The mayor of Arrecife, Ástrid Pérez, has responded to the latest criticisms from the PSOE and has denied that there is "inaction" from her government group towards the owners of Ginory. And to support this, she has now announced that a month and a half ago, on February 22, the City Council submitted a document of allegations to the Court, opposing the settlement of interest that the property is now claiming, as the opposition had already revealed.
For its part, what the PSOE spokesperson in Arrecife, Cristina Duque, had denounced this Monday is that the government group has not tried to appeal the controversial fair price approved in its day, using the information recently provided by her party.
"It was Mrs. Cristina Duque's party, the PSOE, that approved, while in the City Council Government, the credit operation to pay the 27 million euros to the owners," responded the mayor, who calls the socialists' statements "lies."
"It is not true that there are deadlines to review a fair price. Clear evidence is that a payment plan is being followed on a debt already recognized by the courts themselves," says Ástrid Pérez.
In this regard, she recalls that the City Council "has been paying the debt for the expropriation of that land for more than two years, while the payment of 90 percent of the principal of the debt, through the credit operation approved with the support of the PSOE, is already deposited in the account of the Contentious Court." "Now what is at stake is a judicial dispute over the settlement of interest," added the mayor, referring again to the lawsuit that is now for those interests.
"From 2012 until November 2021, when we dismissed them, the PSOE never brought the review of the fair price. Almost ten years without doing anything about what they are now falsely denouncing, which is a clear sign of their way of acting. They only intend to harm the institution and harm the residents. They have been doing it when they were governing and they want to continue doing it now from the opposition," she denounces.
"Public officials, such as these PSOE councilors, should not be allowed in public life because they tarnish the good name of the politicians who come to work for the citizens with honesty," says Ástrid Pérez.
In her statement, the mayor recalls that the expropriation of that piece of land "occurred in the 80s, under the municipal mandate of the Socialist Party." However, it was much later when the City Council was ordered to pay a millionaire compensation, under the Mayoralty of Cándido Reguera and with Felipe Fernández Camero as a lawyer, who did not present a key appeal to have avoided that valuation.
Regarding the amount that the City Council is paying, Ástrid Pérez defends that the Consistory already filed years ago a complaint appeal for the fair price of the land, which was dismissed by the Superior Court of Justice of the Canary Islands in July 2020. "The Socialist Party knows that perfectly well, but it continues trying to muddy the management of this Government Group for a purely electoral interest," she questions.
