The unusual journey to a neighborhood in Valencia of a fir tree that Vox commissioned in Italy for 11,000 euros

The purchase of a gigantic fir tree, imported from Italy, commissioned by the first deputy mayor of Valencia, Juanma Badenas, from Vox, has ended up in the Valencian Anti-Fraud Agency following a complaint from the socialists. The local government has spent nearly 11,000 euros on this almost 11-meter-high specimen that adorned the central Plaza de la Reina at Christmas. The socialists have denounced to the Agency how the order was carried out because, according to municipal reports, “totally and absolutely disregarding the legally established procedure.” The fir has now been replanted on the south boulevard of Valencia, in the San Marcelino neighborhood, among palm trees, jacarandas and brachyquitos, common species on the city streets.

The tree was installed in the Plaza de la Reina in Valencia at the beginning of December as a Christmas decoration and from its branches the City Council hung decorative balls with the names of the 80 neighborhoods of the city. Juanma Badenas, first deputy mayor and councilor responsible for Parks and Gardens, then pointed out that the council did not want to work with artificial plants and preferred to “green” a square with so much cement, especially when there were just a few days left before Valencia would become the European Green Capital of 2024.

The socialist councilor Elisa Valía opened the thunder when she asked the government coalition: “What has been the cost of acquiring the fir specimen and who will cover said cost (directly from the service, a contract from the City Council, or other)?”. The answer came with surprise included. “The cost, which includes the supply, transportation and placement of the flower pot, amounts to 10,690 euros (VAT included). Given the impossibility of bidding for this Parks and Gardens Service due to the proximity of Christmas and the scarcity of fir trees of the requested measures, the purchase has been made through the maintenance contract of SAV [Sociedad Agricultores de la Vega]which will shortly send the invoice to the service.”

Valía reported the case to the Valencian Anti-Fraud Agency and accessed a report from the Municipal Intervention in which a series of infractions are described: “The order has been carried out completely and absolutely disregarding the legally established procedure (…). At the time it was carried out, there was adequate and sufficient credit, although it was not duly authorized and arranged, with omission of the mandatory prior inspection of the expense and/or intervention of the recognition of the obligation,” the report continues. And he claimed: “In the report justifying the expense incurred, the reason why the appropriate contracting procedure was not followed should be indicated more precisely.”

“A complete nonsense with which Mayor María José Catalá welcomes the European Green Capital,” criticized Valía, who ironically stated that the first action was to move a tree from one side to the other. “The trip from Italy and now this transfer can seriously affect the specimen,” she warned while calling Badenas' order “caciquil.”

Beyond the contracting process, the suitability of the type of tree chosen raises doubts in a city as hot and with so little rainfall as Valencia. “It is not a common species in our climate. It also needs a high rainfall regime and acidic soils,” explains Enrique Conde, technical secretary of the Spanish Arboriculture Association in Valencia to questions from this newspaper. “Thinking that it is a tree whose main objective was Christmas decoration, if you then want to give it a second life, the effort that must be made to maintain it may be disproportionate,” points out the technician.

The Italian fir is explained because it comes from the nurseries of Pistoia, an area of ​​Italian Tuscany known throughout Europe for the production of plants. “The species is not in keeping with the environment and probably suffers or has to make an excessive effort to maintain it,” adds Conde, referring to the fact that these specimens usually live at more than 1,000 meters above sea level. It is true that the jacarandas, which come from South America, or the bottle tree or braquiquito, native to Australia, that are seen on the streets of Valencia are not native species but they live in climates similar to that of the European Mediterranean. According to the technician, the next two or three years will be crucial for the fir tree, native to the Caucasus, to take root in the capital's gardens.

An “urgent” procedure

The first deputy mayor Juanma Badenas explains that it was a technical decision. “I told them that I wanted a fir tree for Christmas in Plaza de la Reina, with so much cement. Both Calle de la Paz and San Vicente were roads that were heavily damaged by the works and the merchants deserved special treatment,” explains the Vox councilor to this newspaper. He asked for a natural one “because I am against artificial ones since fossil fuels are used to manufacture them and then they have to be thrown away. “He was looking for a tree that could later be replanted.”

“We have spoken repeatedly with the technicians and they have said that, although they are not our own nor the most suitable for our ecosystem, that does not mean that if they are taken care of, they cannot be perfectly in condition. He will be treated with the care he needs,” Badenas emphasizes.

Regarding the administrative controls, he insists that he followed the recommendations of the technicians and since there were only two suppliers in all of Europe of this type of fir trees who could supply it quickly, the emergency procedure was resorted to.

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