By Luis Quesada
PSOE councillor and general secretary in Orihuela
A few days ago, Orihuela hosted another official photo opportunity, this time at the first “Lemon Cutting” ceremony. But that was all it amounted to: a scene for the cameras. The politicians present spoke at length about their support for agriculture, yet announced not a single measure to ease the sector’s difficulties.
Representatives of the regional government and Orihuela’s ruling team smiled beside the citrus fruit that sustains the livelihoods of thousands of families across the Vega Baja. But once the cameras are switched off and the official cars have left, farmers and their families are left with little more than pats on the back, soaring costs, uncertainty over the prices they will receive and a politics of gestures that can no longer conceal the lack of answers.
The lemon-cutting ceremony is not an isolated event. It is part of a well-rehearsed publicity script. Almost three years ago, the then president of the Generalitat, Carlos Mazón, came to Orihuela and made a great show of announcing that the Palacio del Marqués de Rafal — bought by the previous Botànic regional government for more than €2.3 million to serve the city — would become the “House of Water” and the “House of the Lemon”.
The reality, however, is undeniable. The palace remains firmly shut, deteriorating day by day and still waiting for investment that never arrives. Every delay makes its condition worse and increases the cost of the urgent restoration it will need. Meanwhile, those symbolic centres have solved none of the sector’s problems, provided not a single cubic metre of water and delivered not one direct grant.
The regional government is presenting ordinary European funding schemes for young farmers and farm modernisation — schemes open to the whole Valencian Community — as specific support for the Vega Baja. These funds may be useful, but they are not an emergency plan to tackle the lemon price crisis in Orihuela, nor a targeted response to the rising cost of resources.
While the Consell turns general aid into local announcements, production and export figures continue to depend above all on the work and effort of our farmers.
Then there is the familiar water-related demagoguery that the Partido Popular trots out at every rally, photo opportunity and gathering of its supporters. It brandishes the Tajo-Segura water transfer to stir up confrontation, while avoiding a full account of its own record.
The historical record allows us to compare different periods. Under Mariano Rajoy’s government, there were spells of “zero transfers” that hit the Vega Baja hard. Under Pedro Sánchez’s Spanish government, the transfer has continued to operate, while investment in desalination and water reuse has been promoted to strengthen water security for agriculture.
Faced with these facts, the PP prefers angry rhetoric and misleading headlines to explaining what practical solutions it proposes for irrigators.
We are seeing a political model that uses the Vega Baja’s agriculture as a backdrop for publicity, replacing good administration with staged events. The same approach is evident in gala ceremonies held without measures for the countryside, the neglect of a historic building such as the Palacio del Marqués de Rafal, and the freezing of key projects for the comarca.
These are not isolated failures. They are different sides of a politics that makes grand announcements, delivers little and leaves Orihuela to bear the consequences.
Orihuela’s countryside is one of the Vega Baja’s leading lemon-producing areas. It cannot live on headlines, locked-up symbolic buildings or seasonal photo opportunities. The men and women who work this land are calling for concrete action: dependable water security backed by facts, fair prices, help with rising costs and a government that works on the ground.
The Consell and the Town Council must stop using lemons as a stage prop, get stalled projects moving and respond with decisions that can be measured. It is time to bring this performance to an end and start governing for the people who sustain our local economy.
