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Issue 748
14-20 FEB 2014
Property sharks circle by Jack Troughton
CORRUPTION AND greed will return to the Costa Blanca property market as the “sharks” gathered in a recovering economy, veteran campaigners have warned. The economic crisis and credit crunch cut the appetite of developers to undertake ‘megaprojects’ but Abusos Urbanisticos No! (AUN) believes problems will resurface with the slightest hint of profit. Speaking at the AUN’s Annual General Meeting in its Benissa heartland, both President Enrique Climent and Vice President Charles Svoboda spoke of a sleeping giant. The protest group was founded 10 years ago to fight the injustices of Valencia’s notorious land grab laws and is still battling to deal with the legacy of the housing boom in the autonomous community and further afield in Spain. And over the decade the AUN’s brief has expanded to helping protect the environment and people’s rights. Charles told the meeting the economic crisis insured there were no credit facilities for developers to present large scale building projects “and the appetite for megaprojects diminished with the increasing numbers of developers and politicians in jail. “While it is true the problems associated with the building boom have largely disappeared, it is also likely that when the econ-
omy picks up, the signs are that developers and politicians who have not yet learned the lesson of diminishing resources may well revert to their old, often corrupt ways.” But he said thanks to the AUN and its backing of various legal actions, the Spanish courts were waking up to the fact there were European and international treaties and laws to be obeyed “particularly respecting the environment and the rights of individuals”. He said the European Parliament and the groups were “exposing corruption and abusive practices like never before and Spain figures large in their reports” – and pointed out how a new survey highlighted that two thirds of Spaniards now believed their daily lives were affected by state corruption, and 95% believed corruption was institutionalised. “Why mention this? Because we believe we played a small part in bringing illegal and corruptive practices to the attention of foreign media reporting on Spain, to the European Parliament and other opinion formers.” Enrique said that nowadays when everyone thought that the housing bubble had burst the problems were over. “Apparently the crisis that was triggered by the real estate madness has stopped the sharks from risking money in these operations. But no, it is not over yet. Continued on page 3
By Jack Troughton BLOSSOM IS the buzzword as the Vall de Pop welcomes hundreds of visitors to the annual show of the brightly coloured flowers on the almond trees – the air filled with scent and the sound of feasting bees.