For the first time in Spain and perhaps in all of Europe, an airport has been turned into a mega-disco for twelve hours, with dozens of DJs, free alcohol and fever at night. The first Lleida Airport Remember Festival(sic), held from six in the afternoon on Saturday to six in the morning on Sunday, was a complete success with the public.
The 12 hours of greatest activity and frenzy at the friendly Lleida-Alguaire airport since its inauguration in 2010?
Created, financed and managed by the Generalitat, we will agree that it is one of those Iberian fiascos very early in the 21st century when Castilla, Catalonia and La Mancha were wide. Everything in a big way: AVE and airports.
No one complained or remembered Rodalies, neither here nor in Navalcarnero. Think big! In traditional terms: like crazy, like crazy, you live better... Of course, everyone demanded their airport and their AVE station, especially in Catalonia, the only community whose provincial capitals all have a high-speed station (including botch jobs such as the one in Tarragona). And with more airports than you need...
When the financial crisis broke out, the Generalitat and the independence movement found an infallible solution: complaints, elevated to government culture (see the terrible situation of Rodalies and the humdrum demand for magic wands).
For years, the invariable example of waste for many independentistas was the Castellón airport. Alguaire? Connais pas! Put to compare, it has registered 15,079 passengers this March, compared to 2,700 in Lleida (31% less compared to 2022). It is understandable, of course, such an innovative festival on the weekend...
Rodalies' situation in Catalonia is painful, but there is a powerful and credible investment plan. What does not fit in a mature society is to demand miracles from one day to the next. And what is advantageous, childish and ploramiques is to attribute all the responsibility of the fiasco to the central State.
Has anyone in the Generalitat complained that between 1990 and 2010 Adif invested 56,000 million euros in high-speed lines and 3,700 in suburban trains? These are times to do more and cry less.
