The pulse for the implementation of the low emissions zone (ZBE) between the mayor of Badalona, Xavier García Albiol, and the Ministry for the Ecological Transition is getting tougher. The acting minister, Teresa Ribera, stated this Tuesday on TV-3 that, if the restriction on the most polluting vehicles to which all municipalities with more than 50,000 inhabitants are obliged is not complied with, they are considering resorting to justice. “We can appeal to the contentious courts and claim the two million euros of European funds from Badalona.” A warning that the ministry “maintains” as a last resort if the City Council of the fourth largest Catalan city does not reverse the moratorium that it intends to approve in the next plenary session on September 25, which postpones the application of fines for three years. low emissions zone.
Ribera has highlighted that the Climate Change Law It is made to avoid the “200 premature deaths due to air quality” in Badalona, the fourth city in Catalonia in number of inhabitants (223,506). The suspension of the low emissions zone is, according to the minister, “an attack” on the residents and public transport in the town.
Following the warnings from the ministry, Albiol has asked that Badalona “not be threatened.” “We are defending the neighbors who have fewer resources. It is a lack of responsibility to punish neighbors who cannot spend 30,000 or 40,000 euros on a new vehicle,” he explained. The former president of the Catalan PP, who won the municipal elections with an absolute majority, has stated that the moratorium is to make “respect for the environment” compatible with support for families and the self-employed who use a car or a van as a means of transportation. job.
Albiol explained that he has requested a meeting with the minister, and has assured that in Badalona there are 40,000 vehicles that do not comply with environmental certificates of the DGT, which means that they are the most polluting. “I cannot impose fines on 40,000 people who cannot change vehicles,” he stated, ignoring the fact that the centers of the large Spanish cities have many means of public transport available to citizens and that, according to the data, incomes The lowest are those who own fewer cars. And he added: “I am mayor to solve people’s problems, not to punish when it is a mistake.”
Low emission zones are areas, usually located in the center of cities, in which the circulation or parking of the most polluting vehicles is prohibited to improve air quality and reduce environmental pollution, which causes nine million premature deaths each year in the world. The strategy followed by Badalona against traffic restrictions It is part of the front orchestrated by the right, which includes cities such as Gijón, which has allowed unmarked car parking and has reduced the planned limited traffic area, or Valladolid, which also plans to make it smaller. Meanwhile, Castellón and Lorca (Murcia) announced that they would request a moratorium to implement low-emission zones later.
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