Unidos Mejoramos

07/06/2026

SOLVE PLUS, MINUS ACCIPE — Orihuelae Magna Felicitas - PAY MORE, GET LESS — Orihuela’s Great Success No second health centre until at least 2029. Let that sink in. After years of promises, studies, - The Leader - The No. 1 Spanish Newspaper

07/06/2026

SOLVE PLUS, MINUS ACCIPE — Orihuelae Magna Felicitas

PAY MORE GET LESS — Orihuela’s Great Success

A Municipal Swimming Pool for Orihuela Costa? Why Not?

For once, perhaps the question should not be what is wrong with Orihuela Costa.

Perhaps the question should be what could be improved.

A resident recently contacted Unidos Mejoramos regarding a swimming pool located within the Mirador de los Altos residential area on Avenida de Londres. According to the information provided, the pool was constructed many years ago on municipal land and is now subject to a demolition order after the Ayuntamiento reclaimed ownership of the site.

The legal situation is a matter for the authorities.

However, before public money is spent demolishing an existing facility, many residents are asking a simple question:

Why not explore whether it could become Orihuela Costa’s first municipal outdoor swimming pool?

It is a fair question.

Orihuela Costa is home to tens of thousands of permanent residents and welcomes many more during the summer months. Thousands of children live here throughout the year. Yet despite the size of the population and the taxes residents contribute, the coast has no municipal swimming pool available to the public.

Of course, some will immediately point out that Orihuela Costa has beaches.

That is true.

But beaches and swimming pools are not the same thing.

Many families with young children prefer the safety and convenience of a supervised pool environment. Elderly residents often find pools more accessible than beaches. Swimming lessons, community activities, exercise programmes and recreational events can all be organised around a municipal pool.

Furthermore, the reality is that not all of our beaches are currently presenting the image that residents and visitors would like to see. Several continue to suffer from large accumulations of seaweed, while concerns have periodically been raised regarding water quality and beach maintenance.

Whether those concerns are temporary or long-term is not the point.

The point is that a municipal pool would provide an additional recreational option for residents and visitors alike.

It would also represent something that Orihuela Costa desperately needs: investment in facilities designed specifically for the people who live here.

The idea is not unprecedented.

Nearby municipalities such as Formentera del Segura successfully operate municipal swimming pools which are widely used by residents throughout the summer months. If smaller municipalities can provide such facilities, why should Orihuela Costa continue to go without one?

The most interesting aspect of this proposal is that the basic infrastructure may already exist.

Rather than spending money on demolition and removing a potentially valuable community asset, surely it is worth examining whether the facility could be legally regularised, renovated if necessary and managed for public use.

No one is suggesting shortcuts.

Any proposal would need legal, technical, safety and financial assessments.

But surely investigating the possibility costs far less than dismissing it without consideration.

To his credit, Councillor for Orihuela Costa Manuel Mestre has already indicated that he is aware of the issue and will study the matter and look for a solution.

That is encouraging.

Residents often complain that the coast receives too little investment and too few public facilities.

Here is an opportunity to change that narrative.

A municipal swimming pool would not solve every problem facing Orihuela Costa.

It would not repair broken roads, remove weeds, improve healthcare or solve waste collection issues.

But it would be something positive.

Something practical.

Something visible.

And most importantly, something that thousands of local families could actually use.

Sometimes the best projects are not the most expensive.

They are simply the ones that make people’s lives a little better.

Perhaps this is one of them.

06/06/2026

SOLVE PLUS, MINUS ACCIPE — Orihuelae Magna Felicitas

PAY MORE, GET LESS — Orihuela’s Great Success

No second health centre until at least 2029.

Let that sink in.

After years of promises, studies, announcements, press releases and political speeches, residents of Orihuela Costa are now being told that meaningful progress remains years away.

Should anyone really be surprised?

This is, after all, the same municipality where residents have been waiting nearly twenty years for a footbridge.

The same municipality where the Ramón de Campoamor Civic Centre remains closed while residents continue to ask when it will reopen.

The same municipality struggling with an acute shortage of rubbish bins despite years of complaints.

The same municipality still debating projects that should have been completed years ago.

The same municipality where residents repeatedly hear about plans, strategies, commitments and future investments, while watching everyday services steadily deteriorate around them.

Orihuela has become a place overflowing with words but desperately short of delivery.

Announcements are easy.

Press conferences are easy.

Promises are easy.

Results are harder.

And that is where successive administrations have repeatedly failed.

The tragedy is that none of this is new.

Residents complain.

Politicians promise.

Deadlines slip.

Projects stall.

Excuses appear.

Nothing changes.

Then, just as frustration reaches boiling point, another election arrives.

And somehow the cycle begins all over again.

Complaints that filled social media for four years suddenly disappear.

Residents who spent years criticising delays, neglect, deteriorating infrastructure and broken promises somehow convince themselves that this time will be different.

The anger fades.

The memories blur.

The ballot papers are marked.

And the same political machines are handed another mandate.

A mandate not earned through delivery.

A mandate earned through habit.

Then the cycle starts again.

More promises.

More studies.

More consultations.

More delays.

More disappointment.

It has become the political equivalent of a hamster wheel.

Everyone is moving.

Nobody is getting anywhere.

The most remarkable part is not that politicians continue making promises.

Politicians will always make promises.

The remarkable part is that residents continue rewarding failure.

At some point responsibility belongs not only to those who govern, but also to those who repeatedly accept being governed in exactly the same way.

Because there comes a moment when neglect is no longer accidental.

It becomes predictable.

And when something becomes predictable, it becomes a choice.

The reality facing Orihuela Costa today is painfully simple.

Residents pay more.

Taxes increase.

Charges increase.

Expectations increase.

Yet services fail to keep pace.

Infrastructure lags behind.

Healthcare remains inadequate.

Community facilities remain closed.

Basic maintenance remains inconsistent.

And major projects remain trapped in endless administrative limbo.

Hence the unofficial municipal motto:

SOLVE PLUS, MINUS ACCIPE.

Pay More. Get Less.

A phrase intended as satire, yet increasingly sounding like an accurate description of daily life.

The greatest success of Orihuela politics may not be delivering projects.

It may be convincing people, election after election, that delivery is just around the corner.

The second health centre.

The footbridge.

The civic centre.

The recycling facilities.

The infrastructure upgrades.

The long-promised improvements.

Always coming.

Never arriving.

And until residents begin demanding results instead of rhetoric, accountability instead of excuses, and delivery instead of promises, the wheel will continue turning.

Round and round.

Election after election.

Promise after promise.

Year after year.

Pay more.

Get less.

Orihuela’s great success.

03/06/2026

SOLVE PLUS, MINUS ACCIPE — Orihuelae Magna Felicitas

PAY MORE GET LESS — Orihuela’s Great Success

The Healthcare Mirage 2.0 — Now Scheduled for 2029

For residents of Orihuela Costa, the promise of a second health centre has become less of a public project and more of a political ritual.

Every few years a new announcement appears, a new location is unveiled, a new timetable is published, and residents are told that this time things are different.

Yet here we are in 2026, still relying on a health centre designed in 2004, while the latest official roadmap now points towards completion no earlier than 2029.

Three more years.

And that assumes everything goes perfectly.

The Ayuntamiento recently published a twelve-stage process for the new health centre. At first glance it looks impressive. Green ticks. Official graphics. Positive slogans.

Look closer and a different picture emerges.

The first three administrative stages have been completed.

The remaining nine stages remain pending.

The land still requires rezoning.

Budget allocations still need approval.

Projects still need drafting.

Construction still needs tendering.

Construction itself has not begun.

Regional funding still requires final approval.

Equipment, staffing and operational resources remain outstanding.

In other words, the vast majority of the project has yet to happen.

Residents are therefore being asked to celebrate the starting line rather than the finish line.

The frustration is understandable.

This is not occurring in isolation.

The same community is still waiting for the long-promised footbridge after nearly twenty years.

The Ramón de Campoamor Civic Centre remains closed.

The recycling centre remains absent.

Bin shortages continue.

Road repairs repeatedly fail.

Public services struggle to keep pace with population growth.

Against that backdrop, promises for 2029 are inevitably met with scepticism rather than enthusiasm.

And perhaps that is the real story.

The issue is no longer whether a second health centre is needed. Virtually everyone agrees that it is.

The issue is trust.

How many times can residents be told that help is coming before they stop believing it?

How many election cycles can pass before people begin treating announcements as publicity rather than progress?

Politicians often complain about public cynicism.

Yet cynicism is rarely created by residents.

It is created when words repeatedly arrive years before results.

The current administration argues that significant progress has finally been achieved. Supporters will point to delegated powers, agreements with the Generalitat and the publication of a structured plan.

Those are fair points.

But residents have learned through experience that paperwork does not treat patients.

Press releases do not reduce waiting times.

Announcements do not provide medical appointments.

Only a completed health centre can do that.

Until a shovel enters the ground and construction begins, many residents will continue to see the project not as a certainty but as another promise waiting to be tested by reality.

Because in Orihuela Costa, people have heard the speeches before.

What they are waiting for now is proof.

SOLVE PLUS, MINUS ACCIPE — Orihuelae Magna Felicitas.

PAY MORE. GET LESS.

Orihuela’s Great Success.

01/06/2026

Sixteen Years Later — And Public Confidence Is Still On Trial

The courts will decide whether Pepe Vegara is guilty or innocent.

That is their role.

But there is another question that deserves equal scrutiny, regardless of the eventual verdict.

How can a case of this magnitude still be working its way through the courts sixteen years after the investigation began?

Sixteen years.

Pause for a moment and consider what that means.

Children born when this investigation started are now old enough to drive, vote, work and pay taxes.

Entire political careers have begun and ended.

Mayors have come and gone.

Coalitions have been formed, collapsed and replaced.

Municipal budgets worth hundreds of millions of euros have been approved and spent.

Yet this case remains unfinished.

According to reports, the prosecution has opposed a defence request to dismiss the proceedings on due-process grounds, and Judge Sacramento Ruiz Bosch has scheduled further hearings for June.

Whether the delay is justified or not is ultimately for the courts to determine.

But for many residents, the real issue is no longer the legal arguments.

It is the passage of time itself.

Because justice delayed on this scale inevitably raises questions about justice delivered.

A democratic society depends not only upon fair verdicts, but upon timely accountability.

When major public cases take more than a decade and a half to reach resolution, public confidence begins to erode.

Citizens start asking uncomfortable questions.

Is the system working?

Is accountability arriving too late to matter?

Would ordinary people receive the same patience and procedural tolerance?

These questions are not attacks on the courts.

They are questions born from frustration.

And frustration grows when year after year passes without answers.

The political dimension makes the situation even more significant.

Pepe Vegara is not merely defending himself as a private citizen.

He is the Mayor of Orihuela.

He is also the Councillor for Finance.

The individual entrusted with overseeing municipal budgets, public spending and financial governance.

Legally, those responsibilities remain intact unless and until a court decides otherwise.

Politically, however, many residents find themselves confronting a difficult contradiction.

How can a municipality project transparency, accountability and confidence when its most senior political and financial representative remains involved in a court case that has overshadowed public life for sixteen years?

That is not a legal question.

It is a question of public trust.

And trust, once weakened, is extraordinarily difficult to rebuild.

Over the years Orihuela has witnessed investigations, scandals, allegations and courtroom battles involving politicians from different parties and different administrations.

Each case has its own facts.

Each deserves to be judged independently.

But collectively they have left scars.

Residents see deteriorating infrastructure.

They see neglected public spaces.

They see endless debates about resources, priorities and investment.

At the same time they see headlines dominated by legal proceedings, investigations and political controversy.

The result is predictable.

Cynicism grows.

Confidence falls.

Faith in institutions weakens.

And that may be the greatest danger of all.

Because democracies do not fail when politicians face scrutiny.

Democracies fail when citizens stop believing that scrutiny leads to accountability.

Whatever verdict eventually emerges from this case, one fact cannot be ignored:

Public confidence has already spent sixteen years waiting.

Sixteen years for answers.

Sixteen years for closure.

Sixteen years for certainty.

The court will decide the legal outcome.

But history may ultimately judge something else entirely.

Not whether justice was done.

But whether justice arrived far too late.

And for many residents of Orihuela, that may be the most troubling ver

01/06/2026

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30/05/2026

SOLVE PLUS, MINUS ACCIPE — Orihuelae Magna Felicitas

PAY MORE GET LESS — Orihuela’s Great Success.
Read this shocking article in the Leader

Sixteen years after the investigation began, Orihuela’s Mayor and Finance Councillor now finds himself standing trial in a case involving alleged tax fraud and commercial document irregularities.

Whether he is ultimately convicted or acquitted is entirely a matter for the courts.

But politically, many residents will find it difficult to ignore one obvious fact:

The individual at the centre of the proceedings is not just any elected official.

He is the Mayor of Orihuela.

He is also the Councillor responsible for Finance.

The person entrusted with overseeing public money, municipal budgets, financial controls and fiscal responsibility.

That reality alone raises legitimate questions about public confidence.

Because regardless of the eventual verdict, the optics are troubling.

Residents are being asked to trust a local administration facing constant criticism over services, infrastructure, spending priorities and accountability, while its most senior financial and political figure is simultaneously defending himself in court in a case that has now dragged on for sixteen years.

The legal verdict remains to be written.

But the political damage is already evident.

Trust is difficult to build.

Easy to lose.

And when confidence in institutions begins to weaken, every new controversy becomes another brick removed from the foundations.

For many residents, this case is no longer simply about what happened in 2005.

It is about whether Orihuela’s political leadership can still command the confidence and credibility required to govern effectively today.

Court Testimony Places Orihuela Mayor at the Center of Alleged ITV Tax-Fraud Decisions - Former accountant says Pepe Vegara and two fellow administrators held decision-making power when the alleged €488,000 corporate tax fraud took place A - The Leader - The No. 1 Spanish Newspaper

27/05/2026

SOLVE PLUS, MINUS ACCIPE — Orihuelae Magna Felicitas

PAY MORE GET LESS — Orihuela’s Great Success

When police officers attend the national headquarters of Spain’s ruling party as part of a High Court investigation, it stops being “just another political story.”

It becomes something far more serious:
a warning sign about the state of public trust in politics itself.

And across Spain — including here in Orihuela — many ordinary citizens are now watching these headlines with growing cynicism rather than shock.

Because whether the scandal involves PSOE, PP or any other party, the public reaction is increasingly the same:

👉 “Here we go again.”
👉 “Another investigation.”
👉 “Another corruption story.”
👉 “Another denial.”
👉 “Another political storm.”

That is the real crisis facing Spain.

Not simply individual allegations —
but the slow erosion of faith in institutions.

People work hard, pay taxes, struggle with rising costs, deteriorating services and political instability, while headline after headline seems dominated by investigations, influence, power struggles and alleged misconduct at the highest levels.

And eventually the public stops asking:
👉 “Who is guilty?”

And starts asking:
👉 “Can any of them truly be trusted anymore?”

That is politically devastating.

Because democracies survive not only through elections —
but through confidence that the system itself is fair, accountable and transparent.

Once that confidence begins to collapse, anger spreads everywhere:
left, right and centre.

And perhaps that is why so many people now feel politically homeless.

Not because they no longer care about Spain —
but because they are exhausted watching scandal become normalised across the entire political landscape.

The danger is no longer just corruption itself.

The danger is public acceptance of it.

PSOE National Headquarters Targeted by Police in High Court Investigation - Madrid, 27 May 2026 Spanish Civil Guard officers attended the national headquarters of the ruling Socialist Party, PSOE, in Madrid on Wednesday as part of - The Leader - The No. 1 Spanish Newspaper