He PP of Torrevieja obtained the absolute majority with 16 councilors out of a total of 25 on the election night of May 28, 2023. Having an absolute majority was the forecast of its candidate, Eduardo Dolón, but he obtained even more support than he expected.
What perhaps was not in the expectations of the popular is that having passed the halfway point of the mandate -almost thinking about an electoral year like 2026- two of the three formations that remained in the opposition will endorse with their vote, that the government team does not needthe most important decision that a city council makes throughout the year: the approval of the annual budgets.
Record budget
This is what happened with the initial approval in the plenary session of the 2026 budgets this Wednesday, validated with the approval of Vox -two councilors-, and, which has been quite a surpriseby the spokesperson and councilor of Dream Torrevieja, Pablo Samper. A formation that is defined above all by its independent and municipalist character, but that was born more than a decade ago on the left, with many grassroots PSOE militants. The PSOE, which with six councilors is the majority opposition, has voted against.
Councilor Domingo Paredes during the initial budget approval plenary session / JOAQUIN CARRION
The budget amounts to 187,732,919 euros, a historical record for municipal accounts in Torrevieja, as INFORMACIÓN advanced. They increased by 11.38% compared to the previous year.
The Councilor for the Treasury, Domingo Paredes, He resorted to the usual fillers when municipal accounts are presented. They are budgets, he said, “social, economic and sustainable”which reinforce “social policies, consolidate public employment, promote investment and maintain a firm commitment not to increase the tax pressure on the people of Torrevieja“.
Logically, Paredes took the opportunity to point out that “They were born with citizen participation” –which this time has gone ahead with two million euros in different projects -, and they are consolidated “with political consensus.”
The citizens contributed their proposals and the opposition parties that “wanted to also participated. It is a budget that sum, that cohesives and that drives the city to build the Torrevieja that the citizens ask for,” he assured.
Half a million euros in Samper's proposals
The spokesperson for Sueña Torrevieja, Pablo Samperthe scourge of the Popular Party precisely in terms of budgets in the last six years, has completely modified its strategy and he did it by surprise. He presented a battery of amendments to the budgets that have been accepted by the popular ones.
Among others of a social nature and the deployment of infrastructure such as the rehabilitation of La Estación park or the municipal field Vicente García, demands that the commitment to install a monolith in memory be fulfilled of the victims of the bombing of the Italian fascist aircraft over Torrevieja in August 1938. Although the PP already pointed out in an amendment to a PSOE motion on this issue, that it should be a reminder of “concord.” All the amendments have their budget item allocated: they add up to almost half a million euros. If they are fulfilled, Samper will have put a pike in Flanders.
Samper told INFORMATION that after “many years” following “a critical line” in budgetary and economic matters with the Government team, “he arrives time to enforce our electoral programour proposals, the part of the citizens we represent”.
Hence the amendments in various matters such as sports, family or accessibility, which contribute to improving “the city we want. We have done what we had to do as a local and municipal party” because the amendments have been accepted “and it is an exercise of responsibility, not a blank check or blind loyalty,” he warned.
PSOE councilor David Villanueva pointed out about Samper's position that he had the impression that in his speech the Sueña spokesperson “was saying goodbye to the citizens, and I think he should not yet because there is a lot of mandate left” and asked him to “not leave the PSOE alone in its opposition work” in the plenary session.
The ultra vote in exchange for a toast to the sun
Vox spokesperson, Salvador Rusojustified his support for the budgets in which the PP government team led by Dolón has committed to abolishing the garbage tax. Something that is very unlikely to succeed from a legal point of view, because it would be difficult for technicians to validate it.
None of the 141 municipalities in the province have been able to avoid this increase, which is established by law and is an adaptation of European legislation. The one that claims that the collection for the cost of a garbage collection service, the one that weighs down municipal accounts the most, adjusts to its real cost.
Vote against the municipal socialist group / JOAQUIN CARRIÓN
The objective is to generate less garbage and reduce the cost of transportation through the separation at origin of each citizen. Until now the imbalance between collection of the fee and cost of the service was total. For example, Torrevieja collected 6 million euros from the tax and now it is more than double. Almost fifteen million a year with the great tax. Vox's amendment was only a request until a few days ago. And since it was important to have an amendment validated by the PP government team as justification for their favorable vote, popular and ultra-conservatives have rushed to have it registered before the plenary session.
The PP government team What you can do in that case is file a motion for the Torrevieja City Council -one of the more than eight thousand in Spain-, demand that the Government of Pedro Sánchez withdraw that obligation to multiply the collection by the rate.
THE PSOE warns of municipal debt
The socialist councilor David Villanueva defended the socialist rejection of the initial approval of the budgets, describing them as “unreal, unbalanced and antisocial”ensuring that “the PP puts the city into debt again while reducing services and abandoning social policies.”
The municipal debt will increase to almost 50 million euros, assuming a debt of almost 42% of the city's current income and a burden of almost 5 million euros annually for the next 12 years to amortize these credits. The socialist councilor also denounced the resignation of the PP to the 182 municipal social homesdescribing this decision as “a sign of the PP's disinterest in the right to housing.”
Furthermore, Villanueva recalled that the City Council has returned funds intended for social services for not hiring the necessary personnel, which demonstrates “the lack of commitment to those who need it most.”
Regarding the government team's criticism of the Socialists' position for not presenting amendments, Councilor Villanueva indicated that “they confuse the rejection of the budgets with a lack of work, because during the plenary session it was demonstrated that the PSOE has carried out an exhaustive and detailed analysis of the items.”
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