Compromís claims that Rovira has spent 12,000 euros of public funds on restaurants and seafood establishments.

The Valencian nationalist coalition Compromís has reported this Monday that the Education Counselor, José Antonio Rovira, has spent €11,968 of public money “on restaurants and seafood places” during his first twenty months in office, according to the 84 invoices accessed, 38 of which correspond to dinners.

In a press conference, the spokesperson for Compromís in Les Corts, Joan Baldoví, accompanied by deputies Gerard Fullana and Verònica Ruiz, detailed that some dinners took place on Sundays or ended in the early hours. The coalition claims that “some tickets total €700.”

Baldoví criticized that “a working dinner cannot be justified on a Sunday night” and labeled the Counselor’s use of public funds as a “gastronomic tour.” Additionally, the spokesperson questioned whether these were actually work meetings, as neither the purpose nor the attendees are noted on the invoices.

“He is a shameless Counselor who thinks the Generalitat is his ATM,” denounced the syndic. Compromís obtained the invoices through parliamentary documentation requests, as they are not available on the Transparency Portal, and has launched the website roviraleaks.compromis.net to make them public.

The spokesperson noted that their party has also unsuccessfully requested the invoices of the president of the Generalitat, Carlos Mazón, which, in his opinion, is an attempt to hinder the opposition’s oversight work. Moreover, Baldoví linked these expenses to cuts in education and criticized the inconsistency between budget cuts in classrooms and the use of public resources for personal purposes.

EL PAÍS has inquired with the Department of Education about Counselor Rovira’s expenses, but has not yet received a response.

Compromís has reminded that Rovira earns an annual salary of €85,000, including a residence bonus of €10,000, intended to cover living expenses in Valencia. In the cultural sphere, Verònica Ruiz lamented Rovira’s absence from significant sector events and criticized that “while artists complain about precariousness and lack of dialogue, the Counselor continues to spend on restaurants with everyone’s money.”

Ruiz uses the verb continues because Rovira’s alleged fondness dates back a long time. In January 2024, Eldiario.es published that the Counselor, in his first three months in office, spent €3,000 of public money—coming from the petty cash—on group meals and dinners between August and October 2023. The newspaper notes that these meetings were recorded as “work meals,” without further details, and without a record in José Antonio Rovira’s agenda available on the transparency portal.