Alex Trelinski
THREE Costa Blanca region mayors are refusing to resign after they got COVID-19 vaccinations in early January.
The mayors of El Verger and Els Poblets, married couple, Ximo Coll and Carolina Vives, have been suspended from the regional socialist party, the PSPV, after getting the jabs at a health centre.
The Partido Popular(PP) mayor of La Nucia, Bernabe Cano, is also resisting pressure to go after he bagged an early injection.
First phase vaccinations are limited to nursing home residents and staff, along with health workers.
Valencian President, Ximo Puig, said that Coll and Vives ought to resign on ‘moral grounds’.
Opposition parties on El Verger council forced a plenary meeting of the authority yesterday(January 26), where Ximo Coll defended his actions amidst calls for his resignation.
He repeated his position that he got a phone call saying that there were vaccines available locally which would have been thrown away if they were not used
Coll said: ”The opposition parties wanted their five minutes of glory over the issue.”
Perhaps tellingly, he did not rule out resigning depending on what the PSPV inquiry findings are.
Coll’s wife, Carolina Vives, the mayor of Els Poblets is also standing firm for the time being.
La Nucia’s PP mayor, Bernabe Cano, is also refusing to resign in spite of calls from opposition parties on his council.
Cano said that since he acted as a doctor for the town’s football team, he was within his rights to get vaccinated.
He has been suspended nevertheless as a deputy on the Alicante Provincial Council, and the regional PP are investigating the matter.
In Denia, the deputy mayor and Social Welfare councillor, Cristina Morera, will formally resign from her positions tomorrow(January 28) after she got an early jab.
She was suspended from the PSPV yesterday.
Ximo Puig has ordered the regional health department to ensure that queue-jumping politicians do not get second vaccinations ahead of anybody else.
