Por Andalucía and Izquierda Unida have demanded in a letter to the Junta de Andalucía, the Diputación de Málaga and Manilva Town Hall itself the immediate halt of the eviction of 62 families in the municipality, scheduled for the 10th.
The demand has been generating political controversy, as both groups are part of the current Manilva municipal government, which makes the request one aimed, in part, at an institution that they themselves politically control.
The initiative was presented publicly by the Por Andalucía candidate for Málaga, Ernesto Alba, and the IU provincial coordinator, Toni Morillas, who have condemned the “housing emergency” these families are facing and have called on the Junta de Andalucía to urgently start expropriation proceedings in the general interest, as well as firm measures against property speculation.
Alba stated that “once again, speculation is destroying the lives of working families in Andalucía” and said that the 62 families affected “have no housing alternative and may end up on the street because of a vulture fund”. In his address, the Por Andalucía leader attacked the Andalusian PP government and the president of the Junta, Juan Manuel Moreno Bonilla, accusing them of “acting as puppets of investment funds”.
However, the public statements and demands make no reference to the direct responsibility of Manilva Town Hall, an institution to which the request is also formally addressed and which, at the same time, is governed with the participation of the very forces behind the initiative.
Along the same lines, Toni Morillas demanded the immediate halt of the eviction and called for the expropriation of the homes so that they can be added to the public housing stock, stressing that “all institutions have to make a move” in a situation she described as “a total social emergency”.
Morillas insisted on the need for “maximum institutional collaboration” to prevent the mass eviction of families with children, condemning that investment funds “speculate without limits” while the authorities fail to guarantee the right to housing.
IU also called for an increase in the public stock of social rental housing and the use of “all available instruments”, including expropriation on grounds of social emergency. Again, it did not specify what immediate action is being taken by the Manilva Town Hall itself, even though its own political party is part of the current governing team.
For her part, the IU district coordinator for the western Costa del Sol, Victoria Morales, stated that Manilva is experiencing “another clear case of property speculation” and demanded that both the Junta and the Town Hall use all legal tools to recover the affected housing development and allocate it to public housing.
The situation is, to say the least, curious and adds to the political inconsistencies of the town, particularly regarding the coherence between public discourse and institutional action, as it presents an unusual paradox: the same parties that govern the Town Hall are publicly demanding that the Town Hall itself take action, without clarifying what specific measures the municipal government is taking to stop an eviction that is imminent, or what actions are being considered in the new budget to allocate funds to address similar situations of social emergency in the future.
This statement comes just hours before the Ordinary council meeting, where the first item on the agenda will be the motion to declare a situation of social emergency in view of the eviction from homes on calle Sarmiento in Manilva. The council meeting will begin at 9:30.
