Madrid and the Generalitat clash over control of the Babilonia beachfront homes. Valencia is accused of violating state powers and “institutional disloyalty”
The Spanish Central Government, through the Ministry for Ecological Transition, has issued a formal demand to the Valencian Regional Government (Generalitat) to revoke measures taken to halt the demolition of the century-old Babilonia houses on Guardamar beach. The Ministry is threatening legal action through a contentious-administrative appeal if the Generalitat does not comply.
This conflict stems from the Generalitat’s decision to admit for processing the declaration of the residential area as an “urban core with special ethnological value” and a subsequent precautionary suspension of the demolitions, just days before the September 15th deadline for residents to carry out the court-ordered destruction of their homes.
The demolitions were ordered by the Ministry, backed by definitive rulings from the National Court and the Supreme Court, due to the lack of a valid occupation title for the properties located on the maritime-terrestrial public domain. The courts and the Ministry have cited environmental and safety concerns, including the buildings’ impact on the dune system and the risk posed by the sea’s action. The residents had agreed to voluntary demolition by the deadline but paused the work following the Generalitat’s protective measures.
The Central Government argues that the Generalitat’s actions—based on a new Valencian Coastal Law whose constitutionality is under negotiation—constitute “institutional disloyalty” and an “undue extension of regional competencies” into an area exclusively reserved for the State: defining the legal regime of the public maritime-terrestrial domain. The Ministry explicitly contends that the Generalitat’s moves, including only giving the State eight days to react, are designed to evade a firm administrative and judicial demolition order and potentially empty the State’s competence of content.
Despite the Central Government’s requirement, which the Generalitat has one month to address, the Valencian government has signalled it will stand firm. It maintains that the residential cluster holds significant cultural, historical, and ethnological value justifying its conservation, even on public coastal land.
The Generalitat’s insistence on protecting the homes puts it in support of the affected residents, who face losing their properties and a lifetime of memories. The resulting court battle would inevitably delay the execution of the demolition order. The wider context includes ongoing negotiations between the two administrations over the constitutionality of the Valencian Coastal Law, with the Central Government considering an appeal to the Constitutional Court.
