Vox has threatened to withdraw its support for Sevilla City Council’s government if a controversial mosque and Islamic cultural centre gets approved next week.
The development, which is expected to get the green light on Tuesday, is set to be built in the city’s Poligono Sur district.
Vox also vowed on Friday to take legal action to try to stop the project, arguing that granting the building licence would be ‘illegal’.
The warning piles pressure on Mayor Jose Luis Sanz ahead of Tuesday’s meeting of the Urban Planning Commission.
Councillors are expected to give the final seal of approval to the development, promoted by the Sevilla Mosque Foundation.
Vox councillor Fernando Rodriguez Galisteo demanded that the application be halted immediately and called for a fresh legal report, claiming the assessment produced by the city’s Urban Planning Department was ‘purely technical’ and failed to provide sufficient legal justification for the licence.
The row comes just a day after it emerged that reports commissioned by the city council concluded the proposed development is compatible with the site’s planning designation and that there are no planning grounds to require a public consultation.
The Partido Popular administration argues that, with favourable technical and legal reports in place, refusing the licence could itself breach the law.
Vox rejects that interpretation.
‘It is maintaining the licence that is illegal,’ Rodriguez Galisteo said, after the city council warned that blocking the project without technical grounds could even expose officials to allegations of misconduct.
The party insists the development is primarily a place of worship rather than a cultural or social centre, despite the project’s classification.
‘The main use is religious,’ Vox said, arguing that the courts should ultimately decide ‘whether it is a mosque or an Islamic centre’.
Vox also claims the proposal breaches provisions of Sevilla’s General Urban Development Plan (PGOU), which it says would prevent the construction of a religious building on the site under its interpretation of planning rules.
In one of its strongest statements yet, the party added: ‘We do not want a centre of Islamisation in Sevilla; we want to continue living with our identity.’
Meanwhile, the Sevilla Mosque Foundation welcomed the council’s intention to grant the licence after reviewing the technical and legal reports.
The foundation, which is behind the project designed by renowned architect Guillermo Vazquez Consuegra, said the process had demonstrated that ‘the law is above ideology’.
Unless there is a last-minute change, Tuesday’s vote is expected to determine the future of the project and could trigger a major political rift at Sevilla City Council, potentially jeopardising the working relationship between the PP and Vox.
