The community of urban areas of the Basque Country having been the last to vote on the financing of the LGV in the South-West, it is time to do the accounts. And with his refusal, it lacks 235.5 million euros in the common pot, estimates the prefect coordinator Etienne Guyot. “There remains a net 2.4% of the project on the part of local authorities to find” or “336.4 million euros gross, which represents net, when we deduct the expected share of taxes, 235.5 million euros, ”declared Etienne Guyot, appointed prefect coordinator of the Great South West Railway Project (GPSO) at the end of July by Prime Minister Jean Castex.
The total cost of this LGV Sud-Ouest, which should save an hour’s journey to Toulouse and 20 minutes to Dax, is estimated at 14.3 billion euros, with 40% financing by the State, 40% by local authorities in Occitanie and Nouvelle-Aquitaine and 20% by the European Union. Saturday morning in Bayonne, the Basque urban community voted by a large majority to oppose the very principle of the LGV and therefore did not comment on the net contribution of 45.8 million euros which was requested of it.
New deliberations in January
“I am delighted that in less than a month 23 communities (out of 26) have made a financial commitment in favor of the project”, he added, specifying that “the expected taxation must represent approximately 30% of the contributions. »Local authorities. In addition to the Basque Country, the agglomeration of Dax and the departments of Gironde and Lot-et-Garonne refused to participate. But some communities have however made known their wish to “deliberate again in January”, underlines the New Aquitaine region. Prefect Guyot took the opportunity to insist on “the fundamental interest for the territory” of the LGV and calls them “to their responsibilities”.
President Jean-René Etchegaray, mayor (UDI) of Bayonne, welcomed the Basque “groundswell” against the LGV, with more than 70% of votes against. Basque elected officials fear in particular an artificialization of land and “even greater land pressure” by driving up real estate prices.