The Instagram account that they link to the mayor of Salou for defaming political rivals

BarcelonaNew earthquake in Salou, with harsh accusations against the mayor, Pere Granados. This Monday, ERC publicly accused him of being directly behind a neighborhood Instagram account, Vecinos de Salou, for "campaigning and playing dirty" against political rivals without "showing his face" and behind the appearance of a neighborhood entity. This Tuesday, Vox went even further and announced a criminal complaint for libel and slander against the mayor. This newspaper has verified that the email address associated with the Meta social network account matches the mayor's institutional email, which would point to a case of using fake accounts to wage ideological war against opponents. Vox also points to the coincidence of the telephone numbers. ARA has contacted the mayor, who has conveyed that he will not make "any statement or assessment in this regard".

What does this account say? It is dedicated to firing left and right at Granados' rivals in the council, but also internally within the PSC, which accentuates the existing unrest and tensions, such as the case of resume falsification. Among the criticisms of the City Council rivals, there are also publications against partners of the local government, such as the sixth deputy mayor (ERC), Elena Zhukova.

The account, which has 234 followers, has as its purpose "local current events, opinion and political satire", according to the profile. In fact, when ERC criticized it publicly, it defended itself in a post: "If you question our posts, point out what you consider incorrect and explain why with data and arguments", it noted, in reference to the republicans. "Speculating about who is writing does not answer what we are proposing", it concluded, without specifying any identity.

The published reviews

A publication calls the Republican councilwoman Zhukova "Putin's Russian" and an "exotic signing," in reference to her national origin. Against Gustavo Cuadrado, who is the chief of staff to the mayor of Tarragona, the socialist Rubén Viñuales, there is a harsh publication in which he is asked to resign due to the fact that he is in the dock for alleged embezzlement and prevarication in the Inipro case: "He cannot continue to hold a position of maximum trust," it concludes.

The Vox leader in the city, Ana Belén Rodríguez, is presented in a miniskirt with an image modified by artificial intelligence or a montage. "Miss Envy," she is dubbed, with a sexist accusation: "She would bend over backwards to take a photo with the misters," it maintains, regarding the Salou beauty pageant.

Against a well-known city blogger named Jordi Blasi, responsible for the political blog El Carrer del Mar, critical of the municipal executive, he makes homophobic criticisms: "There is no cure: at his age, he is still insistent on playing hide and seek in the closet". He also makes reference to the skin color of an opposition councilor from the local party USAP, Ignacio Durán, and calls him "coffee with milk". Regarding the Vox councilor Paul Daniel Axinte, he is portrayed as "the Romanian", also because of his origin.

Vox has publicly stated that it denounces "the use of profiles that pretend to represent the residents of Salou to attack, insult, ridicule, and discredit citizens, neighborhood representatives, and public officials." "The evidence we have collected links these accounts to the mayor's office institutional email and to the personal phone number of the mayor of Salou, Pere Granados." "We demand political accountability and we will go to court to demand criminal liability," the leader of Vox in Salou declared to the media.

The relationship between Granados and the PSC of Camp de Tarragona is very tense, as this newspaper has verified, and the defamation episode for which he is accused has prepared the ground so that the battle will not come to a close.