- Anti-VAT platforms and other groups have used International Health Day to call for infrastructure to be stopped and for all the money spent to be spent on health and social services. "These useless big infrastructures have grown, as they have been cut in other areas and now we see hospitals crowded with people," said the spokesman for the Basque Executive.
The day after the start of the containment to deal with the coronavirus, the workers who outsourced the works of the TAV continued to work in a precarious manner and without the minimum safety conditions. It represents the interests of the institutions to continue building this gigantic infrastructure they consider "strategic": there are billions of euros at stake.
Taking advantage of Tuesday’s international health day, the anti-VAT movement has called for all that money not to be squandered under cement and invested in more basic things: health and public services.
"We must once again remind the political and economic powers that, faced with unemployment, cutbacks and the environmental crisis, the solution is not to build infrastructures that fight the economy, the environment and the natural heritage".
The platforms against the TAV in Álava and the TAV in Navarra No! The coordinator has published a joint statement in which she denounces "the nonsense of this type of project at a time like the one we are living." As explained, these days have seen hotels "converted into hospitals" and people "making face masks at home", which in their view is due to cuts in health care and other areas. On the contrary, despite criticism from the European Union’s Committee on Transport, the various governments have continued to build more APR corridors “without demonstrating any profitability”.
The TAV movement believes that society is exemplary in overcoming the coronavirus crisis, and expects that "this collaborative social response will not be interrupted". "We must once again remind the political and economic powers that, faced with unemployment, cutbacks and the environmental crisis, the solution is not to build infrastructures that fight the economy, the environment and the natural heritage".
In this sense, they have opted for the maintenance and improvement of the current routes, which would involve a "social train" of proximity, which would connect towns, cities and industrial sites and would be accessible to all.
Initiatives against "TAVdemia"
Other locations in Euskal Herria have also received similar orders. On 29 March, a demonstration was to be held in Atxondo, against this project, and instead a great rumour was organised to demand the cessation of the TAV.
Although we cannot make demonstrations, from Atxondo we will not remain silent, we will continue to demand our pots, pans and spoons to stop the TAV in the hand: pic.twitter.com/hMlxbikiRy
— Atxondo_AHTrik_Ez (@AtxondoAHTrikEz) March 29, 2020
Ernai de la Zona Media de Navarra has also sent a message these days with a specific question: How many masks could you buy with what you spent on a kilometer of the VAT? The youth organization has demanded "health sovereignty" to "make our decisions and make the necessary decisions". Meanwhile, AHT Gelditu Elkarlana has turned the situation around and put Amalurra in a poster against the "TAVdemia".
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How many kilometers of SVT and how many intensive care beds?
The situation generated by the coronavirus has made the "waste" that is taking place with the TAV clearer. Comparisons are inevitable.
On the website Euribor.com, Carlos López made a clear comparison of investments in the Spanish State and in Germany: In Spain there are 9.7 beds per 100,000 inhabitants in hospital intensive care units (ICU), Germany triples its number and has 29.2 beds. But as far as TAV is concerned, it is the reverse: In Spain there are 7.2 kilometers of high-speed built per 100,000 inhabitants, while in Germany there are almost four times less, 1.9 kilometers.