Those affected by the expropriations of Parc Sagunt II maintain a duality: they insist on making it clear that they are not against the gigafactory, "of progress", but they protest how it is being managed, since they want "reasonable prices" for the land because the who pay them "are a pittance. If we have to demonstrate, we will demonstrate." Those affected by the expropriations of Parc Sagunt II where the SEAT-Volkswagen gigafactory is planned agreed on Wednesday to go through the contentious-administrative process that the company Espais Econòmics Empresarials (EEE) has opened to fight for one more price that is not "an outrage ", they argue.
They assure that "we will do the impossible, because it is an outrage", explains Francisco Campillo, farmer delegate of AVA-ASAJA in Sagunt and of the local association ASCOSA-AVA. The latter, of which Campillo is president, has requested a meeting with the mayor of Sagunt to raise the problem with him and hopes to convey, from the AVA-ASAJA leadership, the same concern to the president of the Generalitat Valenciana.
At the moment there is no official request made, although the question jumps to the political terrain because United Podem-Esquerra Unida, through the deputy Estefania Blanes, has registered an oral question in the Corts to find out the reasons why the regional administration has appealed the fair price set by the provincial expropriation jury for the land in question. “Owners must obtain fair prices for their land, we cannot ignore the value of our orchards and agricultural land”, affirms the deputy.
But from Sagunt Campillo insists, from the outset, that "we are not against the gigafactory, we know it is progress and we have children and grandchildren who could work there, but we are very clear that we are not going to be the pagans of the factory", he argues to La Vanguardia.
For its part, the Ministry of Finance, on which the EEA company that manages Parc Sagunt depends, affirms that it followed "at all times" the established procedure for setting the prices of all the owners who opted for the expropriation process.
They explain that, as established by the regulations, an independent expert opinion was used that set the values based on the use of the land, plantations, varieties, age of the crops, etc., a process that was later approved by the territorial commission for urban planning and In any case, we proceeded in the same way as in Parc Sagunt I.
However, for the owners there is a big difference in price: in Parc Sagunt I they paid 40 euros per square meter and in Parc Sagunt II the prices are between 9 euros and 15.60. For this reason, some 800 farmers have legitimately appealed to the expropriation jury. There is now the option of reaching an agreement in court.
Meanwhile, the Sagunt gigafactory picked up a run yesterday when the Future: Fast Forward group presented itself in Madrid, which is going to develop 86 projects in 9 autonomous communities hand in hand with 52 of its partners, for which an investment of 10,000 million has been mobilized euros, as the president of Seat and the Anfac association, Wayne Griffiths, pointed out yesterday in the presentation of the project. It is "a historic investment not only in the automobile industry, but in the industry of Spain", he declared.
The Minister of Territorial Policy, Rebeca Torró, who was in the negotiating team to attract the gigafactory to the Valencian Community and who has always shown good harmony with the multinational, participated in the meeting. Yesterday from Madrid he highlighted that Future: Fast Forward "will make the Spanish automotive industry, and specifically the Valencian industry, a European benchmark in sustainable automotive".
