Xàbia’s Government Schedules Desalination Plant Debate at Midday, Limiting Public Attendance
Xàbia Council, led by the PP, CpJ, and Vox, has set the key plenary debate on bringing the town’s desalination plant into public management for noon on a weekday, a move the opposition PSOE says will reduce public participation.
Opposition groups in Xàbia have claimed that the tripartite local government of Xàbia, formed by the PP, Ciudadanos por Jávea (CpJ), and Vox, has maneuvered once again to minimize public turnout at a key council meeting on the future of the town’s desalination plant, one of the major issues of this legislative term.
The PSOE had requested this extraordinary plenary session on September 26th to discuss transferring the plant to public ownership. However, it is up to the mayor to set the date and time, and the Partido Popular (PP)’s Rosa Cardona has now done so: the debate will take place on Thursday, October 16th, at 12 noon.
The Socialists had asked that the session be held in the evening, arguing that this would allow residents to attend or follow the debate online, since most people are working during the day. Cardona rejected the request.
This is not the first time she has done so. In February, when the PSOE requested a plenary session to discuss the future of the municipal swimming pool, the mayor also scheduled it for 10.00am, despite similar calls for an evening meeting.
In the case of the desalination plant, the tripartite government has added another twist: thirty minutes before the PSOE’s requested session, Cardona has convened an extraordinary meeting at 11.30am to discuss one technical point, the appointment of substitute technical inspectors and support staff to oversee the termination of the plant’s private operation contract.
While this might seem a routine administrative matter, it also allows the governing parties to project the image that they, not the opposition, are taking the initiative in planning the transition of the desalination plant to public management under the municipal company AMJASA. It also helps counter the impression that the coalition is following the Socialists’ lead on the issue.
At 12.00pm, the plenary session requested by the PSOE will begin, with three items on the agenda: to formally approve the plant’s reversion to public ownership; to transfer its management to AMJASA; and to set November 1st, 2025, as the effective date for the change.
All eyes will be on Ciudadanos por Jávea (CPJ), one of the government’s partners. On June 13th, the group had given PP and Vox an ultimatum to make the desalination plant public by October 2025. However, during a later session on September 25th, CpJ councillor Juan Ortolá softened his stance, expressing confidence in the work being carried out by Vox councillor José Marcos Pons, who oversees the water supply portfolio.
The mayor’s decision to once again hold a key opposition-requested plenary during the day contrasts with how similar requests were handled in past terms. In 2021, then-mayor and current PSOE spokesperson José Chulvi agreed to hold an afternoon session at Cardona’s own request (when she was in the opposition) to debate a motion of censure against a Socialist councillor.
Further back, in 2009, then-mayor Eduardo Monfort of Bloc-Centristes also allowed a session requested by the PSOE and Nueva Jávea on parking issues to take place in the evening to facilitate public attendance.
Adapted from an original article published in La Marina Plaza: El tripartito de Xàbia «esconde» el pleno exigido por el PSOE para que la desaladora sea pública
