The Left Requests Alicante City Council to Allow 'Hippies' on the Esplanade Until 2027 if No Agreement is Reached

The three left-wing groups of the Alicante City Council - the Socialist Municipal Group, Compromís, and EU-Podem - have signed a motion to defend the permanence of the Esplanade Market, known as 'hippies', in its current location until the City Council guarantees relocation to an alternative area. If no relocation agreement is reached, it is demanded that this current market on the Esplanade of Spain be maintained until the license expires on December 31, 2026.

The motion registered by the three municipal groups will be debated in the next ordinary plenary session, scheduled for October 31. The document includes a first point to revoke the agreements of the March 2023 plenary session regarding the suppression of the Esplanade Walk market effective October 31, 2024. The aim is to clarify that such suppression "would only be carried out subject to a relocation of the stalls in an alternative municipal space."

The spokesperson for the Socialist Municipal Group, Ana Barceló, has pointed out that the mayor, Luis Barcala, "has had two years to relocate this market and has not done so because he did not want to." She assured that "the mayor has kept the merchants entertained despite knowing that he had no firm alternative proposal. He offered a space, the Port, which does not depend on the City Council, but on the Coast, and therefore it is not a location that can be made available to the merchants."

Barceló has reproached the mayor that, with only 15 days left for the deadline to expire, "we still do not know where the market will be relocated, and therefore, we are obliged to revoke the 2023 agreement so that this market does not end up being extinguished."

For his part, the spokesperson for Compromis, Rafa Mas, has assessed that the Popular Party only has two options: "Either relocate the merchants of the hippie stalls before October 31 to a place that has technical guarantees to carry out their activity or, if no space is available before October 31, approve a moratorium so that they can continue on the Esplanade until a suitable location is found for these people to continue working."

"The PP cannot wash its hands. It committed to moving them from the Esplanade in exchange for a relocation, therefore it is Barcala who must guarantee the jobs of the more than 60 families who work in this emblematic market of the city," he indicated.

Manolo Copé, from EU Podem, has highlighted that "the demonstrations this Sunday have only corroborated the popular support for the 'hippies' market on the Esplanade and the presentation of this motion aims to amend a lack of concreteness that was not reflected in the agreements of the March 2023 plenary session."

In that line, he added that, for this reason, "what we propose is common sense, that the hippies of the Esplanade be relocated when they have a guaranteed location and do not have to stop the activity that provides income for more than 60 Alicante families."