Spain: ‘Podemos’ party backs Taxis in Uber protest

Spanish MP’s belonging to the newly created ‘Podemos’ party met last week with representatives of the Spanish Taxi Federation (Fedetaxi) and the Elite Taxi professional group, in order to gather the industry’s complaints and fears brought on by competition from ride-sharing apps and services.

Both groups mentioned the industry’s concerns over rapid deregulation and privatization in a sector, a move they see as being pushed by competition and market regulator CNMC. The taxi groups have accused the agency of “acting as lobbyists for multinationals” and “blackmailing” local governments “under threat of strangling and judicializing the industry’s operations.”

“The CNMC’s strategy consists in dismantling the current public transport service for tourist vehicles in favor of these multinationals, in an abusive way and under the guise of a ‘shared’ economy” said Fedetaxi’s statement. Podemos gathered a series of documents stating the groups’ grievances, expressing their solidarity with the over 70,000 taxi drivers registered in the country.

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