Ronda mayor ousted from Spanish politics

By Jon Clarke

THE Machiavellian politics of Ronda’s socialist mayor Antonio Marin Lara look to have led to his ousting.

The controversial mayor is set to lose his position after his former party the Partida Andalucista (PA) united with his deadly rivals the Partida Popular (PP) to take control of the town hall.

The former member of Marbella’s disgraced GIL party, Lara had jumped ship to the PSOE from PA four years ago in a desperate bid to stay in power.

But now his move appears to have backfired with the PP and PA parties insisting they have the mandate to take over the town hall, despite the PSOE having more votes and councillors.

These sort of behind-the-scenes moves are taking place around Andalucia this week in advance of the June 11 deadline to name each town hall’s leader.

While parties such as the conservative PP party and the communist IU party are diametrically opposed in philosophy, they will occasionally unite tactically to take control of town halls.

In Alcaucin, two councillors for the Green Party, including Belgium Mario Blancke, have formed an unlikely alliance with the PP and PA to oust the socialists.

Blancke, a member of the expatriate property pressure group SOHA, insisted the move would be good for those with irregular properties.

Meanwhile in Chiclana, a political party that represents the owners of 15,000 illegal homes holds the balance of power.

The PVRE is expected to unite with the PP party to bring a change in the town.

In Benalmadena however, the socialists have held onto power only through a pact with the IU and a local independent party the UCB, despite the PP getting the most councillors.

There have been numerous big defeats in the Spring elections, which took place a week ago.

As well as Ricardo Millan losing Antequera town hall – the first time in 28 years that the PP party had a landslide victory – Velez Malaga lunged to the right for the first time since 1979.

Meanwhile the long-serving socialists in Mijas were also ousted by the PP party, with new bilingual mayor Angel Nozal taking command.

Other controversial mayors such as Antonio Verdu in Vejer de la Frontera were ousted, as well as the socialist leader David Valadez in Estepona, where the PP party achieved a record 17 councillors.

In Cordoba the IU party finally lost its grip on the city with the Conservative PP party taking control.

In a landslide victory for the PP party, it took control of all eight provincial capitals in the region.