The image of the representatives of the taxi sector being expelled from the guest gallery of the Madrid Assembly summarizes what was experienced this Thursday in the regional Parliament. A plenary session during which the taxi drivers have vigorously protested the decision of the PP, with the collusion of Vox, to approve the law that regulates the VTC. And they have done it shouting "thieves" and brandishing bill-shaped papers with the face of the Madrid president, Isabel Díaz Ayuso, with the inscription "Ayuso, how much do you sell yourself for?"
The fight comes from afar and focuses on legal changes that taxi drivers believe will benefit VTC services to the detriment of the sector. And the trigger for the anger has already started in full. The Vox Parliamentary Group has allowed with its abstention in the plenary session this Thursday to debate in a single reading, a formula with which the parties are prevented from presenting amendments.
Vox's swerve is already becoming the norm. First, he criticizes the PP and threatens to vote against its initiatives to, finally, always add their votes for the de facto coalition that both formations have sealed in Madrid. But this gesture of the ultra-nationalists has been harshly criticized by taxi drivers after "having taken the photo for weeks with false promises", summarized Julio Sanz, president of the Madrid Professional Taxi Federation. (FPTM).
The anger has been repeated at the doors of the hemicycle where dozens of taxi drivers have reacted to the approval of the norm by energetically sounding the horns of their vehicles and shouting "You are selling your country".
The demonstrators have confirmed their intention to bring this reform before the Constitutional Court. "We are going to go to the end to denounce corruption and sold-out politicians who systematically despise the self-employed and fold to big companies and great fortunes."
Sanz has been the toughest ensuring that the PP, the Minister of Transport, the president of the Community and Vox have deceived us". "Let everyone know that in this House politics is not done but business", he finished .
The vote to be definitively approved will be at the end of the day. Said regulation, which has the favorable vote of the PP and Vox, and the opposition of the left, seeks that the VTCs can continue operating this month, without accessing the conditions reserved exclusively for taxis, such as street pick-up or specific stops, after the end of the temporary periods provided for in Royal Decree Law 13/2018".
With this modification, as explained by the regional government at the time of its presentation, the aim is to create a new authorization for the activity of leasing cars with a driver and the name of chapter III of the Law is modified, which is now called Transportation of passengers in vehicles with up to nine seats, including the driver.
In the same way, it seeks to regulate the circulation in passenger cars and the rental activity with two new articles, through which it is established that a new license may be denied when the 1/30 percentage is exceeded between the authorizations for this modality, and those granted for autotaxis, and the establishment of certain requirements and conditions necessary for the provision of this service is referred to the regulatory development.
On the other hand, article 16.1 is modified, which determines the non-application of the sanctioning provisions regarding the rental of vehicles with a driver introduced by Law 13/2021, by which Law 16/1987 was modified.
The president of the Community of Madrid, Isabel Díaz Ayuso, argued this Thursday, in response to a question from the spokesperson for Más Madrid, Mónica García, that in this region "all transport models can coexist and I am not going to go tell the citizens of the Community of Madrid that the VTCs are over, that is, Uber or Cabify".
"I want the best for the taxi, but I want all the models to coexist because here you are not going to go on a donkey, as you want and as your friend Ada Colau -mayoress of Barcelona- does", she stated.
Likewise, in response to a question from the PP spokesman, Alfonso Serrano, he pointed out that the taxi is a sector with which "we are highly committed and with which we are in dialogue every day." "But", he added, "we do not want to end the freedom of citizens to choose the mobility they want, what we want is for the taxi sector to be liberalized and for it to be able to work every day like the others".
