Spain's tiniest inhabited island is fighting for independence from Alicante
With barely 60 winter residents, Tabarca Island has started the process of breaking away from local government control
Tabarca, the tiny 30-hectare island just off the coast of Alicante and Spain's smallest inhabited island, is making a move for administrative independence. With a winter population of barely 60 people, residents have started the formal process of becoming a minor local entity, a status that would give them direct control over some of their own resources and services.
The Tabarca Isla Plana Association has been pushing for improvements for more than eleven years and residents say the response from authorities has been consistently underwhelming. More than half of the island's registered residents have now signed in support of taking this step.
"We are in the first phase, it is just a small step of many because we have been demanding improvements for 11 years that do not come," Carmen Martí, president of the association, explained.
The list of grievances is long. Getting on and off the island depends entirely on a boat service that bad weather can shut down without warning, and repeated requests for reliable public transport have been raised with the Valencian government without result.
"We have a serious problem with regular public transportation, which has been requested from the Valencian Parliament but remains unresolved, and it's essential because the only way to get around is by boat," Ms Martí pointed out.
On top of that, residents say the summer tourist rush exposes just how stretched the island's infrastructure really is.
"There are problems with cleaning, with infrastructure to attend to all the people who visit us, we lack a doctor, there is no adequate maintenance of our heritage such as the fortified island that dates from Charles III and is falling to pieces," she added.
With Alicante City Council, the Valencian regional government and the national government all having a finger in the pie, residents say nothing ever gets resolved. A joint commission that once existed between the island and the council hasn't met since 2024.
"That's why we decided to take this step, so we can live like any other town or neighbourhood in Alicante. What we're asking for costs very little money," Ms Martí said.
Achieving minor local entity status would make the island eligible for grants from the Provincial Council and European funds, something it currently can't access directly. The Alicante City Council, for its part, rejects any suggestion of neglect, with government spokesperson Cristina Cutanda stating the council is actively working on measures to give Tabarca the treatment it "deserves."
For summer visitors, Tabarca is a postcard of clear water and quiet streets. For the people who actually live there, it's a place where something has to change.
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