“Despite the economic crisis, it is necessary to continue investing in public works, as this investment, besides generating economic activity and employment, will help us to become more competitive in the near future.” With these words, José Luis Bilbao, appointed shortly after a Deputy General of Bizkaia, defended the infrastructure works in his investiture speech on 28 June last year. In particular, the PNV candidate was justifying the need for several roads that were already built or intended to be built in Bizkaia.

The connection between the crisis and the roads was already established by José Luis Bilbao. In June 2008, the Deputy General announced the construction of six radial axes and presented the project as a measure of economic recovery for Bizkaia. In the end, the crisis has been stronger than Bilbao's intentions, and recently, three of these six axes, for the time being, and waiting for 'better times', have announced that they will be suspended.

The infrastructures to deal with the crisis are the logic of Bilbao. For others, one of the causes of the crisis is the "headless" and "legless" expenditure on infrastructure. That cannot be called investment. As in all of Europe, in Euskal Herria we have many examples of infrastructures that are consuming large amounts of public money. Millions of euros are being used in its construction, but then the business does not go as well as it is believed, or it is shown that this infrastructure was not so necessary – rarely a surprise, to put it mildly – and that we have to spend a lot of the resources to keep it... In the end, the hole has to be covered with public money. However, new projects are constantly being presented at all levels of the administration, from the communities or regions to the municipalities, not forgetting the CAPV deputies, who use the money enormously.

A thought that brings together many believers

“Infrastructures are a myth,” says Iñaki Barcena, a member of Ekologistak Martxan. “If rational logic is used, many of them make no sense; for example, the logic says that the train that Euskal Herria needs is not the TAV.” However, logic is imposed on the mythology built on infrastructure, according to Bárcena, where it has become tradition to use the inauguration of great popular works to attract votes. “There is a political-institutional consensus, and sometimes also the citizens, to say that this way of doing things is OK.” Infrastructures bring growth and growth is good; the veteran ecologist says it is difficult to cope with this simplistic equation of capitalism – “how are you against making roads? How are you against mobility?”, but more and more voices are being voiced against this model. These voices have been reinforced by the crisis that has paralysed economic growth, or perhaps vice versa, by the fact that the crisis has revealed certain misery, the truth is that anti-critical people are turning more than ever.

A significant case of what has been said is that in Gipuzkoa, in the Council and in most municipalities, Bildu has taken power. Last January, about half a dozen groups of the popular movement, the majority created to attack a certain infrastructure, presented a motion in several municipalities of the country, to demand the paralysis of the large infrastructure projects existing in Gipuzkoa and the beginning of a broad social debate on them. The adoption of the motion also included adherence to the demonstration on 4 February in Donostia-San Sebastián to make the same request. It was discussed in sixteen municipalities and approved in at least twelve (data of three we have not obtained them).

Waste infrastructure

On 12 November last year, a demonstration was also held against infrastructure, but far from Euskal Herria, in Paris. The main reason for the call was to protest against the extension of Nantes airport, but the concentrations were carried out by citizens from all over the French State, such as Germany, Italy and other European countries, and served to make local problems visible. At the last moment, the demonstration turned into an outcry against under-served infrastructures. In the banners of the delegation of Ipar Euskal Herria one could read slogans against the TAV.

“The question of the Paris demonstration was to stop this kind of infrastructure,” says Pantxo Tellier, a member of the environmental association CADE, “because the projects are made above false figures. It’s like a law, you see it’s like that in every country.” It is not easy to control traffic data, says Tellier, but in all cases it has been seen that the amounts used to justify the APR do not correspond to reality, according to him: “Let us know, here in Euskal Herria the local railway lines have enough capacity to receive all the trains passing on one side and on the other, even after the construction of the Basque Y.”

Of course, the mythology of Iñaki Barcena is not the only reason for the infrastructure policy to be maintained. According to Tellier, the dance of major projects depends on the interests of some of them. “People in the economic environment accept these things and don’t worry that the figures are right; they know that money will come out from there and that’s the most important thing, not improving society.” Among some data provided by the CADE, Tellier highlights: The cost of the TAV Tours-Bordeaux line is estimated at EUR 7.8 billion – initially to be EUR 4.200 million – of which 71% comes from public sources and the remaining 29% from the Vinci company, but for it will be the total yield of the operation.

Example of APR in Spain

On the other side of the Bidasoa, the TAV is also the infrastructure project that has generated the most protest in the popular movement. We knew that construction is very expensive and in case the money that has been increased in the CAV budgets for this has reminded us recently. Another thing is knowing what's going to happen once the trains start working. To do this, it may be good to look at the Spanish state, as it is the world champion in kilometers of TAV per inhabitant – and in kilometers of highway, and in airports…. The conclusion is clear: all lines are deficient. In addition to construction, its maintenance is very expensive – 33,000 euros per kilometer per year, according to a study published by the BBVA Foundation in 2005 – and for this to be profitable, some six million travelers per year must be transported, on journeys of between 400 and 700 kilometers. All this without taking into account the maintenance of one’s own trenes.Para knowledge of the lack of profitability of other
infrastructures we do not need to resort to extrapolations, as we have examples in view. Some of them have been highlighted in the pages of this report, but not all have room. It would be impossible, as several dozen municipal infrastructures are in a crazy race. Meanwhile, in Spain, pp has announced that before June there will be a crime of mismanagement of public offices.