Pérez praises Mazón and demands more investments from the central government for the province

La provincia de Alicante is once again raising its voice to continue its demands, nearly a month after all eyes and efforts were focused on the province of Valencia due to the DANA. The Alicante Provincial Council resumed the Debate on the State of the Province this Friday, postponed due to mourning for the 220 victims of the flood. It picked up where the world left off on October 29: with the demand from the president of the Alicante Provincial Council, the popular Toni Pérez, for a second runway for the Alicante-Elche Miguel Hernández airport and the execution of the Torrellano Bypass.

In addition to the demands, Pérez praised the policies and proposals of the Consell of the president of the Generalitat, Carlos Mazón, who previously led the Provincial Council. He referred to the Plan Vive, to which 49% of Alicante municipalities (69 out of 141) have already adhered, as he specified, or the start of the Júcar-Vinalopó post-transfer works "in record time".

Conversely, the president of the provincial institution criticized that the Government of Spain has "little or no consideration" for the province of Alicante, compared to a "friendly" Valencian Generalitat. From the central Executive, Pérez reproached it for "forcing municipalities to bear the 'waste tax', which quadruples the bill and impacts citizens." In this regard, he said that the provincial government joins the decision of the Spanish Federation of Municipalities and Provinces (FEMP) to "promote the reform" of Law 7/2022, which regulates the new tax.

In water matters, Pérez accused the Ministry for Ecological Transition and the Demographic Challenge of "imposing cuts without technical or scientific rigor" on the Tajo-Segura transfer, and insisted on a national water pact. "These cuts will cause the desert to enter Spain through the province of Alicante, harming our agriculture, condemning millions of trees, and ruining families," he added.

Furthermore, the president of the Provincial Council demanded "more resources" from the Government of Spain so that the province of Alicante "stops being subjected to unfair underfunding": "In the last two years we are at the bottom in per capita investment by the State, the 52nd out of 52 provinces."

In other matters, Pérez highlighted the tourism data of the province of Alicante and warned of the "episodes of tourismphobia", whose messages are causing "enormous damage to employment and, consequently, to the well-being and prosperity of millions of households in Spain, hundreds of thousands of families in the province."

In this regard, the president of the Provincial Council once again praised Mazón's Consell for "redirecting public policy" with a regulation that "will be effective and in co-governance with municipalities to avoid unfair competition that in some places has been caused by the so-called tourist accommodations," referring to the decree law amending the regulatory framework for tourist-use housing.

At the end of his first intervention, Pérez mentioned that the Provincial Council, with an initial budget for 2024 of 295 million euros, "has developed projects and investments valued at more than 500 million."