THE Seville Public Prosecutor’s Office filed the complaint of 16 promoters against the municipal concession of the Spanish Steps for the celebration of the festival Iconic Santalucía Festival in Seville. As the prosecution confirmed to the ABC, the facts “don’t matter” … characteristics of a crime and therefore destroys this avenue, even if, in said archiving decree, it opens the door for plaintiffs to “reproduce their complaint” before the courts of investigation.
The CEO of Green cow and director of the festival, Javier Esteban, denounced a “campaign of harassment and demolition” against him, considering that the concession that the Seville City Council makes to his company is “absolutely legal”which the prosecution itself underlined. Esteban, in fact, complained that the request of the promoters, represented by Concert Tour Gestiones SL -of the Cádiz businessman Rafael Casillas- caused him to lose sponsors and artists by creating legal insecurity, by exercising “misunderstood competition”.
The Seville Provincial Prosecutor’s Office, after analyzing the documentation collected regarding the complaint filed by Concert Tour and other companies against the City Hall and Green Cow Music, concludes that the reported facts do not have the character of a crime. The complaint attributed to the alleged municipal officials crimes of prevarication, embezzlement and preferential treatmentamong others, alleging that the transfer of the Plaza de España for the Icónica Santalucía Sevilla Fest festival had been carried out “without the presence of the public during the last five years and that had been irregularly extended until 2031“.
For the Public Ministry, once the investigation has been carried out, in this concession there was no “arbitrary resolution” nor “the omission of essential procedures”, elements necessary for the crime of prevarication.
According to the documentation obtained, authorizations for use of the public domain were processed in accordance with the ordinance regulating the profession public spaces of the historic complex of Seville for ephemeral activities and events.
As detailed by the Public Prosecutor’s Office, the municipal company Contursa limited itself to providing support and processing the reservation of spaces within the framework of collaboration agreements, but it was she who Urban planning and environmental management (GUMA) which granted the occupation and activity authorizations after the favorable technical reports and the payment of the corresponding fees.
“No right of preference”
Regarding the so-called “handmade” prize for the years to come (2026-2031), the prosecution specifies that the agreements signed between Contursa and Green Cow Music SL “guarantee the municipal will to organize the event”, but “without any preferential rights or specific reservation“. Indeed, according to the prosecution, To date, there is no administrative resolution authorizing the event for 2026..
The decree emphasizes that there was no agreement on the applications valid in previous years because the complainant company, Concert Tour Gestiones SL, presented petitions in 2022 and 2023 with “incomplete and incorrect documentation”. More specifically, they did not provide the cultural project or the technical project corresponding to their opinion, requirements required in accordance with Article 6 of the Regulatory Ordinance. This same absence of technical project is maintained in its request for the 2026 edition.
Finally, the Prosecutor’s Office recalls that the regulation of any social area must evolve and adapt to changes in the reality that it regulates, recognizing new social dynamics to guarantee its effectiveness and acceptance, and in this sense, it is clear that the City Hall, given the growing interest in the use of the Plaza de España, has started the procedures to prepare a new specific ordinance that regulates uses, schedules and authorization procedures in the Plaza de Españaa file which is already in the public consultation phase.
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