John WoodheadMOST people will probably know the Spanish local elections are due to take place on 22 May 2011.
In my local town, I believe for the first time ever, one of the major Spanish parties is actively looking to entice non-Spanish residents to vote for them.
I was wondering whether this sort of thing is routine across Spain or whether it is a relatively new thing.
First some background.
I live in the borough of El Ejido. This consists of the main town, El Ejido, a reasonably large amount of farmland that is mostly used for plastic greenhouses plus a number of smaller towns in the area, e.g. Guardias Viejas, Almerimar etc.
Of the smaller towns Almerimar is the one that is the most international and has the most non-Spanish residents. For this reason one of the Spanish political parties has asked me to publicise the following letter on our local community website:
“The political party know as the “Partido Popular” will be presenting their candidate in the municipal elections in El Ejido on 22 May 2011.
The party wishes to present their candidate at the municipal elections, Francisco Góngora Cara, who will stand for mayor of El Ejido, to the foreign residents of El Ejido.
Francisco Góngora in his meetings with local residents appreciates the participation and understanding of the party´s electoral programme for the next four years; he is also calling this meeting in order to know at first hand the worries, needs and aspirations of the foreign population here in El Ejido.
Francisco Góngora invites and looks forward to meeting and talking personally to the many people of different nationalities who are now resident in Almerimar and the municipality of El Ejido on Wednesday 23 March 2011 at 6pm at the Almerimar Golf Club.”
Is this sort of active solicitation of foreign voters something that is routine elsewhere in Spain?
It is always a pleasure to receive fraternal and comradely greetings from the Spanish political parties just before an election. They may even have a token ‘foreigner’ in the list, safely near the bottom, to act as a kind of ‘draw’. they will no doubt forget about the whole disagreeable experience once the votes are counted.
You can, however, still start an independent party aimed at integration and full participation. Time is short, but contact Ciudadanos Europeos for ideas.
ciudadanoseuropeosdemojacar@hotmail.com
Sounds like you have more experience of this in the Mojacar area. It is a new thing in our town to have any political party interested in foreigners.
I have to admit my views about it are similar to yours. Nevertheless I will be going along to the meeting anyway.
I think I have enough on my plate helping set up a golf society at the moment. It feels like I have little time for any other new projects at the moment.
You can see what the PP said at this meeting here:
http://www.almerimartoday.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=3256:the-pp-meeting-in-the-clubhouse-23-mar-11&catid=35:almerimar-information&Itemid=60
It is such a shame that politics in this country, both local and national are a bit of a joke. There is so much political ammunition the parties could use against each other but dont. This is IMO because the whole system is like a house of cards and soon as one falls they would take the rwst with them. In Fuengirola there are so many things the PSOE could use against the local PP mayor but they stick to silly stories about free Cruise trips rather than the stuff that effects everyones everyday life.
Up here in Madrid the general rule is to invent silly electoral registry rules and just dupe all EU citizens out of their vote.
Of course if you visit the basement levels of your local town hall (for example) between the 17th and 24th of march you would then see the A5 size notice telling you that you have from the 18th to the 25th to inscribe in the “other” electoral register.