Spain is preparing to receive 11.2 billion euros out of the total of 140 billion euros that it will receive – in total – under the European recovery funds linked to the health crisis.
With our correspondent in Madrid, Francois Musseau
Tempers are high on the political scene, even as the country is about to receive large amounts of money to alleviate the effects of the pandemic and revive its economy. The conservatives of the People’s Party, the main formation of the opposition, accuse the Socialists in power of embezzlement and clientelism.
In particular, there is anger from the right-wing ruled region of Madrid, who believe that the bulk of the funds are directed to the most rural areas and not to the big cities.
Major projects
The socialist Pedro Sanchez believes that on the contrary the distribution is not ideological, but is done at the service of the weakest who live in the countryside and the medium-sized towns where the infrastructures are sorely lacking.
The case is important because the current dispute may jeopardize the allocation of European funds to Spain. And this, while this money is supposed to set in motion strategic projects such as the rehabilitation of a million housing units, the digitization of SMEs, the manufacture of 250,000 electric cars or the construction of more than 300 kilometers of rails. iron on the Mediterranean and Atlantic coastline.
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