The councilwoman who does not want to make the candidate of her party mayor
ERC, the PSC candidate for mayor and Comuns present a motion of no confidence in L'Ametlla de Mar
BarcelonaEarthquake in l'Ametlla de Mar. Junts and the PSC had agreed to share the mayoralty after ousting ERC from the municipal government with a pact between the two formations after the elections. The Junts had obtained five councilors, the same as the Republicans, but the Socialists (2) invested the former and entered the executive. The quid pro quo was that the PSC would assume the mayoralty at the end of the term. So far, so normal. What is not so usual is that the socialist councilor now does not want to invest the head of her party's list. And this has led to a crisis not only in the PSC, but has reached the government itself and will result in an unagreed-upon handover of the mayoralty.
The councilors of ERC, the PSC councilor who was to be the mayor, and the one from the Comuns have called a press conference this Wednesday in which they have announced an agreement to promote a motion of no confidence that will return the mayoralty to the Republican Jordi Gaseni. "Your senseless form of government has hit rock bottom, and now it's time to step aside," the senator had already warned on Monday during the last plenary session. Thus, they have already presented the motion, which will be voted on April 17, after the spokespersons for the three groups have pointed to the mayor as responsible for the situation. But how did we get here?
The socialist Xavier de la Fuente, first deputy mayor and who was to be the new mayor, announced precisely on Monday that he was leaving the government and moving to the opposition. De la Fuente had asked for the resignation of the Junts mayor Eva del Amo to be formalized to comply with the investiture pact and carry out the handover of the mayoralty between Junts and PSC on April 17. Del Amo reiterated that before that, the PSC had to guarantee the majority because the socialist councilor Ana Aragón refuses to invest him. "There are serious rupture problems that make it impossible to carry out this handover at the moment," insisted the mayor, who reiterated that Junts' votes "are at the disposal of the PSC".
Words that did not convince De la Fuente, who blamed Junts for wanting to cling to the mayoralty to justify their departure: "This decision responds to a lack of word and the flagrant breach of commitments made by Junts and by a councilwoman from my own party who has decided to betray the trust placed in her and align herself with someone who has broken the government pact." The socialist spokesperson recalled that the open assembly of party militants held on Saturday agreed to demand the execution of the investiture agreements and urged his party colleague to hand over her council seat for refusing to make him mayor.
Recordings of private conversations
In conversation with ARA, Aragón makes it clear that the problem is not the PSC, but its spokesperson. "I want the PSC to assume the mayorship, but I don't want to give it to a disloyal person who has been conversing with the opposition for a year and speaks ill of her partners and who has slowed down aid or has let important calls pass to prevent the government from taking the credit." He also accuses her of recording private conversations between them without his consent, a fact that has led to justice.
Despite the pressure from the PSC federation of Terres de l'Ebre for her to be invested, Aragón has not backed down. "You cannot put someone at the head of a town hall who, from within, has contributed to weakening it," he states. He also emphasizes that she does not want to be the new mayor under any circumstances: "Let the spokesperson resign and the next person on the list to enter be the mayor."
The mayor Eva del Amo, who on Monday still trusted that the internal crisis in the PSC would be resolved, has denounced this Wednesday that the motion of censure by ERC, Entesa and the PSC councilor who has abandoned her government, "was already planned months ago". Del Amo has pointed out that a motion of removal like this, between three different political formations, "is not worked on in a single day", the day after the deputy mayor abandoned the local executive. The mayor has stated that the crisis between the PSC councilors has been used "as an excuse" for De la Fuente to have allied with the opposition.
