Alex Trelinski
THREE Costa Blanca hospitality associations are to take the Valencian government to court over its COVID-19 restrictions.
The ALROA, CEOH and ARA groups claim that Valencian president, Ximo Puig, and Health Minister, Ana Barcelo, have ‘lied’ to them by using ‘unapproved’ health expert advisers to help make key decisions.
The associations were commenting on a letter from the Valencian president’s office in response to a CEOH query.
The CEOH wrote to ask where the experts advising on curfews and hospitality opening hours came from.
They also wanted to know whether they constituted an ‘official’ committee.
The reply said that the ‘constitution of an expert committee had never been made official’.
ALROA president, Javier Galdeano, said: “We want to know the whole truth about the supposed advice that is being offered to the government.”
“They are not explaining the technical criteria for implementing night curfews in some municipalities but not in others,” he added.
The Valencian government has made it clear that curfews are imposed if areas have high COVID-19 infection rates.
A new 68-strong list comes into force tomorrow(August 17) to replace the current 77 municipalities, with more Costa Blanca tourist areas being included on the new list.
CEOH president, Lalo Diaz, said: “The group of experts are friends of Ximo Puig and there are no formal minutes from committee meetings and the composition of the committee seems to change depending on the circumstances.”
Diaz added: “Puig and Barcelo have lied to us because in reality, expert advice does not exist.”
The hospitality groups face a daunting task in trying to overturn any of the COVID restrictions which have been supported at every stage by the Valencian Supreme Court.
