Political projects rise or fall on trust. When a movement asks residents to believe in a long‑term vision—especially one as ambitious as greater autonomy or independence—it must be built on honesty, transparency, and respect for the people it claims to represent.
Anything less places it in the same category as those who have governed Orihuela for decades: leadership that speaks in grand promises while delivering little of substance.
In the 2023 municipal elections, the residents of Orihuela Costa delivered just over 1,800 votes to a new political project. For a party that had only recently been formed, that result was a genuine achievement.
It represented the first step on a long journey, the moment the train left the station. No one expected miracles, but many hoped for steady, responsible progress.
That is why the recent claim that the party will achieve 14,000 votes in the 2027 elections is not simply optimistic—it is mathematically and politically delusional. Moving from 1,800 to 14,000 votes represents an increase of 678%. No serious political strategist would present such a leap as realistic.
No responsible leadership would offer such a figure without a clear, evidence‑based plan to justify it. And no organisation that respects its supporters would treat them as if they cannot see the difference between aspiration and fantasy.
Residents deserve better than inflated promises. They deserve leaders who speak to them as adults, not as an audience to be dazzled with impossible numbers. When a party claims it can multiply its support nearly eightfold in a single election cycle, it is not projecting confidence—it is revealing a disconnect from reality.
Independence, autonomy, or any form of political transformation is not achieved through shortcuts or time‑warps into the future. It is achieved through incremental progress, through building credibility step by step, through earning trust at every station along the journey. The analogy of a train is not just poetic; it is accurate.
You cannot skip stations. You cannot jump from the first platform to the final destination because it feels good to say so. Every resident who chooses to “board the train” does so because they believe in the direction, not because they were promised teleportation.
The danger of unrealistic targets is not merely that they will be missed. The deeper danger is that they erode trust. When residents see a party making claims that bear no resemblance to electoral reality, they begin to question everything else the party says.
They wonder whether the leadership is being honest with them, or even with itself. They wonder whether the project has drifted from its original purpose.
And in this case, it has. The shift from democratic collaboration to a more rigid, top‑down style of leadership has not gone unnoticed. Silence within the party speaks volumes. When members stop speaking up, it is rarely because they agree; it is because they no longer believe their voices matter.
A political movement that cannot tolerate internal debate cannot credibly claim to represent a diverse community.
Residents deserve a political project grounded in truth, humility, and realism. They deserve leaders who understand that independence—if it is ever to be achieved—will come through patient, disciplined, incremental work, not through grand declarations detached from the facts, and not shouting out the word Independence as it’s a magic by ward.
The journey toward independence is still possible. But it will only be possible when honesty returns to the centre of the conversation. Until then, the train remains stuck between stations, not because residents lack belief, but because leadership has lost its way
We have serious problems to solve, and we need serious people to solve them.
