What if Mari Carmen lived on Babilonia beach, or if Guardamar declared independence?

I’ll start seriously, because the subject deserves it. Maricarmen Abascal was 87, had lived in the same home for seven decades and died two weeks after it was taken from her. Her eviction filled the squares with protest camps and achieved what months of complaints had failed to do: get the Government moving. I’m glad it moved. I say that without a trace of irony, because I’ll supply the irony in the rest of this article, and not at her expense.

Now let’s try a fictional scenario, the sort that is so popular during election campaigns: what if Maricarmen lived on Babilonia beach? Same lifelong home, same memories, same decades. Only the postcode and the person she had to deal with would change. In Madrid, the Ministry of Housing negotiated, the Government approved decrees, Congress rejected them, the prime minister dissolved Parliament, called an early election and then approved the decrees again through the back door of the Permanent Deputation. All in less than a month. It’s a pleasure to see such efficiency. In Guardamar, the Ministry for Ecological Transition has preferred correspondence: an initial demand, a warning of legal action and, to top it all, an appeal to the Constitutional Court.

Because the story is different in Babilonia. There is no faceless investment fund: there is a state which, according to the homeowners, promoted the houses almost a century ago, protected them through concessions and now sees them as the beach’s great enemy. The same beach that is disappearing, residents say, while technical reports warning of the effects of the river mouth and the breakwaters were left gathering dust in a drawer. But don’t worry: it’s the houses’ fault. They’ve been there for nearly a hundred years. The breakwater, which came much later, as everyone knows, never does anything.

And here we come to the obsession, which is what really fascinates. The Coastal Authority started with a beach bar and a restaurant and was already warming up to the houses. The Government challenged the Valencian law, arguing, among other things, that it was a “single-case law”. In other words, a law is suspect if it deals with just one case, while the appeal to overturn it deals with just one case. Not even Kafka. This afternoon, the Constitutional Court ruled in the Government’s favour: Babilonia cannot be protected by Valencia because it is part of the state-owned public domain. Fine. Then, naturally, you would expect it to be protected by Madrid. And you wait. And wait. Some residents have more patience than Job and less beach.

Meanwhile, the double standard is on full display around the Mediterranean. Half a dozen regions (Galicia, the Basque Country, Andalusia, the Canary Islands, Catalonia and the Balearic Islands) already manage their coastlines. The Valencian Community formally requested this in June 2025 and is still in the waiting room, ticket in hand. Of the 50 transfers of powers completed by this Government since 2018, 34 have gone to the Basque Country and Catalonia. Valencia is told to wait its turn; Babilonia is told to wait for the wrecking ball.

Hence the proposal behind this article’s title. If the problem is that Guardamar has yet to find a way to get Madrid to listen, the solution is obvious: declare independence. Just imagine. With the Independent Republic of Babilonia proclaimed (capital: the beach; currency: squid sandwich), the Government would immediately have opened a dialogue table, offered a mediator, talked about “de-judicialising the conflict” and considered a couple of transfers of powers to close out the quarter. Demolition orders would become matters to be addressed with a broad-minded approach. And if things got ugly, there would always be a pardon, or an amnesty, for the houses. But those who simply ask not to have their homes demolished and make no threats get the usual response: a formal legal notice.

And there’s one more double standard, the one almost nobody wants to look at. Guardamar has settlements of shacks, and I don’t see any administration (the Government, the Generalitat or the Town Hall) showing them the same zeal it brings to the houses in Babilonia: no initial demands, no appeals to the Constitutional Court, no wrecking balls with a timetable. Let me be clear, because this is not about pointing fingers: the people who live there deserve social support, and the situation in Babilonia won’t be resolved by the shacks, or vice versa. My demand is the same as ever: that the law be applied equally to everyone. Because if the full force of the law always falls on those who have deeds, pay their taxes and live at an address where a formal legal notice can be delivered, it isn’t that the law is blind: it sees very well up close. Those of us who work and do what’s required are beginning to feel that being easy to find is the only offence anyone is keen to pursue.

Not all the sarcasm belongs in Madrid; there’s some left for home. In August 2025, the Socialist majority on Guardamar Town Council rejected a motion supporting the families of Babilonia. It seems that, for some, standing up for local residents is something you do through the Official Gazette.

And so nobody thinks this is just criticism of the usual suspects: the Consell will have to explain why it presented one article as a shield, only for that article to be suspended within a matter of months; and the parties that voted against Maricarmen’s decree, and are now discovering housing as a banner to rally around, would do well to remember how they voted. Nobody comes out of this clean. At least we’re all equal in that respect.

So, while we’re talking about decrees: we need a Babilonia decree. Short, with a single article: no home with decades of history on the coast should be demolished until a solution has been offered to the families living there. And while we’re at it, someone should take a walk to the breakwater. If Maricarmen’s case ended with Parliament dissolved, for Babilonia I’d settle for the wrecking ball being stopped. The solution for Maricarmen came “too late”. Let’s not let the same happen in Babilonia.