PSOE suspends five councilors in Carboneras after they block annulment of illegal Algarrobico hotel licence
The socialist group in Carboneras town council voted on Wednesday to postpone annulling the building licence of the illegal Algarrobico hotel, prompting the regional PSOE leadership to suspend their party membership.
A twenty-year impasse
Few urban scandals in Spain have dragged on as long as the Algarrobico hotel. Built on protected land inside the Cabo de Gata-Níjar Natural Park, the 20-floor, 411-room giant has stood unfinished since 2006. The construction licence was granted in January 2003 by a socialist mayor to the developer Azata del Sol. For two decades, courts have ordered its annulment and the demolition of the building, yet every attempt has met resistance from local politicians.
símbolo de los desmanes urbanísticos
Wednesday’s council vote
On 17 June 2026, the Carboneras plenary session had a single item on the agenda: the review and annulment of the hotel’s licence. The five socialist councillors, along with two non‑attached former members of the PP, voted to leave the matter on the table. Their demand was for additional economic and legal reports assessing the financial consequences for the town hall, given that Azata del Sol has claimed 70 million euros in damages.
su grupo quiere que el expediente se quede sobre la mesa hasta recabar nuevos informes jurídicos y económicos
Party discipline imposed
Hours after the vote, the provincial secretary of the PSOE in Almería, José María Martín, opened disciplinary proceedings and requested the temporary suspension of all five councillors. The regional leadership stressed that local representatives had disregarded explicit instructions to vote in line with the party’s position, which demands full compliance with the TSJA ruling.
El hotel El Algarrobico se va a tirar sí o sí
Government and court options
With the municipal route blocked again, both the Ministry for Ecological Transition and the Junta de Andalucía announced they would ask the TSJA to execute the sentence by annulling the licence directly. Minister Sara Aagesen’s department confirmed that the court had already accepted its appearance in the proceedings, and Greenpeace has long advocated this path. The Junta, which in March 2025 rejected the same mechanism, now supports it.
Seguimos defendiendo que la solución es anular la licencia y esperamos que se haga lo antes posible
Montero’s unkept promise
María Jesús Montero, then vice‑president and PSOE regional leader, stood on the Algarrobico beach on 10 February 2025 and pledged to demolish the hotel within five months, initiating an expropriation process. The Council of Ministers approved the public‑utility declaration the next day, but the expropriation has stalled in litigation. The spectacle of her own party delaying the licence annulment undercuts that promise and fuels accusations of electoral theatre.
quienes fueron los responsables de que se construyera esta aberración urbanística … siguen poniendo palos en la rueda a la solución
