The Constitutional Court will address in plenary session next week whether the demolition of the Isla de Valdecañas complex (Cáceres) should be suspended in a precautionary manner. According to legal sources reported to EL MUNDO, the rapporteur for the appeal, magistrate Enrique Arnaldo, will propose to his colleagues to paralyze the demolition ordered by the Supreme Court until the Constitutional Court rules on the merits of the matter.

The sources consulted explain that, if the Plenary does not grant the precautionary suspension of the High Court's ruling, there would be “irreparable damage” with the demolition of the urban complex, even if a posteriori the guarantee court sided with the appellants, that is to say , the Junta de Extremadura, the Town Halls of El Gordo and Berrocalejo and the community of owners.

In February 2022, the Supreme Court ordered the demolition of this luxury resort that construction began in 2007 on land that was part of a Special Protection Zone. The Contentious-Administrative Chamber upheld the appeal filed by the entity Ecologistas en Acción against the order issued by the Superior Court of Justice of Extremadura in execution of the sentences that declared Decree 55/2007 of the Extremadura Board null and void for the that the Project of Regional Interest promoted by Marina Isla de Valdecañas SA was definitively approved. The High Court considered that there was no material impossibility of demolition of the tourist complex.

Subsequently, the Junta de Extremadura published the Law for the declaration of ZEPA zones where 55 special protection zones for birds were formally declared, which were supposed to have been declared Special Protection Zones for Birds although, in reality, “they had never really arrived to be declared as such” by the regional government.

The admission for processing of the appeals against the decision of the Supreme Court that ordered the demolition of Valdecañas in November 2022 was far from peaceful. Up to five magistrates -former vice president Juan Antonio Xiol and magistrates Ricardo Enríquez, María Luisa Balaguer, Ramón Sáez and Inmaculada Montalbán- voted against the processing of the appeals. The majority of the TC prevailed and the demands were admitted due to their “special constitutional importance” and because they “raised a legal question of relevant and general social or economic repercussion”.

The demolition of the Isla de Valdecañas and its possible future compensation to owners and the construction company could mean an economic hole for the Junta de Extremadura of more than 300 million euros.

For its part, the Constitutional Prosecutor's Office has requested that the request for amparo from the Junta de Extremadura be dismissed as it did not appreciate any violation of fundamental rights in this case.