With a united voice, Alicante’s three senior mayors, (Luis Barcala), Torrevieja (Eduardo Dolón), and Benidorm (Toni Pérez) have come out publicly to ask the Ministry of Health for explanations as to why they have not requested that the Valencian Community pass to Phase 2 of the de-escalation plan, which allows more relief measures for the economy and, therefore, for sectors such as commerce and hospitality.
Each mayor made his request separately, but in the end the message is exactly the same: the people want to know for what reasons the move to phase 2 has not been requested? The Alicante PP made the request along with their coalition partner, Ciudadanos, and both have presented an institutional statement for debate in the next plenary session in which they request that the Conselleria de Sanidad” provides daily, updated and quality information on the main data and indicators of the incidence that the covid-19 is having in Alicante”.
Later, it was the mayor of Torrevieja, the second most important city currently governed by the PP in the province of Alicante. Eduardo Dolón opted to send a letter to the Minister of Health, Ana Barceló, in which he spoke of his great concern about the situation that the productive sectors of the city are going through, especially commerce and hospitality, which have once again seen their expectations cut short with the decision not to move to Phase II of the de-escalation.
Related: Bascuñana becomes latest mayor to ask why the region remains at phase 1
Eduardo Dolón has requested that the Ministry of Health makes public the technical data and health parameters they have used to make this decision, for the sake of transparency and, especially, to find out whether, as announced yesterday by Ana Barceló, the slight increase in the incidence of the virus or basic reproduction index from 0.66 to 0.85 in the Valencian Community, has also occurred in the Torrevieja Health Department.
Then it was the turn of the Benidorm mayor, Toni Pérez, who has also requested the publication of more Health data, but adding that the city “will continue to observe and promote compliance with the regulations” and “working, as we have done from minute one and every day, to prepare to move to the next phase with all the security guarantees, both in the public and private spheres”.
The three mayors of the Vega Baja, who have accused the President of the Valencian Generalitat, Ximo Puig, of “drowning” the Vega Baja by refusing to move to Phase 2 in the region. The recovery that involved the re-opening of shops, hotels and businesses a week ago has been stopped dead in a region that needs help from the Consell and is now only facing obstacles on the part of the Valencian regional government.
“Uncertainty again costs jobs and even greater losses for the Vega Baja,” says PP spokesman in the Vega Baja, Adrián Ballester, “since the Consell announced on Sunday that the zones will move from Phase 1 to Phase 2 and two days later said the opposite.” He says that “many businesses were already preparing for next week and many people were excited to be returning to their jobs”.
But a decision was taken to change the sanitary areas in the province without any explanation or founded criteria so that situation in the province of Alicante now resembles that of other areas that are more affected by the coronavirus. “It has nothing to do with the health, social or the economic situation of the Vega Baja region” Ballester said, “the Generalitat is allied with Pedro Sánchez in making a decision that further damages the Vega Baja and which has not been taken into account.”
“The situation of indifference of the Consell toward the Vega Baja is endemic”, said Ballester, who reminded the consell that “the Vega Baja is being doubly punished, first with the DANA in September and now we are being punished again without reason by not moving to phase 2”.
Ballester regrets that “the concerns of the Generalitat in the Valencian Community only reach as far as Elche they only have minimum of communication with the Vega Baja, which it is once again abandoning and leaving its inhabitants to their fate.”
