City Mayor Mauricio Macri once again rejected the subway administration transfer
City Mayor Mauricio Macri rejected on Thursday afternoon President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner’s recent suggestion to extend for 90 more days the presence of Federal Police officers in subway stations and buses, and accused her of being the President “that has most damaged federalism” in Argentine history.
The transfer “will not take place,” he warned.
“The transfer will only take place once both governments have sat down to work in good faith. No law is above the Constitution,” he assured, and stated that once negotiations have taken place and an agreement has been reached, it will be up to the Legislature to approve it
In his speech, Macri dismissed the bill recently passed by Congress which orders the transfer of the management of the subways, Premetro tram and 33 bus lines from the National to the City government.
Earlier, Fernández de Kirchner gave a speech on live television in which she offered the PRO party a gradual withdrawal in the next three months of Federal Police presence from subways and buses while they are being replaced for Metropolitan Police officials.
The Head of State also suggested the National Government could pay half of the current subsidies to the City’s transportation system for an extra year, which would amount to $1.18 billion pesos.
“I called her yesterday to see if we could schedule a meeting,” Macri said, referring to the President. “I just heard a while ago that she has to deal with some trips around the country, for which she has ordered other Government officials to deal with this matter. So I tell her that I would have no problem to fly anywhere in the country (to meet with her), at any time she wants, wherever she wants,” he continued.
Later in his speech, the Mayor assured that his government “wants to take over the transportation system, but we also want to take over the port, gambling and security.”
He then said that the Metropolitan Police cannot be responsible for security in the subway system.
“Security in this city is part of the National Government’s responsibility, and will continue to be until they transfer the police over to us,” he said.
He closed by saying he wanted to correct the information regarding the amount of officers in the Metropolitan Police.
“The President said they are 4,000 officers deployed in the streets, but it’s only 2,000 of them. In order to take over the subway system’s security we need 1,200 officers. We can’t just remove them from the neighbourhoods where they are currently working.”
buenosairesherald.com