The mayor of Badajoz, Ignacio Grageradeclared that Pedro Sánchez would grant the Catalan voucher, which breaks the principle of solidarity between territories, to “survive one more day in La Moncloa”. The Badajoz councilor stressed that this position of the National Executive is dangerous because it endangers the most fundamental public services. “There are people ready to live worse to survive one more day in La Moncloa or to break the consensus that allows us to live in a more or less united and supportive society that defends a single model of country,” said the mayor. from Badajoz.
Asked what municipalities should do, Gragera explained that they cannot succumb to lack of solidarity as the separatists do because it would break the idea of Spain as a nation. “I think we need to somehow make visible and clearly express our rejection of this unsupportive model. But do not stop trying to move our country forward according to the principles that we gave ourselves in 78 and one of the main ones that we gave ourselves is that of interterritorial solidarity,” he defended.
During his intervention at the OKLÍDERES event organized by OKDIARIO, Gragera also highlighted that the geographical location of Badajoz is very favorable for attracting new investors due to its proximity to Portugal and that its area of influence exceeds the limits of the city. “It brings together more than 350,000 people“, he stressed.
This strategic importance of the city of Badajoz allows it to attract a large Portuguese audience and increase its commercial activity well above its population. In this way, he explains, the city manages to achieve sufficient income levels to provide all the public services demanded by the population.
Now this relationship with Portugal It has been reinforced for years by the isolation from which the city of Badajoz suffers from the rest of Spain. Furthermore, under the socialist administration of the Junta de Extremadura, the ostracism to which the city was subjected was even greater. Therefore, as the advisor explains, they had to design another survival strategy that went through Portugal, offering services that the Portuguese did not have on their territory. “Badajoz is a Spanish city better connected to Portugal than to its own country. This was a problem for years because the borders were closed, but since 1986 it was a wonderful opportunity to be able to work and establish alliances not only with Lisbon and Setúbal but also with this emerging port of Sines, which had become one major European ports. references. We have a direct rail connection from Badajoz to Sines which allows us to transport all these goods and give them an outlet not only to Europe but to the rest of the world,” he stressed.
Thanks to this relationship that Badajoz has cultivated with Portugal, the city of Extremadura currently occupies an important position in the Portuguese nation and is respected beyond the Spanish borders. “This is how a city grows and prospers even if the environment does not favor it,” he said.
