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Torrevieja and local areas
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Tuesday May 17th 2016 - Edition 598
Pentapartito forgets Europe Day
Torrevieja is one of Spain's most multicultural cities. To celebrate that fact even the Park of Nations, is so named because when viewed from above it depicts a map of Europe and all her countries. For more than a decade, European Day has been celebrated in style on May 9th with the raising of the European Flag and singing and playing of the European Anthem. European Day was celebrated with few speakers from different nationalities taking the stage, from school children to great grandparents, who all said a few words about what being part of
Europe meant to them. However, this year the new Pentapartito coalition government forgot all about European Day, or chose to ignore it, and then Councillor for Foreigners offered up one of the poorest excuses yet to cover their inexperience and lack of connection with the citizens of Torrevieja. In seeming trying to cover their ineptitude of forgetting about the event until almost the last minute, Morate offered the following after the event, and not preceding it: “I would like to explain why we do not celebrate
this day with songs and folk dances: it's because of the delicate issue of the refugee crisis in Europe.” In essence, because Morate and her government do not think that Spain is doing enough for refugees, many of whom have stopped trying to get to Europe because of the lack of financial assistance now offered, we should not celebrate the uniting of nations. Many Spanish and Foreign commentators have turned on the councillor for hiding behind such a sensitive issue as they look for an excuse. After such a poor and late attempt at self-justification for not celebrating European Day, the opposition Partido Popular has accused the pentapartito of forgetting to celebrate "Europe Day". Municipal PP councillor, Rosario Martínez, lamented the
fact that for the first time in many years that Torrevieja did not commemorate Europe Day. Martinez said: "We do not share this decision and it seems that this is the new policy of the Pentapartido in forgetting about a very important part of Torrevieja, such as her European residents. In 10 months, the Pentapartito has not done anything for them except to eliminate their services such as the closure of the International Residents Office". Rosario Martinez added that "from the viewpoint of the Partido Popular, will always be working for all torrevejenses regardless of where they were born because the name torrevejense is for anyone who feels they belong to Torrevieja. We have worked this way for many years, and will continue
to do so, on behalf of the hundreds of thousands of European citizens who have decided to choose Torrevieja as their home or a place to enjoy their holiday." Finally, Rosario Martínez said that "The decision to rob European residents of the chance to celebrate together the Day of Europe was not announced in advance, and excuses made by some members of pentapartito are without any credibility. But using such a sensitive issue as the situation in Syria and refugees as a political argument to hide their inefficiency and inactivity as the government of all torrevejenses is nonsense and an indecent use to use the suffering and the difficult situation of a people who are victims of a real war."