The precedent of the Canaries that can help Ciutadella not have to return the cars to El Born

CiutadellaToday marks one year since the Plaça del Born in Ciutadella became pedestrianized. An emblematic public space practically free of cars and reclaimed for the citizens, but which is still being challenged in the courts of justice. The lawsuit filed by a group of 22 business owners and private individuals grouped as Ciutadella Viva and, above all, the unexpected ruling by the High Court of Justice (TSJIB) which partially accepts the precautionary measures they were requesting and orders the City Council to "restore" the square to the state it was in a year ago, with cars, keeps the entire municipality in suspense.

But not even the order for "immediate" execution of the ruling issued before Sant Joan by the Registrar of the Administration of Justice, nor the warning of imposing coercive fines on the civil servants and politicians who have been involved in the proceedings, has made the City Council back down. The municipal government, formed by the PSOE, PSM-Més per Menorca, and Ciutadella Endavant, has responded to this order with a motion for reconsideration and has already sent to the TSJIB, first, and to the Supreme Court, afterwards, the preliminary brief for a cassation appeal with which it intends to prevent the square from being filled with cars again.

The document, 14 pages long and signed by lawyer and former PI councilor Antoni Amengual Perelló (Riutord Advocats), attempts to provide arguments to the Supreme Court to convince it to fully review the sentence of the High Court of Justice of the Balearic Islands. The decision that the City Council is appealing - it says - "has undeniable objective grounds for appeal to create jurisprudence, because there is no doctrine from the high court that generally resolves the legal problem that arises here".

The preparatory appeal mentions up to seven state law norms, especially from the Law of Contentious-Administrative Jurisdiction, which the sentence would have infringed "and which have been relevant and decisive for the judicial decision". Basically, there has been an "erroneous interpretation" of the de facto situation that, according to the sentence, would have pushed the City Council to reorder traffic without relying on any regulations and without the "enabling title" of the Sustainable Urban Mobility Plan being definitively approved.

However, the municipal appeal contradicts the judicial resolution and states that, in reality, the City Council has "a plurality of enabling titles" for the reordering of the square that it has carried out. The main ones are the two ordinances on traffic and occupation of public roads that it has approved to remove cars from El Born and allow bars to install terraces. But it also invokes the Special Plan for the Protection of the Historic-Artistic Center, which considers surface parking in El Born as "a disturbing element of the heritage" and authorizes both the redesign of the square and the "drastic or total" reduction of parking that existed until just a year ago.

The City Council's challenge also warns of another violation of the law by the Chamber having made an "inadequate assessment of the general interest", which would be "disturbed" if the square has to be restored to its previous state. In this regard, it refers to the Supreme Court's own jurisprudence to conclude that "the effects could be even more detrimental than the action itself that it is intended to stop".

The legal cabinet hired by the City Council has also found a direct precedent analogous to that of Ciutadella, the conversion into a pedestrian zone of a road section in the Canary Islands, an action that the Superior Court of that autonomous community endorsed even though, in that case, the City Council did not even approve a municipal ordinance to legally support it. Thus, the appeal emphasizes, "all the more reason to exclude the de facto approach in the case of Ciutadella". In any case, it is one more reason for objective cassation interest due to "contradictory interpretation between different judicial bodies", since "the opposite conclusion was reached by the Superior Court of the Canary Islands than by that of the Balearic Islands".

This precedent and the extensive legal argumentation of the appeal have rekindled the hope of the municipal government, which also approves that the preliminary filing for cassation has been admitted for processing in Palma and has already been elevated to the Supreme Court for its pronouncement.

With this route, the City Council tries to gain time, delay the execution of the sentence and, if successful, make Justice rectify. But, at the same time, it maintains an outstretched hand for an agreement with the individuals and businessmen who initiated the judicial proceedings in order to convince them to withdraw the lawsuit. However, the parties have not yet been able to sit down. The Sant Joan festivals have marked an interruption in the negotiation, with neither party seeing a clear agreement. The plaintiffs' lawyer, Víctor Carrera, has warned the City Council that he will not meet unless an agreement proposal is presented to him well in advance.

Meanwhile, the cars continue to be outside the square and the City Council continues to use it for concerts and activities. The next ones, this very summer, the weekly fairs Slow Art that will fill with squares and works the pavement where before there was parking.