The mayor of Tarragona, Rubén Viñuales, has withdrawn the transfer of the old Bank of Spain to the State for a Parador from the agenda. The proposal will be voted on again after the general elections on 29 November.
The transfer of the old Bank of Spain in Tarragona to the State to install a Parador will not be voted on for now. According to La Ciutat, the mayor, Rubén Viñuales, removed this item from the agenda on Friday and announced that it will be brought back once the general elections on 29 November have taken place.
Viñuales argues that some parties have tried to treat a local issue as if it were a state matter. For this reason, he stated, he is postponing the vote for a debate:
“Calm, peaceful, clean and free from any interference from other elections.”
ERC celebrated the decision, as they had requested that the item not be put to a vote. According to the party, the project does not yet have the necessary consensus or information to decide on the future of a municipal property. ERC, PP and En Comú Podem had opposed the transfer, while Junts and Vox indicated abstention, which left the municipal government without enough votes.
The republican spokesperson, Xavi Puig, stated:
“We celebrate that Viñuales has had to take a step back.”
Puig added that an operation of this magnitude should not be approved without “a solid majority or broad consensus.”
ERC maintains that the municipal groups have not had sufficient documentation to assess the heritage, economic and urban consequences of the operation. Puig questioned the rush to approve a transfer linked to a project that, he indicated, would have a execution horizon of several years:
“They wanted us to vote blindly.”
The group recalled that the transfer would be free of charge and that the City Council obtained the building through an agreement with the State that included as compensation a plot valued at 3.3 million euros and other municipal assets. Viñuales, for his part, assured that the commitment to develop the Parador remains in place.
ERC also wants to know who has prepared the renders of the future Parador circulated in recent days and what technical and urban basis they have, as they see similarities with previous proposals. Additionally, they question whether the municipal government has the support of Junts for when the transfer returns to the plenary. As an alternative, the party proposes to allocate the building to a public facility of a cultural and civic nature.
“The Bank of Spain does not belong to Viñuales, it belongs to Tarragona.”
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