Puerto de la Cruz Faces Political Backlash Over €21 Million Budget Adjustment

The Puerto de la Cruz City Council is facing a major political controversy after approving a 21-million-euro budget adjustment. The Municipal Socialist Group (PSOE) claims this move has severely drained the city’s finances, dropping the treasury surplus from 26 million euros at the end of the last term to just 3 million today.

Marco Antonio González Mesa, the socialist spokesperson, criticized the council for pushing the budget through as an emergency measure. He argues that this haste prevented proper oversight, as officials were not given the required 24 hours to review the documentation. Beyond the procedure, the PSOE is concerned about the technical side: the city’s own comptroller and budget experts issued unfavorable reports on the plan. To bypass these objections, the governing coalition—made up of the PP, ACP, and CC—relied on an external report. The PSOE claims this was irregular, arguing that the council misused a contract intended for a different purpose to validate a plan that career civil servants had already questioned.

There are also growing concerns about the city’s ability to handle emergencies. The socialists warn that by depleting these savings, the council is left vulnerable to urgent repairs, such as fixing the pier’s breakwater or addressing structural issues at the Costa Martiánez Tourist Complex, which have already forced the San Telmo pools to close periodically.

Questions have also been raised about how the money is being spent. The budget modification gives over 11 million euros to the Urban Planning department, a division that the PSOE notes failed to spend even 10% of its budget in previous years and currently lacks the projects to justify such a large injection of funds.

In response, the socialist group is considering legal action. González Mesa stated that their goal is to block a decision they believe harms the public interest and threatens the city’s financial health for years to come.