Press conference held in Xàbia on 18/11/2010
by PSOE Spokesman José Chulvi
The two opposition parties, the PSOE and NUEVA JAVEA, have today presented arguments against the bailout of the car parks.
We will do everything possible, we will use all the political, administrative and legal measures in our power to prevent this monumental economic disaster, and also make a call to our citizens that they demonstrate their unwillingness to allow their town be mortgaged for life.
We are making this joint press appearance with the NUEVA JAVEA municipal group and will present the our legal arguments in the Town Hall against the inclusion in loan modification n º 4 which provides for a loan operation with a value of 12'1 million euros to bailout the car parks.
Over a year ago, the PSOE and NUEVA JAVEA jointly requested an extraordinary plenary session of the council and we then managed to put a stop to the local government’s plans to pay 22 million euros for something a year later they now say is worth 13.2 million. Today we have again joined forces to defend the public interests and present this claim, which legally conforms and summarizes our
discussions at the various plenary sessions, committees, meetings of party spokesmen etc.
In the plenary session of Xàbia Town Hall, held last Tuesday, all we witnessed was an exercise in demagoguery … and explanations, which nobody believed, on the part of the Councillor for Finance and the Mayor in relation to the rescue of the car parks.
Whether consciously or unconsciously, their arguments were untrue, because their rescue of the car parks was based on whether the company would take the Town Hall to court, and if we lost the case, we would have to pay more. So according to them it would be better to carry out a rescue operation now at a "good price" of 13.2 million euros, plus the Town would have an increase in its financial assets. How would this increase the town’s assets? This is simply not true for two reasons;
FIRST: The ECISA Company cannot demand a rescue operation and those who govern us should be aware of this. The company can only seek an economic rebalancing, We have the legal reports (Legal Advisory Council, the Contracting Advisory Board, the Town’s Auditor and Professor González Varas) and these state what the Law says in such cases.
Everyone agrees the same, there should be no economic rebalancing because in any such contract the "commercial risk element of the concession” must prevail, and that the economic rebalancing clause can never provide a total insurance for the company. In the unlikely event that the company sues the council, as González Varas says, the worst-case scenario would be for the court to order the municipality to restore the economic rebalancing; and all that would have to be done is to extend the period of the concession contract, and therefore “not spend a cent MORE”.
SECOND: The mayor also argues that the purchase of the car parks would significantly increase the Town’s assets for the benefit of the people. How dare he say this? The car parks are already the property of the people, they are built on municipal land and are under an administrative concession, which when it reaches its end after 40 years the car parks will revert to the council. Giving away the Rafalet municipal plots of land to ECISA certainly does not increase the town’s assets.
We reaffirm our position and continue to advocate that we do not pay a single euro more. On July 22, the company requested the application of an economic rebalancing, and the plenary session of the council unanimously rejected the request. That should have been the end of this story, and if the company did not agree then they could go to court like any other citizen. What is not understandable is how the 21 council members agreed not to proceed with economic rebalancing and the next day part of the government team, decides unilaterally to buy the car parks.
We will do everything possible, and we will use all political, administrative and legal means in our power to prevent this monumental destruction
of our economy.
