The mayor of Seville, allied with the Church to cut down a centenary tree in Triana

• Politics Swords confirms that the mayors of Seville, Granada, Huelva and Jaén will repeat as candidates in 2023

The mayor of Seville, the socialist

, has teamed up with the Church to

a hundred-year-

in the Triana neighborhood, citing security reasons.

But the decision of the Seville City Council to cut down the ficus tree next to the church of San Jacinto has caused outrage and rejection from neighbors and environmentalists.

This early Wednesday morning,

have climbed to the top of the ficus and have announced that they will remain at the top of the tree as long as they can to try to prevent "this attack".

"It is incomprehensible that with a

and in a city like Seville the ficus has to be cut down," Inés and Juan, two of the young people who have climbed the tree to prevent felling, have denounced on their social networks.

Finally, around 1:00 p.m., the three activists left the protest, after the intervention of the

, who had to use the crane to lower them from the tree.

In the area, more than a hundred people have gathered shouting

.

The protesters have been joined by actor

, who lives in the neighborhood.

The Local Police have had to cordon off the area and have cut off traffic.

This Tuesday, the mayor of Seville, through his Twitter account, said: "Today is a sad day. Nobody wanted to reach this situation, but we share the

and we respect its technical decision on the San Jacinto ficus given the high risk to pedestrians and the structure of the building, safety is a priority."

As explained by the mayor, the tree is in a section of San Jacinto street, in Triana, "with a high influx of pedestrians and it is a transit area both for the

, with hundreds of children, and for the church where many enter. people every day."

He ends his message on social media by saying that it is "a difficult and sad decision for the city and the neighborhood."

The mayor's explanations have not convinced the neighbors who have protested the logging, who denounce the management of the Seville City Council and that it has been guided by a

for by the

, which, they say, has been the one that has been taken into account

account when decreeing the removal of the tree.

In fact, the Andalusian Gardening Multisectoral Association (AMJA) has filed a

to stop the ficus felling work, which began a few days ago.

The brief presented before the court and the City Council of Seville includes two reports from independent experts on the situation of the ficus, whose removal has been requested by the parish priest of the Church based on a report that underlines that it poses a danger to the building and the pedestrians, while various groups want it to remain.

Antonio Muñoz greets Juan Espadas, on the day of the changeover at the Seville City Council. EUROPA PRESS

Mayor Antonio Muñoz, therefore, has placed himself at the center of the controversy over the felling of the centenary tree just when he has just been confirmed as a candidate for Mayor of Seville for the next municipal elections in May 2023, without going through the

process .

As EL MUNDO has been reporting, the general secretary of the Andalusian PSOE, Juan Espadas, who was the predecessor of Muñoz in the Mayor's Office of Seville, has reiterated these days that the four mayors of the capital of the Andalusian province who are currently socialists -

in Seville ,

in Granada,

in Huelva and

in Jaén- will be the ones leading the party's candidacies in these cities in the next local elections.

In addition, the mayor of Seville assumed last April the presidency of the Network of

, the section of the Spanish Federation of Municipalities and Provinces, FEMP, dedicated to fighting climate change and its effects.

The tree is a "cancer"

Meanwhile, the parish community of San Jacinto has published a statement in which it assures that it feels "the disappearance of this tree", but the "worst decision" was to plant the ficus in this place, "logically ignoring that it would have the evolution that today know and that clearly has become a cancer (which is also a living entity) that grows excessively, although some continue to think that it is like

that we can handle as we please with the necessary care".

The parish council affirms that it has been "many years" trying to find solutions for the centenary tree, which supposes an

that "must be deducted from the same fund that has to be dedicated to what is the meaning of our social work ".

"No one, neither technicians nor sensitive laymen and lovers of nature, can ensure, with a sufficiently acceptable degree of security, that despite maintaining the necessary care, this tree will not continue to grow in depth due to its rooting (and causing

, to the retaining wall, and even to the street and adjoining blocks) and that can continue to drop branches arbitrarily (as has happened with other similar specimens, theoretically well cared for) that can cause new personal misfortunes such as those already caused , or even worse," he says.

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