks in the wheel, the same ones that now complain that the rest of us are doing it when it is not like that. At CHA we are not going to prosecute the project, but we are going to ensure that the law is complied with, it is our obligation. We propose a 100% public Romareda and if the institutions agree it is possible and Zaragoza could host the 2030 World Cup. We cannot stay out.

José Luis Soro, CHA’s candidate for the DGA and Vertebration counselor, affirmed that the Romareda operation was “against the law”, but despite this, they say they are not going to denounce it. How is this explained?

In the political sphere we are going to do everything possible to add, but we are resisting and we are not going to go to court to prosecute political decisions. Our scope of action is the institutions, not the courts. It is true that we do not like how things are being done and the CHA department has already requested the city council.

If they enter the Government, will they paralyze La Romareda?

If we govern we will not paralyze the project. We will do everything possible to see what situation it is in, what the PP government team has left and we will see what steps can be followed. We defend a 100% public Romareda, but we have a responsibility with that future 2030. It is important that Zaragoza can be one of the World Cup venues, but even more to do things well.

CHA has always championed superblocks. Where would you drive first?

In San José or Delicias, where there are streets without trees, or Las Fuentes, where urban and social measures are urgently needed to promote a green change in the city. Among many others, perhaps the first would be in Miguel Servetus.

It is one of the streets that includes line 2.

Yes, one of those that could include. But if it were based on bus line 24, it would not go through Miguel Servet.

Zaragoza in 2030 should be a climate neutral city. How is it achieved?

Doing everything that hasn’t been done in these four years, which have been thrown away. The PP did not have in its idea the power to govern the city in 2019 with only eight councilors and, those rushes and, after 16 years on the bench, have taken their toll. They had no model and what we will have to do between now and 2027 is promote a new bus model and green and naturalize the city. You have to make reforestation plans, but make them real because the Bosque de los Zaragozanos is a lie and we have the obligation to make the streets green. It cannot be that there are squares and streets without a single shadow. And unless the new places made in this legislature are hot stoves.