This Sunday marks the first hundred days of the new mandate of the Alicante Provincial Council. In just over three months the new president has been popular Tony Perez, has had time to outline the lines of action he wants to take at the State House over the next four years. The mayor of Benidorm’s first priority, as he said in his inauguration speech, is to maintain the continuity of the policies implemented by his predecessor, current Generalitat president Carlos Mazón.
However, despite this statement of principles, there are points where Toni Pérez and Mazón differ. The current president wants to soften the political tone in the Provincial Assembly and aims for this period to be characterized by governance rather than launching a struggle against other administrations. In this sense, it has two basic propositions: a determined commitment to municipalism and a strong interest in implementing measures that will help small municipalities. This does not mean that I will hesitate to defend the province on capital issues such as water, the situation of the tourism sector, and the economic crisis. Cooperation Fund. For its part, the opposition, which has had some conflicts in these first hundred days, especially with the PSPV-PSOE over the distribution of consultants or the structuring of organizational charts of organizations affiliated with the Provincial Assembly, is making demands. A series of contacts for next year’s budgets will now begin.
Contention
Continuity in the Provincial Assembly reached such a point that the biggest debate in the first months continued to revolve around the Cooperation Fund. Of course, there is a difference now, because both the Provincial Palace and the Generalitat are governed by the PP. Not like last period, when Mazón took part in one of the major conflicts with Ximo Puig’s Botànic as a result of this municipal investment plan. In fact, the Cooperation Fund was the star topic of the annual general meeting this October, as PSPV claimed that the province had recently stopped receiving funding. 100 million euros For the last seven years, Toni Pérez has defended the autonomy of the Alicante Provincial Council to distribute funds among municipalities.
Toni Pérez emphasized that although it was not the political burden of his last mandate, the last decision of the Constitutional Court annulled Article 7 of the regional law on the grounds that the same distribution criteria at the state level were not followed. HE Provincial Assembly PresidentThe leaders of the state institutions of Valencia and Castellón, also together with the popular Vicente Mompó and Marta Barrachina, are involved in the preparation of the new Cooperation Fund that the current PP and Vox Consell want to launch. The application will be voluntary.
Recently, the Provincial Council carried out an alternative investment project to Botànic. Plan + Nearby. Continuity of this program has also been ensured at this stage, as evidenced by the approval of the first 30 million corresponding to this year’s + Cerca allocation at the September general assembly meeting, bringing the total amount to 45 million Euros. Another big challenge before the end of 2023 is to accelerate the Alicante Conference Center project. After initial delays, the selection of the project from hundreds of offers is planned to be made in November.
good relationship
Although Toni Pérez and the socialist group’s spokesman, Vicente Arques, started their term by stating that they had a good relationship, the truth is that there have already been several conflicts between them. The first took place at the first general meeting in August, and the epicenter of the discussion was the distribution of advisors. The second was at the last plenary session held on the 20th, and this time the conflict was about the structuring of the boards of directors of the organizations affiliated with the Provincial Assembly. Suma, Tourist Board or Gil-Albert. Arques accused the president of imposing on himself the “rounding” that gave him the absolute majority that the PP enjoyed; This was something Toni Pérez did not like at all, and he wanted one of the features of this mandate to be dialogue with opposition groups. Finally, the PP gave the socialists a representative.
Beyond the line that the government team is trying to determine, other formations are also evaluating these first hundred days. “While the people of Alicante expect the Administration to be agile and effective, there are clear signs that the Provincial Assembly does not meet these expectations,” the Socialist laments. belts. A spokesperson for Compromís speaks in the same vein: Ximo Perles: «These first hundred days are remarkable for their silence in the worst ways. “There was an opportunity to mitigate the failures of the previous tenure, but that did not happen.” Finally, Vox He has been released at this stage and we regret that the budget meetings have not been held yet.