Cambiemos Orihuela has called on Tourism Councillor Gonzalo Montoya and his adviser to repay more than €3,000 it says was spent from public funds on their trip to New York.
The municipal group said the costs covered the councillor’s and adviser’s travel and expenses. Its demand follows comments at the council’s 15 October plenary meeting, where councillor Mestre said the trip was institutional and all those who travelled had paid their own way.
Cambiemos disputes that the visit qualified as an institutional trip, saying Montoya had no official agenda in New York and took part in no political or institutional meetings or events. The group said the only gathering was a protocolary reception at La Nacional, where the councillors’ presence was not essential.
Spokesperson Leticia Pertegal said the group supported the council’s backing for Orihuela’s Moros y Cristianos association in New York, but argued that public funds should not cover the councillor’s and adviser’s expenses when they had no separate official programme. Cambiemos said Mestre had paid his own costs and had not claimed expenses.
The group also challenged Vox’s explanation for missing a 13 October committee meeting on the 2025 General Account. It said the councillors’ absence was not caused by delayed return flights, as Mestre had claimed, but because they were travelling back from Madrid by AVE that afternoon. Cambiemos has called for an apology to committee members and urged the council to apply stricter rules to publicly funded travel and expenses.
