This year, the Diputación de Alicante will acquire an emblematic building in the center of Elche to open a permanent headquarters, of an institutional and cultural nature, as announced this Thursday by President Carlos Mazón, during a conference organized by the Elche Business Circle and Comarca (Cedelco), which was attended by nearly 200 businessmen from the city of Elche.

The Alicante leader has advanced that, due to its uniqueness and historical, cultural and protection value, the former Capitol Cinema and the CAM Foundation Classroom, with whose management a meeting has already been held, are being considered to host this delegation from the institution provincial. The purchase, once the provincial technicians assess which of the two buildings is more suitable, will become effective in this same year and will be around 4.5 million euros, which will be covered by surpluses.

"These are two historic and emblematic buildings that we cannot allow to deteriorate and be lost," said Mazón, who detailed that the future headquarters of the Provincial Council will have a marked cultural character, as well as an institutional one, "because we have a fund spectacular Mubag painting, very important archaeological collections in the MARQ, a literary cultural agenda through the Juan Gil-Albert Institute and a musical offer with the ADDA that we are willing to have permanently based in Elche ».

The president of Alicante has recognized that this new project "will contribute to continue paying off the historical debt with Elche from the Diputación" and has explained that the City Council "is already aware of our intention and we have proposed it out of loyalty".

On the other hand, during the conference 'The Provincial Council and the historical debt with Elche', held at the headquarters of the Soledad Group in Elx Parc Industrial, Mazón also advanced that the institution has already recorded, after its approval by the Governing Board, the 4.5 million euros to be invested in the purchase of the site that will house the future Congress Center of the town.

In addition, it has confirmed that, despite the fact that the City Council of Elche is pending to carry out the traffic study and manage the availability of the land, "from the provincial institution, and to save time, we are finalizing the specifications for the tender of the study, project and execution of what will be the future congress building.

Regarding a possible participation of the Generalitat in the financing of this building, whose cost has been estimated at between 25 and 30 million euros, Mazón has insisted that "if finally the regional administration is not willing to assume even one euro, nor it does so with the historical debt with Elche, the Diputación will take charge of one hundred percent of the construction", although it has demanded that the Generalitat "at least get involved in the management, maintenance and promotion of the Elche congress palace".

Before the nearly 200 businessmen and representatives of different entities and economic and social associations of the municipality, Mazón stated that "from the Diputación we are fulfilling all the commitments acquired with Elche and we admit, unlike other administrations, the historical debt with the city ».

“There is a historical debt with Elche that must be addressed with serious projects and commitments” and, in this sense, he pointed out that between 2019 and 2021 investments for the city have been approved by the Provincial Council that exceed 22 million euros, to which which will be added in this year 2022 another 20 million euros.

As an example of the commitment of the government team of the provincial institution with the main city of Baix Vinalopó, Mazón has cited the support for businessmen, SMEs and freelancers from Elche during the pandemic, allocating more than 500,000 euros for this purpose, the reduction of the surcharge provincial IAE to 5%, or the more than 720,000 invested to face social spending derived from Covid-19.

The support for the Misteri d'Elx, with aid that reaches 150,000 euros in this period, for the Palma Blanca, with 95,000 euros, for the restoration of the Basilica of Santa María, in whose Master Plan 60,500 euros have been invested, or for the Granada Mollar, with subsidies of 30,000 euros per year in recent years, are some of the investments that the provincial institution has undertaken in the city, "because here it is not spent, but rather invested, since the Elche society is capable of returning any project that is carried out has a much greater impact and, therefore, it is a safe bet", stated the president.

The promotion of the CENID Artificial Intelligence Center with the involvement of the UMH, the subsidy to the UNED of Elche -104,000 euros per year-, the Consumption Bonus, with more than 547,815 euros for the city, or investments in infrastructures such as the more than 1 .2 million euros earmarked for the construction of the bike lane in the southern ring road are other initiatives that the Diputación de Alicante has launched in this legislature.

Finally, Mazón also referred to the study that the Provincial Council will commission on the feasibility of the tram in Elche and has insisted, in the face of the refusal of other administrations to promote this infrastructure in the city, that "because if Alicante has Cercanías, Alta Velocidad and tram , Elche cannot have it, or, at least, the possibility of studying it rigorously and seriously and putting it on the table».