Alicante has its 2025 budget: to be approved next week

Alicante will have budgets for 2025 next week. The municipal government of the Popular Party has pushed forward the draft this Friday in the Finance Committee with the support of Vox, a preliminary step to the municipal plenary that will take place next Wednesday, March 5. The 2025 municipal accounts amount to 347.2 million euros.

The Finance Councillor, Toni Gallego, explained that all chapters increase in 2025 within a budget that "remains expansive" and continues to develop multi-annual investments already allocated in the 2024 accounts. Among the most notable is a 30% increase in allocations for Culture and Festivals.

In the case of the Hogueras, subsidies can be processed two months in advance and before the festive cycle begins. In cultural matters, the allocation to public libraries increases by 24% to 1.3 million, and museums and visual arts grow by 21% to nearly three million.

It also highlights an 11% increase in the Department of Social Welfare. As a novelty, two specific lines for birth grants (100,000 euros), at the request of Vox, and housing rental for young people (80,000 euros) are included.

Among the most notable investments are projects such as the construction of the Tómbola sports pavilion (1.2 million), the renovation of Lo Morant Park (629,563 euros), and others being launched like the Integrated Municipal Centre of Plaza de Argel, the rehabilitation of the López Soria School for senior use, or the expansion of the Tossalet employment and training centre. This section amounts to 24.8 million euros to be carried out directly by the City Council, plus another 2.9 million through capital transfers to municipal autonomous bodies.

The Finance technicians have approved 101 amendments out of the 227 submitted by municipal political groups. The rest did not pass the filter, including the two total ones presented by the socialist group and EU-Podemos. The socialists push through more than half of their amendments, 69 out of 131 submitted; Vox, 14 out of 19; Compromís, 15 out of 50; and EU Podem 3 out of 7, collectively modifying the budget draft by over 800,000 euros.

The Vox spokesperson, Carmen Robledillo, emphasized that the new accounts "put families at the centre of the policies" of the City Council and "reflect" the postulates of Vox, with a "service vocation" and "effective measures that benefit all Alicante residents". In statements distributed to the media, she points out that her party is a "useful and committed political force with Alicante".

The PSPV spokesperson, Ana Barceló, criticizes that Barcala "only talks to the ultras" and has not "wanted to listen to any of the proposals from the main opposition group". In her opinion, "the radical right assumes a government role in Barcala's executive, as it shapes the budget at will and even claims the spokesperson role in meetings".

From Compromís, its spokesperson, Rafa Mas, has insisted on the "cut in investments, rights, and measures to combat climate change, to bet on industry and innovation to generate quality and sustainable employment". All this, according to Mas, while PP and Vox "agree on more bullfighting events, create religious foundations, and even take advantage of the reform of Las Cigarreras with European money and a 15 million investment for the Holy Week and Nativity Scene museum".

Similarly, EU-Podem has emphasized that "Vox continues to do what it has done since the beginning of the legislature: be the crutch of the PP". Its spokesperson, Manolo Copé, also believes that these are "stagnant accounts" typical of "a PP bent on business interests that forgets the problems of Alicante residents" and that "arrive late". "Another example of Barcala and his team of councillors and general directors' inability to manage," he adds.