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

BarcelonaThe new cases of alleged corruption plaguing the PSOE have brought to the fore more strongly than ever a possible motion of no confidence against Pedro Sánchez. At the municipal level, however, motions do not 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 L'Alt Empordà. But here the trigger for the change in mayorship, though it may be hard to believe, has been a yoga class.

On June 1, the then mayoress of ERC, Marie Louise Gournay, withdrew the 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 denounced 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 cede the mayorship to Junts, which has three, next Thursday.

The events date back to last year, but have not been made public until now. According to the mayor's statement – who has not wanted to speak to ARA – becauseThe same yoga teacher made a written response to the mayoress's statement, which she posted on social media, denying the accusations. In the statement, she made it clear that the situation had not been as described: "It does not reflect the reality as we lived 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 only now become public. According to the mayor's statement – who has not wanted to speak to ARA – because the previous mayor had "silenced" them. The affected party 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 my patience, because her behavior is authoritarian, as if she were running a military barracks from past times," Carreras exclaims.

"She called me to the spokesperson meeting and also reprimanded 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 relations with the neighbors due to road disruptions from 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 with having spoken with the opposition, when there is no other way to push it forward." 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 unmanageable, and he is presenting the motion not to achieve the mayoralty but thinking of the good of the town," reasons 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 keep the hand extended to them," he says. He does highlight 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 positioning himself in favor of 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 outside of her criteria and that it is "not consensual." In this sense, she justifies the leadership's rejection by the turbulent mandate that has been 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 alleged health reasons, his departure is still lingering, 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".