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Malaga city council's first-ever Chinese lantern festival will go ahead despite strong opposition from various political parties and complaints from some residents. The Partido Popular council team defeated the motions of opposing groups, the Socialists and Con Malaga, to cancel the celebration of the lantern festival in the Parque del Oeste.
Councillor Teresa Porras said the event will go ahead despite protests from residents in the area. On Sunday, there was a gathering of residents in the Parque del Oeste where they protested against "more than half of this public space" being occupied for a private event for which visitors will be charged entrance fees.
The opposition has been particularly harsh on the city hall making a concession worth 100,000 euros in a public space that is going to be closed for five months and in which there were "forecasts of 4.5 or five million euros of income", according to socialist Begoña Medina and Con Malaga councillor, Nicolás Sguiglia. Both the Socialists and Con Malaga attended the protests that have been organised at Parque del Oeste.
Porras said that while she understands there is going to be "a bit of discomfort" as residents will need to go out onto the road to access the part of the park that is not occupied by the festival, she said the event was chosen to held in winter which is "when it is least used". The opposition did not accept the explanation, which pointed out that it is in winter when this space is most used when temperatures are cooler.
"The lantern festival is the first time that it has come out of China and they have demanded that it be in Malaga," Porras said, who gave the example of the Christmas lighting in Malaga, which she said there had been opposition about for 15 or 16 years "and now everyone has realised the great investment, and this is going to be exactly the same". The tender for the lantern festival has already been carried out. "We are going to give out 4,000 free tickets, in agreement with the residents," Pottas said.
Meanwhile, Rafael Sánchez, one of the residents who went to the city hall, said it was "unacceptable" that a public park such as the Parque del Oeste be closed. "It's as if they decided to close Calle Larios and charge for entering it," he said. Another resident, Yolanda Rodeo, pointed out that she has lived in the area for 20 years and that she walks through the park every day, as do thousands of other people, and that it is not acceptable that it should be closed for a private show. Mari Ángeles Arribas said: "We ask for our park back", while pointing out how residents are perplexed to see how welded metalwork is being installed on the ground and statues are being moved to make way for the festival.
The opposition, both socialist councillor Medina and the councillor for Con Malaga, Nicolás Sguiglia criticised the "business" and "private profit of a company" that caused the closure of "a space belonging to the citizens". Vox councillor Yolanda Gómez said she did not understand why Partido Popular had chosen this park for the event, saying the site was not the right choice, while Sguiglia added that the city hall could have moved the event to the location where the fair is held and let the private company - Iluminaciones Ximénez - make the investment there to adapt it.
A petition was published on Change.org by a resident of the area which demands town hall reopen the Parque del Oeste to all residents, which has collected almost two thousand signatures.
In the Cirpaula Parque del Oeste Neighbourhood Association there is a "division of opinions", according to its president, Conchi Borrego, who pointed out that her personal point of view is critical, mainly because she sees the price of tickets to the lantern festival as "excessive". "They didn't give us enough details when they met with the residents," she added.
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