Speech by President of the Government at event for opening of Guntín-Palas de Rei stretch of A-54 Motorway in province of Lugo

Palas de Rei (Lugo)

Mr President of the Regional Government of Galicia, Madam Minister for Public Works, Mr Mayor of Palas de Rei, Madam Speaker of the Regional Government, Mr Government Representative, Mr President of the Provincial Government, mayors, public officials, friends,

For a President of the Government, and also for a Minister for Public Works, and I believe that for anyone else, it is always a source of satisfaction to open a major infrastructure. For me, as a Galician and coming here to Galicia, this satisfaction is greater still, if indeed that is possible, and it is a pleasure to be here today, in Palas de Rei, because I became aware many years ago in Palas de Rei that it was very necessary to modify the existing infrastructures.

My satisfaction is greater still if we take into account that Galicia, and particularly the interior of Galicia, has, as we are all aware, a tremendously complicated terrain; a terrain which is undoubtedly a fundamental part of the beauty of these Terras do Miño, which are a Biosphere Reserve, but which have always caused many challenges to engineers. It is not the same to build a railway, a motorway or a highway in certain parts of Spain as it is in other parts, because it is more difficult, more expensive or causes more problems, but at the end of the day these infrastructures must be built, because that is the obligation of any government that wishes to see its people improve their well-being.

It gives us great pleasure to inaugurate this stretch of motorway between Guntín and Palas de Rei today, because this infrastructure is one more step in the major effort to build infrastructures implemented over the last few decades to provide Galicia with what it needed but didn't have.

So, today is an important day, as has been said here, for Lugo and for Galicia. We must congratulate the people of Lugo and of Galicia as a whole. I wish to thank them for the harmony we have seen and which I am sure will continue in the future with the Regional Government of Galicia.

Ladies and gentlemen,

As you are aware, it is very easy to promise infrastructures, but it is a little more complicated to implement them. That happens in life in general, not only with infrastructures but in any other aspect in which we may find ourselves involved. That is why today we can say that we have come here with hard evidence and not with empty promises, and what is important is that in the future we can also continue to produce hard evidence and not just promises.

Over the course of this term of office, we have invested some 229 million euros in this infrastructure, the A-54, of which 101 million were allocated to this stretch that we are inaugurating today. We have thus prioritised a highway that is called on to become a fundamental pillar for the structure of the interior of Galicia and its connections with the A-6, the North-West Highway, as you know.

And this has not been our only priority. We have opened, as the President of the Regional Government of Galicia recalled in his speech, 66 kilometres of new motorway during this term of office, and between 2012 and 2016 we will have invested 1.24 billion euros in highways in Galicia. Just between 2012 and 2015 we have allocated 478 million euros to Lugo, with such important works as the almost 20 kilometres of the Cantabrica Motorway that we had the pleasure of opening in full just a few months ago, and which the Regional President also mentioned in his speech.

Now, having said that, the most important thing, as always happens in life, is the future. The past can perhaps back what someone might do in the future, but the most important thing is what you can do as of today. There is still a lot to do and our aim is to continue to the very end.

We are going to resolve, and we have already scheduled this for 2015 and 2016, the interconnection between the A-54 and the National Highway 540; we are going to continue working on the A-56 between Lugo and Ourense, and we soon want to start work on the A Mariña Motorway between Barreiros and San Cibrao.

We have also budgeted 60 million euros for the last stretches of this A-54. We are going to continue executing - it is under way, as you know - the stretch between Arzúa and Lavacolla, and during 2015 - hence before the end of the year - we will put out to tender the stretches between Palas de Rei and Melide and between Melide and Arzúa. This is a major investment, as are the investments in railways that the President of the Regional Government of Galicia mentioned in his speech: more than 3 billion euros between the years 2012 and 2015 in Galicia, and furthermore, this very week tests are being undertaken outside of Galicia - of course that greatly affects us here - on the high-speed line between Olmedo and Zamora which - when opened in a short while - will also lead to a considerable saving in the time when travelling between Madrid and Galicia.

In short, these are works that are useful for people because they make their lives easier; they are good for their well-being and they are good for their future; but, above all, as has been mentioned here, they are very important works from the point of view of economic growth and job creation. In the end, the faster the rate of economic growth and the more people in work, the better for the country is, because this logically leads to greater revenue for the public authorities and it means you can improve healthcare, public pensions, the education system… In short, it means being able make the country better.

Growth and job creation are the goals of anyone government worthy of its name, and to achieve that many things are necessary: you need an entrepreneurial spirit, you need passion, you need determination, you need to have reasonable tax rates… Many things. All those elements that contribute to enhancing the competitiveness of economies, one of which is undoubtedly having good infrastructures.

Spain is a country with some major infrastructures. Sometimes we are not aware of who we are. Spain is the second leading country in the world, behind only China, in high-speed rail travel; that is a very important fact. And Spain has a network of motorways and highways that very few other countries in the world can boast. But, to the extent that we can, and we must strive to do this, which is why we must do things well, we must continue to improve in the future, as others are also trying to do.

We must work on many other things. Infrastructures are important, but the well-being of our citizens, a healthcare system that works, an education system that helps our self-improvement, that harnesses the talent of our young people and which allows them to compete in the future, which means doing things better, are also important, as I said before. But infrastructures remain important without a doubt.

You are aware that we have gone through a complicated stage that we are fortunately coming out of now. Spain was not creating jobs; it spent many years shedding jobs. We have had to implement a complicated policy with many structural reforms. We have had to tighten our belts. Everyone has had to do that; firstly, the people of Spain, then the government, the regional governments and the local authorities. And, in the end, these efforts that are sometimes hard to explain and are sometimes hard for people to understand, lead to results and we can now say that Spain is the country in the European Union with the fastest rate of growth and where the most jobs are being created, above Germany, above France and above Italy.

I have been saying this for three long years and clearly no-one has believed me in our country, but fortunately, Spanish society has shown its courage and that it knows how to do things. What we need to do now is to find a way to continue along the same path in the future.

At any event, Lugo and Galicia have, as you all know, and as I well know, many things: their culture, their countryside, many things that fill all of us from Galicia with great pride and that are rightly admired by all of those who come to visit. St James' Way… I just spoke with the mayor and I saw people who make me envious. To see people at this time of the morning, a work day, a day in October, walking along St James' Way, is something that we would all like to do; but, in short, there will be a time and there has also been time in our past, although the most important thing is what is still to come, in the future.

I hope that these infrastructures also help the safety of all the people of Galicia and all these pilgrims, and of so many people who increasingly come here to visit us all here in Galicia.

So thank you all very much for coming here today, to all the public officials and all those other people who wished to attend. This is positive, but the most important of all is that we are capable of building positive things for the future in which we will live for the rest of our lives.

Thank you very much.