The acting Minister of Health, Presidency, and Emergencies, Antonio Sanz, highlighted this Saturday the Consultive Council's ruling that supports the initiative by the Carboneras City Council (Almería) to declare the construction license for the hotel in the El Algarrobico area null and void. Sanz stated that this legal path brings the definitive demolition "closer than ever," attributing the achievement to "the initiative of the Junta de Andalucía" and contrasting it with the central government's "electoral stunt" regarding expropriation, which he called "useless."
In an audio message, Sanz championed the Consultive Council's pronouncement as "a decisive step to definitively close one of the biggest urbanistic and environmental attacks" in Spain. He expressed conviction that it represents "a key milestone after years of judicial and administrative battles," further reinforcing "the path undertaken by the Junta de Andalucía."
What is clear is that there is less and less time left for demolition
The minister urged the Carboneras City Council to act with "maximum speed and agility in convening the plenary session to put an end once and for all to a conflict that has dragged on for too long." Sanz criticized the land expropriation initiative undertaken by the general secretary of the PSOE andaluz, María Jesús Montero, when she was first vice-president and Minister of Finance, deeming it "an electoral stunt that had no future" and "the wrong path," as, according to him, the State Attorney's Office had warned years ago.
He emphasized that the Consultive Council's ruling "in favor of ex officio review" aligns with the position that the Junta de Andalucía "had always maintained" to formally declare the hotel's construction license null and void, as it was "contrary to the territorial planning of the urban planning law," a fact that "was also confirmed in multiple court rulings in proceedings initiated by the Junta de Andalucía."
Sanz defended the Junta de Andalucía's initiative, citing the request for intervention and its subsequent admission, after which "a procedure followed by the City Council was developed, urging it before the judicial body to execute the sentence, agreeing to the nullity of the license without further undue delay." For the minister, "the State's position has not yet yielded any results," recalling that it "chose the path of expropriation and has been unable to advance or offer a solution," and noted that in the procedure followed by the City Council regarding the ex officio review of the license, the State "had not even intervened."
