Former PP Councillor will Not have to Return Salary

The PP-led government team in Torrevieja, with the support of their VOX counterparts, have voted that their former political partner, former councillor Joaquín Albaladejo, does not have to pay back the 183,000 euro of public money he was paid whilst a councillor between 2007 and 2011, whilst also receiving a salary for his private activities.

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The former general secretary of the PP of Torrevieja, Joaquín Albaladejo, will not have to return a cent of what he earned from his exclusive dedication during his time as a councillor thanks to the support of his colleagues, after an agreement in which he could claim both salaries was declared void.

The proposal put forward by the PP government team, which went ahead with the votes in favour of PP and Vox, the abstention of Sueña Torrevieja and the vote against the PSOE, proposed declaring that agreement null and void with no more effects than being merely formal recognition, and, therefore, without implying that the situation must go back to that prior to that compatibility authorisation, or in other words, return the money.

According to the mayor, Eduardo Dolón, the interpretation of the ruling is supported by a report from the Council’s external legal advice, as well as by the Council’s own legal services.

The socialist spokesperson, Bárbara Soler, strongly opposed the notion. According to her interpretation, it is possible to understand that the former PP councillor can be forced to return the money he was paid, according to the Courts, unduly and, in that sense, she urged the mayor to act in favour of the interests of the municipal coffers. To do so, she presented two precedents in jurisprudence that, in her opinion, would support her position. It is worth clarifying that the ruling does not explicitly mention what should be done with the money and is limited to demanding that the Council annul the compatibility that it approved at the time.

Dolón once again argued that his position is not personal or that of his government, but is that expressed in the requested legal reports and that, consequently, he cannot be guided by the specific interpretation of a Council member and give it more value than the one that argue the services consulted, including that of a nationally authorised official.

Soler, on the other hand, accused the mayor of, with this decision, trying to “protect” the former leader of his party. Furthermore, the socialist municipal group, consequently, brought an amendment to the opinion that was put to the vote, but this was not admitted by the mayor because, in his opinion, it had not been registered with due advance notice.

The spokesperson for Sueña Torrevieja, Pablo Samper, for his part, criticized that the ruling will come 16 years after the compatibility was approved and described it as “nonsense.” For the leader of the local party, the sentence is “incomplete” as it does not clarify what should be done with the money that Albaladejo collected. Likewise, he questioned whether the government team would have acted in the same way if the person affected had been from a party other than the PP. Although he assured that Albaladejo “is not a saint of my devotion,” he assured that he has no animosity toward him.

After its vote, the agenda item had a brief reply in the final question period from the audience. One of them questioned the mayor and urged him to state whether, in his opinion, he did not see it as “immoral” and “indecent” not to claim the amount that Albaladejo collected. Dolón repeated his position then adjourned the session after being interrupted by this same individual, who did not allow him to explain himself again.

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