PSOE and Con Málaga warn that the Real Cortijo de Torres is losing its traditional essence and denounce the rising bus fares to access the venue.
The Málaga Fair is once again under scrutiny from the municipal opposition. PSOE and Con Málaga have this week coincided in criticising the management of the City Council, albeit from different angles: while the socialists warn of the loss of the traditional identity of the festival, the purple party denounces the cost and conditions of public transport to the Real Cortijo de Torres.
Mariano Ruiz Araujo, spokesperson for PSOE in the City Council, has urged the governing team to "listen to the alarm bells being raised by those who have been organising the Fair for decades" and to take measures to protect the "traditional, family-oriented and popular" character of the fairground. In his view, the current model "is gradually displacing the traditional booths to make more room for establishments that operate practically as restaurants or nightclubs".
The socialist councillor has insisted that the Fair "must evolve, but without losing what makes it unique". In this vein, he has warned of the risk that the Málaga event "ends up turning into a theme park of restaurants and nightclubs". A concern that, he noted, is shared by the Málaga Federation of Peñas, which has already publicly rejected the commercialisation of the booths.
"The Fair does not belong to the businesses that set up their activities there for a week; it belongs to Málaga and the people of Málaga," emphasised fellow socialist Pablo Orellana, who has defended a model where "a family can enter a booth, encounter our traditions and enjoy a genuinely Málaga atmosphere".
From Con Málaga, deputy spokesperson Toni Morillas has slammed the City Council's mobility strategy for the Fair. The party criticises the prohibition of using the usual transfer card and the increase of the bus fare by 50 cents, to two euros, to go to the fairground. "Raising the price of the bus ticket to the Fair is an absurdity that only aims to fill the coffers," she stated.
Morillas has assured that the Fair is "an absolute chaos" in terms of transport, with "long queues to board the bus" and services that are "absolutely saturated". In contrast, she denounced that VTCs have a "red carpet" to "speculate with prices and engage in unfair competition with the taxi sector", a practice she has described as "abusive towards users".
The coalition demands that the City Council reinforce the frequency of buses, especially during peak hours, to avoid the "kilometre-long queues of previous years", and that it allows the use of the usual transfer card. Both parties agree that the Fair must continue to be a meeting space for the people of Málaga, but they disagree on how to achieve this while the local government defends its management.
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