The yoga class that ended with a motion of no confidence in a town in Empordà

BarcelonaThe new cases of alleged corruption plaguing the PSOE have brought to the fore more than ever a possible motion of no confidence against Pedro Sánchez. At the municipal level, however, motions do not necessarily have to be linked to corrupt schemes. Political and, above all, personal disagreements also end up ousting mayors. This is what has happened in Pont de Molins, a small town of less than 600 inhabitants in the Alt Empordà. But here, the trigger for the change in the mayoralty, however hard to believe, has been a yoga class.

On June 1, the then mayoress of ERC, Marie Louise Gournay, withdrew powers from the deputy mayor, Jordi Carreras – also from ERC – accusing him of "abuse of power" for having used a municipal room "hindering" a yoga class for women. In the statement, the mayoress reported that the women had felt "uncomfortable, persecuted, and intimidated". Carreras, who denies the facts, counterattacked by presenting a motion of no confidence three days later with the support of the three councilors from Junts. Thus, ERC, which governed with four of the seven councilors, will hand over the mayoralty to Junts, which has three, next Thursday.

The events date back to last year, but have only now become public. According to the mayor's statement – who has not wanted to speak to ARA – becauseThe same yoga instructor for the course wrote a response to the mayoress's statement, which she posted on social media, denying the accusations. In her statement, she made it clear that the situation had not been as described: "It does not reflect the reality as we experienced it," she said, and assured that it had been presented "out of context and with a gravity that does not correspond to the facts that took place". The users of the service would also have committed to testifying in favor of the councilor after sending him different audio messages of support, according to Carreras.

Authoritarianism

The events date back to last year, but have not been made public until now. According to the mayor's statement – who did not want to speak to ARA – because the previous mayor had "silenced" them. The affected person considers that the mayor is using it as an "excuse" to sideline him. "All this is coming out now even though the climate has been unbreathable since the beginning of the year, but I have already lost patience, because her behavior is authoritarian, as if she were running a military barracks of past times," Carreras snaps.

"She called me to the spokesperson meeting and also scolded me for having printed some posters for 28 euros and not having asked for more quotes," he gives as an example. Gournay took office after Pere Borràs left the mayoralty for "personal reasons" in October, in a context of bad feeling with the neighbours due to the road disruptions caused by the works in the industrial estate. Since then, relations between the two have gone from bad to worse.

In fact, Carreras assures that the other two ERC councilors agreed to support the motion, but backed down: "One because she wanted to be the mayor and the other disagreed for having spoken with the opposition, when there is no other way to promote it". In any case, he has the support of the leadership, because he remains an ERC councilor and will be the mayoral candidate. "He has supported me 100%," he says. The party leadership in Girona corroborates this. "Jordi is right, the town is ungovernable, and he is presenting the motion not to achieve the mayoralty but thinking of the good of the town," argues Frederic Guirado, president of the Republicans in Alt Empordà, who considers that the mayoralty falling to Junts is not "an impediment" to supporting him. Nor is the fact that the other two councilors from Esquerra have not joined him. "For now they do not support it, but we maintain an open hand with them," he says. He does emphasize that the fact that the current mayor announced a few months ago that she will be the head of the PSC list has not been the reason for supporting Carreras: "It has nothing to do with it".

The regional leadership of Junts, on the other hand, rejects the motion and does not hide its "perplexity and disagreement" with the decision of its three councilors. The president of the party in Alt Empordà, Míriam Lanero, says that the motion was made without her input and that it "is not consensual". In this regard, she justifies the leadership's rejection by the turbulent mandate experienced in the municipality: "We have had several comings and goings, the mayor resigned and we have had two resignations in Junts, one of whom was our list leader, Josep Fuentes". Although he claimed health reasons, his departure is still being discussed, according to various sources. In this scenario and before the motion, Lanero explains that Junts was already working on a new candidacy with a new candidate, Enric Sànchez, which will be "completely renewed".