Mayor rebukes accusation of €20k personal dressmaker

ORIHUELA Mayor Monica Lorente (PP) dismissed accusations by the Socialist party (PSOE) of underhand dealings describing them as “nonsense.” Municipal PSOE spokesperson, Antonia Moreno, claimed that the Popular Party mayor had authorised payments amounting to €20,000 in 2008 to designer Julio Diaz for a training workshop which never took place.

Moreno called the mayor ‘Ali-Baba’ and says Diaz justified having spent the money with invoices issued by the brother in law of Culture Councillor Pepa Ferrando and another from Diaz’s own brother.

“The grant to Julio Diaz is like many that the city gives to shops in the municipality for the development of training workshops,” said Lorente.

Meanwhile, Moreno says she plans to take these ‘findings’ to the Anti-Corruption Prosecutor.

“Unfortunately we are used to these old strategies and are not surprised at their plans,” said Lorente at the end of a plenary session which had just approved the joint motion of the PP and PSPV parties to implement a €2m plan for employment workshops in municipalities with less than 2,000 inhabitants.