A major plan to reduce air pollution in Madrid may be repealed, because incoming politicians want to bring back traffic back into the city.
Isabel Díaz Ayuso of Spain's right-wing Partido Popular (PP), who is expected to become president of the Madrid region, said that traffic jams are part of what make the Spanish capital special.
"It is a sign identity of our city, that the street is always alive," she told El País.
José Luis Martínez-Almeida, the PP candidate who is expected to become mayor of Madrid, has said that lifting the rules on traffic and air pollution in the Madrid Central area will be his first priority when elected.
"Our position was clear, and it was one of the pillars of our campaign," he was reported saying in El País. Lifting traffic ban would be first for Europe
If PP takes power and remove Madrid's low emissions zone (LEZ), it will be the first example of a major European air quality directive being abandoned.
The LEZ was enacted in November 2018 by the outgoing left-wing mayor of Madrid, Manuela Carmena, after a European commission threatened Spain with legal action and a hefty fine unless it stopped infringing its rules on air quality.
All-polluting vehicles are banned from a 472-hectare zone covering the centre of Madrid. Petrol vehicles registered before 2000 and diesel vehicles registered prior to 2008 are not allowed in the area, in an effort to cut nitrogen dioxide levels by 23 per cent by 2020.
Activist group Ecologists ...