The Administrative Litigation Chamber of the TSJA annuls the budget of Benalmádena for 2024 for breaching the Local Finance Law. The PSOE demands the immediate resignation of Mayor Juan Antonio Lara.
The High Court of Justice of Andalusia, Ceuta and Melilla (TSJA) has annulled the full council agreement of Benalmádena from 13 March 2024 that definitively approved the budget for that year, the first under the government team of Juan Antonio Lara. The ruling, as reported by Diario Sur, supports the PSOE, which took legal action after the City Council proceeded with the accounts despite contrary reports from municipal technicians.
The ruling was presented at the plenary session this Friday. The socialists demanded "in a blunt and immediate manner" the resignation of Lara. The spokesperson for IU-Podemos, Pablo Centella, expressed his "surprise" that the mayor and the finance councillor, José Miguel Muriel, remain in their positions.
The court based its decision on a single reason: the breach of the budgetary balancing principle of the Local Finance Law. It relies on a report from the Court of Auditors that speaks of a "lack of rationality and consistency in the revenue forecasts." The City Council balanced the accounts with the capital gains tax: it raised the forecast to 36.24 million euros, 3.5 times the record of 2007 (10.64 million). The Court of Auditors reminds that the figure was not justified either in the report or in the economic document. In December, the government approved a non-availability agreement for 33 million to correct the deviation, an argument that both the Court of Auditors and the TSJA have rejected. In the end, the revenue from capital gains in 2024 was 5.37 million, 85.18% less than budgeted. The City Council will also have to pay the legal costs.
"The historic blow from the Justice politically disqualifies a mayor who knowingly approved illegal accounts with fictitious income to pay for his propaganda showcase," denounced the socialist Víctor Navas.
Navas argues that the ruling represents "the final blow to the legitimacy of Juan Antonio Lara to continue for another minute at the helm of the Benalmádena City Council."
In a video circulated on social media, Lara accused the PSOE of seeking "political harassment and demolition" since his inauguration and defended that the complaint is "one more example" of that strategy. The mayor did not mention the 2024 budget and focused on the present: "Benalmádena has its accounts in order and an investment that exceeds four times that of previous terms, we have reduced public debt to zero for the first time in decades and year after year we are closing the budget with a surplus."
You may also like
