Toni Pérez Considers Constitutional Appeal Amid Legal Concerns

"Calmness." Following the latest legal setback faced by the Benidorm City Council regarding the long-standing dispute with the landowners affected by APR-7, the Mayor of the Valencian Community's tourist capital, Toni Pérez, maintains the same message he has conveyed since the Valencian Community's High Court of Justice (TSJCV) upheld the ruling to pay 330 million euros (plus interest) to, among others, the Murcia Puchades family.

Pérez appeared early this Wednesday to assess the new TSJCV ruling, exclusively reported by TodoAlicante last Monday, which dismissed the nullity incident raised by the Benidorm council, thus bringing the execution of the ruling closer, which would oblige the city to pay an amount exceeding the total municipal budget for more than two years.

In this new appearance, the President of the Alicante Provincial Council reiterated the same stance he has defended since the onset of this constant stream of judicial rulings against municipal interests. "We continue to work with calmness and serenity," he asserted in a speech almost identical to previous statements on this matter.

However, Pérez acknowledged that this work is being done "evidently, not without concern; but confident that we are defending the general interest of Benidorm above all," an interest, he emphasized, that is "the only thing guiding us above all else."

The Benidorm mayor assured that from the municipal side of this legal confrontation, "we are working with the transparency we have always announced on a matter that is advancing in the judicial arena," although he also acknowledged that this journey is progressing, "certainly not with the best news nor the expected outcomes for Benidorm."

Pérez reiterated on more than one occasion that it was yesterday, Tuesday, when the City Council received the notification of this new TSJCV decision and that it was a "non-working day" in the local administration.

Despite this, the Mayor of Benidorm emphasized, "from the very moment we became aware of this ruling, the General Secretariat and the Legal Services of the City Council have been working on it to guide the political part of the municipal corporation on the path to follow." For all these reasons, he considers, "it is necessary to exercise caution when making assessments since we must wait, as we have always done, for those technical reports from the City Council's legal direction."

Despite everything, and even though judicial decisions against the city's proposals are accumulating, Toni Pérez insisted that "the roadmap has not changed," but rather "the Justice, through the TSJ, has been guiding its decisions in a direction different from that previously shown by the Contentious Courts."

Now, always making it clear that "it is the Legal Services that must now provide us with the alternatives we should undertake," Toni Pérez acknowledges that "it seems the direction is to appeal to the Constitutional Court. But since yesterday, when we were informed, until this morning, there is no new development in this regard."

At this point, the Mayor of the tourist capital admitted that "the nullity appeal itself is filed precisely to open that door to the Constitutional Court, but now I do not know if that is the view the technicians maintain in this regard."

In any case, Pérez concluded with a call for "caution and some patience because" at this point "we do not even know the deadlines for these circumstances until the technicians inform us."