The Secretary General of the PSOE of Almería, José María Martín, announced the party's decision this Wednesday following the plenary vote. According to Martín, the councilors did not respect the guidelines set by the party's bodies, which required voting in favor of annulling the license.
Martín reiterated that the PSOE's stance on El Algarrobico is clear: to comply with judicial rulings obliging the Carboneras City Council to annul the municipal license. He emphasized that this annulment is a judicial requirement and an essential prerequisite for the hotel's demolition, as determined by the High Court of Justice of Andalusia and the Supreme Court.
The socialist leader stressed that the annulment of the license was the position that should have been adopted in the plenary session, a directive that was explicitly communicated to both the local PSOE leadership of Carboneras and its municipal group. The PSOE believes that the demolition of the hotel cannot suffer any further delays after more than two decades of litigation.
Regarding the potential consequences for the councilors facing proceedings, Martín indicated that the statutory procedure will determine if they lead to expulsion, once the interested parties are notified and the competent party bodies make a decision.
The provincial leadership's decision comes after the socialist spokesperson in the Carboneras City Council, José Luis Amérigo, along with four other councilors, supported a proposal from a non-attached councilor to postpone the decision and gather further legal and economic reports on the financial repercussions of annulling the license, which was granted to Azata del Sol in 2003.
Hours earlier, the parliamentary spokesperson for PSOE-A, María Márquez, had already indicated that the party would take "regulatory measures" regarding the councilors' actions, describing the hotel as a "monument to environmental barbarity."
