PP landslide sinks PSOE

SPAIN The Popular Party lead by Mariano Rajoy swept into power at yesterday's General Elections in an unprecedented landslide. Only a few provinces, including Sevilla, went to another party. On the map, the red is for PSOE and the orange, for CiU (Convergencia i Unió), the Catalan nationalists. Blue is for PP, which managed to obtain almost 45% of the total vote against a mere 28.73% for PSOE. Or, 186 seats against 110 in a chamber total of 350. That is a very comfortable absolute majority, so no need for coalitions or pacts and agreements. Also noticeable is that several minority parties, including IU, Amaiur (Basque Nationalists) and UPyD increased their seats in the Chamber of Deputies. In the Senate, the PP humiliated their Socialist rivals: 136 seats v. 49, from a total of 208.

PSOE calls for Ruiz to obey the law and establish the Junta in San Pablo

Beffa and Gallego
(Photo: europasur.es)

JIMENA / San Pablo As we reported here, there is an ongoing feud between the leading parties regarding the Junta de Distrito in San Pablo. The latest news is that the PSOE is demanding that new Mayor Guillermo Ruiz obey the law and set up the Junta as it was duly elected. However, Ruiz (PP) says that new regulations are being created and the Junta will be established when these are ready, to which Andrés Beffa and the associations that were part of the previous Junta strongly object and call 'undemocratic'. Others have joined the fray, including former Councillor J.A.Vázquez (PA) with a stinging article titled Mentiras Arriesgadas (Risky Lies) on his blog. Curiously, former PP Councillor and San Pablo resident Sandra Gallego joined forces with Beffa at a press conference at the Reina Cristina Hotel yesterday. Calling San Pablo 'an oasis of peace', Beffa>>>

San Pablo's 'illegal' Junta still functions three months after new Councils were established

San Pablo de Buceite

JIMENA / San Pablo (Agencies) Three months after new, post-electoral Councils throughout the country came into official being, the so-called Junta de Distrito (District Council) of San Pablo de Buceite still exists. Although this might not surprise anyone, it is in fact presided by Andrés Beffa (PSOE), who was named as such at the session that constituted the Council of Jimena (of which municipality San Pablo is part) on June 11. The political and administrative entity is holding a plenary session next Tuesday with seven of its eight members (5 representing political groups and 3, local associations), all except Beffa as 'acting members'. Beffa sees this as 'an aberration' according to Europa Sur, because there will be members present who were not even on the electoral lists at the May 22 elections. According to statutes, says Beffa, the Junta should have been constituted 45 days after the Municipal Council. The Junta de Distrito is therefore illegal.>>>

Dogged politics mar agreements on San Pablo 'divorce proceedings'

JIMENA/SanPablo (Agencies) As we announced here, San Pablo is in 'divorce proceedings' against Jimena. The matter has taken on a different tone now that a new local government (PP) is in place in Jimena, while that old PSOE warhorse, Andres Beffa, is still in (apparently unelected) power in San Pablo. As part of the municipality, San Pablo must meet certain requirements in order to continue the process towards becoming an ELA (Entidad Local Autonoma) like San Martin del Tesorillo. The first of these is to set up a Junta Municipal de Distrito, which needs Jimena Mayor Guillermo Ruiz to designate which local associations will be on that council. Only three such will have 'voice and vote', according to municipal rules. Ruiz has met with some of the main associations to enable an agreement, but this has not happened. The matter is urgent as the 'mini-council' must be constituted by next Friday. The Mayor is in a quandary: "It is a strange, difficult situation because if I designate the associations there will be those who will be unhappy." (Prospero note: There are always those who could never agree even with their own shadow. Jimena is rife with the sort who prefer to put party and personal interests before those of the municipality's well-being. The latter is desperately needed at this desperate (financial) time.)

Guillermo Ruiz invested as Mayor of Jimena

(Photo: EuropaSur/Erasmo Fenoy)

JIMENA (Agencies) After a series of protracted machinations regarding the investiture of Jimena's Mayor -all aimed at doing as little personal damage to the otherwise Mayor-elect, Francisco Pineda, who is in hospital- Guillermo Ruiz was finally invested in the post yesterday evening. There were no surprises at the ceremony, and the baton was passed on to the first PP Mayor in democracy, who will have to govern in a minority. The ousted PSOE councillors, many of whom held positions of power for several years, were there to hand it over. Ruiz was full of praise for the man he was forced by circumstance to replace, Pineda, whom, he said, was the reason he, Ruiz, was now heading the Council. He also thanked the two 'hinge' parties, IU and PA, for their position: they voted for themselves, did not support the incumbent psoe at the Councillors investiture and thus allowed the PP to take the Mayorship as the most-voted party at the May 22 elections.>>>

Beffa to return to his job as teacher at Xemina Adult Education Centre

JIMENA/San Pablo de Buceite (TioJimeno) Andrés Beffa, Jimena Councillor and president of the Neighbourhood Association of San Pablo, confirmed this morning that he will be returning to his old job as a teacher at the Xemina Adult Education Centre in Jimena, from which he has for a long time been absent. Beffa will be part of the PSOE group on the Council, in opposition. He is also president of the Consorcio de Bomberos (Fire & Rescue Consortium) of the Campo de Gibraltar, from which he will probably be ousted in September. San Pablo is undergoing the process that will eventually lead to its separation from the municipality of Jimena de la Frontera, its declaration as an ELA (Autonomous Local Entity) being the next step, which is not expected for at least a year.

Pineda renounces Mayorship but remains a Councillor

(Photo: TioJimeno)

JIMENA This morning's Plenary Session of the Council made note that Francisco Pineda, Mayor-elect but in hospital and unable to be present, resigned the position of Mayor but retains his post as Councillor in the hope that when he recovers he will be able to take up his position should he so decide and his unfortunate illness allow. The third and final session that will name and elect the new Mayor will take place tomorrow, Tuesday, at 8pm, which will finally pass on the Mayor's baton to Guillermo Ruiz.

Council debt impossible to determine, says PA

JIMENA (Press release) Opposition party Partido Andalucista says in a statement that, while the government-appointed administrator (all town halls have one) recognizes the situation, unpaid past bills keep appearing and there is no way of knowing how many are yet to come. Despite repeated requests for information and even under the belief that comes from promises to the contrary received, more such bills have turned up. This, says the PA, means that  plenary sessions will be flooded with these new bills, some of them over ten years old, and there will be no way of knowing beforehand to what figure they amount. Nevertheless, they will be approved by the PSOE majority. Which is why the PA has requested a "signed certificate and if necessary, a sworn statement from the  politicians responsible that there are no unpaid bils for services renedered before December 31, 2010. At some point we must know exactly how much this Council owes," says the PA, "but that will never happen as long as long-standing unpaid bills keep turning up and are approved."

Couple and two children rescued from flood on Montenegral road

JIMENA/San Martín del Tesorillo (Agencies/Photo of CA 2101, illustration only) A couple and their two nephews aged 11 and 8, had to be rescued yesterday from their 4WD on the CA-2101 near Montenegral. The vehicle was forced off the road by the water of the Guadiaro river that had risen above the road surface, and got trapped, and stopped, by a large rock. It took the fire rescue service two hours to get them to safety, but the car had to be left behind as it proved impossible to pull it out. (Prospero note: This is the same road that local politicians are now demanding repairs and reconditioning for, a subject that comes up every four years, mysteriously coinciding with elections - and always with the same result: nil. See Jimena and Tesorillo on same track but different trains.)

 

Jimena and Tesorillo on the same track but on different trains

JIMENA/San Martin del Tesorillo (Agencies) Readers will forgive the use of a railway simile when we're talking about roads, but Jimena Mayor Pascual Collado (PSOE - photo, centre, with Councillor Mercedes Segovia and Tesorillo candidate Jesús Solís) was at the offices of Mancomunidad in Los Barrios while Tesorillo Mayoress Belen Jarillo (PP) was just across the road at the Guadacorte Hotel, having called a press conference for yesterday at 10.30 and 11 am respectively. The objective was exactly the same in both instances: to publicize the demand for immediate repairs and widening of the A-2102 and A-2103 roads that connect Tesorillo with San Enrique and the A-7. This are the roads that offer the natural, easiest exit of produce to the Guadiaro Valley and beyond, but are much too narrow for large vehicles and have very deep, dangerous ditches on either side. (Editorial: The objective is the same: to protect drivers on these roads, among other things. Can't the blessed politicians put aside their petty differences even for this cause?)

IU lambasts PSOE on electoral promise of geriatric centre for Jimena

A press release from Izquierda Unida, quoting Fran Gomez (photo), its local representative, says that this is the third time the political organization has had to resort to the media to deenounce the 'lack of commitment' by the ruling PSOE. This time it is about a geriatric centre, including day care and more, that was 'an electoral priority' but has now quietly been dropped. Gomez apparently saw the building that was to be used being bricked up and all work stopped on it. The communique asks several questions: "How long has this building been in execution? In how many more electoral manifestos will it be appearing? What happened to the agreement signed with ASANSUL (the company that was to run it)?"

Gibraltar apologises to Spain for 'extremely serious' RGP police incident in San Roque

The Government of Gibraltar has apologised to its Spanish counterpart for the improper action of two Royal Gibraltar Police (RGP) officers who searched a house in La Línea and seized evidence without permission from the Spanish authorities. The matter is already under investigation by a Spanish judge at Court Number 2 in San Roque. The matter first came to light in the media on the front page of ABC (image) and was soon taken up by the press and television, although the incident itself took place on August 4 (as we reported here with information available at the time) when a jewelry shop owner was mugged as he was opening his store. Reports differ on what happened next, but from what we are able to gather the two men allegedly involved in the mugging, (See full story on CampoPulse)

'Fascism is alive and well and living in Spain'

So says Alexander Bewick in his most recent explosion of opinion on The Alexander Bewick Soap Box. Falange Española, he says, "is the euphemism used before, during and after the Spanish Civil war for the blueshirt Fascist party of Spain. It still exists as a group, organization or political 'party', whichever you choose to call it. Its members are the ones you see giving the Fascist salute at the kind of commemoration very few wish to remember." Its full title is "a difficult translation at best, particularly when imagining that 'Nacional Sindicalista' could easily have been 'Nacional Socialista' that would very easily be translated to National Socialist, or Nazi." Worth a read, this, to catch up on one of Spain's more shameful -and current- episodes.