Orlando Gil, political analyst for the Listin Diario speculates that it is unlikely that the Fernandez government will be able to start work on the metro and still do well in the mid term congressional and municipal elections in 2006, or in the next presidential election of 2008. “It would not only be the metro, because there are adjustments to be made and taxes to be added, but the metro would be the flagship used by the opposition to weaken the present government’s re-election aspirations”, he writes. He comments that the fact that the government created the post of metro minister leads many to believe that President Fernandez has a special interest in this particular project. He comments that opposition to the proposed metro from the other political parties has been low-key, because they are waiting to see if their engineers will be included in the construction. “Given the size of the cake, there is a slice for all,” he writes. “That is, one cannot discard covert political deals taking place where the benefits will be shared out,” he writes. He predicts that the metro could be the project that will serve as bridge linking a number of rival political factions. “The metro is a business, a very big business, that goes far beyond the business aspects. If it is well taken care of, then you will see more than one Lazarus coming to life…”
The metro requires congressional approval because no funds had been allocated to it in the 2005 budget, so these would have to be transferred from other projects. Equally, congressional approval is necessary for any loan needed to start the project. Export financing agencies from the United States, UK, France, Spain, Brazil, and Germany have already offered to fund the metro.