Oviedo (EFE).- The acting president of the Principality, Adrián Barbón, and the mayor of Oviedo, Alfredo Canteli, have exhibited this Wednesday the cordiality between them and have expressed their commitment to work together in the start-up of a museum of the Princess of Asturias Awards and allocating more funds for the promotion of tourism in the community.
The acting head of the Executive has visited the town hall for the first time together with the Oviedo councilor, a meeting in which both have reviewed the pending projects that the city has and for which Canteli has asked Barbón to be “more of a fighter and more executive”.
“Things were done in these four years, but very little for what should have been done. I ask you to take Oviedo’s problems more seriously. He is a very good person, but he could have been a better president”, the mayor told the journalists, after highlighting, however, the climate of “mutual” collaboration that exists between the two.
Barbón has replied that both should “ambitise to be better” in this second term and has vindicated the cordiality that exists between the Principality and the City Council, “within the logical political differences”, and that has been materialized in “advances” in projects such as the IES de la Florida, in the investment dedicated to the pre-Romanesque and the “updating” of the Fine Arts, which he hopes will come out “sooner rather than later.”
Museum of the Princess of Asturias Awards
Both leaders have expressed their commitment to promote the Museum of the Princess of Asturias Awards, since it could be a “revulsive” and an “attractive” from the tourist point of view, according to Barbón.
In this sense, it has promised to work jointly with the next Government of Spain to obtain funds for this project.
Canteli has said that it would be a “dream” for him to build an “emblematic” museum after holding an ideas contest “at an international level”, a project that must have the support of all administrations and European funds.
“It should not be an archive, it should be something else,” stressed the councilor, who has considered that it should have permanent activity and have the participation of awardees.
In their meeting, the mayor has proposed to Barbón that the Principality contribute one million euros and each Asturian city council one euro for each inhabitant to promote Asturias internationally.
For Barbón, the idea is “interesting” and he has promised to study the legal formula that allows it to be carried out, after considering it “fundamental” that the main consistories support the initiative.
Likewise, both have been convinced that if there is a change of government in Spain it will not interfere in the development of the projects underway, such as the one that concerns the old arms factory in La Vega.
Friction over the transfer from Minas to Mieres
The transfer of the School of Mines from Oviedo to Mieres has been one of the main points of friction between the two politicians, an “aberration” that, in Canteli’s opinion, Barbón may have “cut”, for what he trusts is the legal route that stops it.
Barbón has said that he “respects” the autonomy that the University has in this matter and also that the mayor “defends what he creates for Oviedo.”
What the acting president has rejected are the comments towards Mieres as “marginalized territory.” “It hurt me thinking about the neighbors of the basins. I am outraged when they try to give an image a little more as if we were the Bronx ”, he pointed out.
Before the media, the mayor has also launched complaints about the suspension by the Ministry of Culture of some projects in Oviedo, which the acting president has promised to study after acknowledging that technical issues are still “excessively restrictive” and there are to speed up these procedures.
Canteli has also asked the Principality for more push so that the northern round goes ahead and for high speed to be a reality, although he has expressed his doubts “that it will arrive this year”.
For his part, Barbón has shown his commitment to moving forward with the project to rearrange the land of the old HUCA, so that the university can gain space there and release them in Llamaquique in a way that allows the regrouping of the judicial headquarters.
23J elections
Barbón has been convinced that Sánchez will return to La Moncla after the elections on July 23, while Canteli has predicted that the leader of the PP, Alberto Núñez Feijóo, will have “an absolute majority very close” and will be able to govern alone.
Whatever the results, both have promised to continue working together at the regional and local level away from “slander and insults,” according to Barbón. EFE