Marbella mayor closes NASDAQ, delivers speech

As part of a controversial trip to New York to promote Marbella, the city’s mayor, Ángeles Muñoz, closed the trading session of the NASDAQ Stock Market in New York on Wednesday night, and spoke briefly to those present.

In her speech, Muñoz sought to demonstrate how Marbella’s new PGOU Urban Plan would act as ‘an investment plan’ attracting 1.8 billion euros to the municipality.  She said Marbella was working against the recession, and in an effort to promote Marbella as a tourist destination for well-heeled investors, she spoke of the ’300 sunny days a year’ and the town’s 18 golf courses.

She is one of only a few Spaniards to have rung the bell to close the NASDAQ, in an event usually carried out by businessmen. Sources at the PR company which organised the event indicated that to do so one usually needs ‘a company, recommendation and money’.

It is not clear how much all the publicity cost Marbella, but reports claim that the confetti which fell cost 500 dollars alone.

Marbella Town Hall has come under some criticism for organizing the trip to New York, but has defended the costs by citing what a city spokesperson calls the ‘deplorable’ image of Spain abroad.

John Grimmett

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