2023-12-17 17:49:51
Valencia”The maritime port of Madrid is that of Valencia”. These words of the president of the Community of Madrid, Isabel Díaz Ayuso, last Tuesday at the summit held between the Valencian government and the Madrid government inflamed the spirit of some political and civic representatives, who, as in the case of the PSPV, they accused conservative politics of treating the Valencian Country “like a colony”. Beyond the political intent of Ayuso’s statement, his statement calls for an analysis of the origins and dimension of the economic relationship between the Valencian Country and the Community of Madrid, as well as whether this can weaken the bet of first for the Mediterranean Corridor, relations with Catalonia and connections with the rest of Europe.
Seconds a report from 2020 of the Valencian Institute of Economic Research (IVIE), Madrid companies are the main partners of Valencian companies, since they “absorb 33.1% of sales and 35.6% of purchases”. Things change, however, in the exchange of goods between territories, where the main customer of the Valencian Country is Catalonia. It is to whom he sells the most (18.7%) and to whom he buys the most (24.6%). In this section, the Community of Madrid is in second and third place respectively.
Another relevant fact about the interweaving of the two economies is that which reflects that 47% of the foreign shares of Valencian companies are in the hands of citizens established in Madrid. At the same time, the Valencian Country is also the main capitalist partner of Madrid companies with 30% of the titles held by people from other territories. This strong relationship also occurs in tourism, since, according to data from the Valencian Tourism Agency in 2021, the Valencian Country is the main summer holiday destination for Madrid residents with 22.3% of visitors.
A “privileged” relationship
For the Valencian geographer and Spanish government coordinator for the Mediterranean Corridor, Josep Vicent Boira, the commercial relationship between the Valencian Country and the Community of Madrid deserves the adjective “privileged” thanks to the good infrastructures that connect the two territories. Specifically, the A-3 motorway, completed in 1998, and the provision of an “almost exclusive” railway line for the transport of goods. This use has been possible following the inauguration in 2010 of the AVE line between Valencia and Madrid, which has made it possible to free up the old passenger line. The port of Valencia, the most important in the Mediterranean in terms of container traffic, also plays a fundamental role in this great economic exchange. So much so that, for him, more than 80% of containers that arrive in Madrid transit by sea. Data that will surely increase in the future with the expansion that has just received the green light from the Spanish government, and that does, however, cause tensions between the PSOE and Sumar, where there is Compromís, a force that is against it.
According to Boira, Madrid’s bet on the port of Valencia simply obeys the fact that it is the “shortest way”. “The connection with the port of Algeciras has a more complex terrain and that of Barcelona is further away,” he adds. Juan Antonio Marco, coordinator of the management and logistics degree at the University of Florida, also believes this, who points out that the Port of Barcelona “has opted for passenger transport”. However, the teacher remembers that in these decisions, in addition to the economic reality, “questions of tradition and history” often influence. The fact is that the Valencian PP and the Madrid one maintain a good ideological harmony that goes back to the time of Camps and Esperanza Aguirre. A close relationship, based on a liberal outlook on the economy, and which also produced the appearance of cases of corruption in the two territories around the Gürtel plot. In this sense, Carlos Mazón can be considered closer to Isabel Díaz Ayuso than others baron of the more moderate PP like Juanma Moreno Bonilla or even Alberto Núñez Feijóo himself.
Valencia-Lisbon
On the possibility that the strong economic exchange between the Valencian Country and the Community of Madrid endangers the improvement of the former’s connections with Catalonia and Europe, Josep Vicent Boira is calm, given that the work is already well advanced and the Corredor Mediterrani will reach the entire Valencian Country in 2026. In fact, he points out that the inclusion of Madrid in the railway axis is positive because it widens the possibilities of exchange. It would be demonstrated by the fact that “some Portuguese companies are studying to transport goods through the Mediterranean Corridor until the completion of the Atlantic Corridor, which is further behind”. “The Mediterranean Corridor, so often marginalized from Aznar, can now become the channeling instrument for other peninsular traffic, even from the Atlantic,” concludes the geographer.
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