The last plenary session in Alburquerque, a week ago, withdrew the salary of the mayor, Marisa Murillo, and also eliminated the coordinator position of her mentor, former mayor Ángel Vadillo, whose candidacy was annulled by the electoral board in 2019. Alburquerque (5,340 inhabitants ) has 13 councilors and a corporation that has gone through all kinds of vicissitudes since the municipal elections. A mayor expelled from the PSOE, the creation of a non-affiliated group that has experienced six resignations in just a year and a half and the resignation of the following members of the candidacy, which was actually that of the PSOE although designed by Vadillo. With the municipal coffers in ruins and a social upheaval caused by non-payment of payroll to municipal workers, the last plenary session was faced with a new distribution of forces. The two new councilors provided by the PSOE left the group chaired by Murillo in a minority for the first time, so there could be more movements in the coming months to counteract the power still exercised by the six councilors of the unassigned group that Vadillo protects.
The Socialists (three councilors) and Independents for Alburquerque (IPAL, four councilors) already have a majority in the plenary session and their spokespersons acknowledged yesterday for the first time that they are studying a motion of censure to redirect the course of the municipality. The spokesmen for both formations, Juan Carlos Prieto and Manuel Gutiérrez respectively, admit that right now they function as “an informal coalition in which there is understanding.” And they explained to this newspaper that in Ipal they benefit from the structure and technical and legal knowledge of a party like the PSOE, while they assert the four mayors of the independents, one more than them, to add the seven votes that now allow the opposition control the plenary.
At the moment, the PSOE is more inclined to take the step of the motion of censure, but Ipal prefers to analyze well the pact that this political initiative would entail. “If the candidate is from one party or another, he is secondary right now,” Prieto (PSOE) said on Tuesday. “The motion is within what is possible and we are studying it, but we are two groups and we have to talk. If carried out, this means that the candidate for mayor would have to take charge of all the problems. It would be necessary to tie many ends and know if the administrations would lend their shoulders, “said Gutiérrez.
The only obstacle they see is that the new mayor should manage a town in economic ruin
In addition, they do not ignore the victimizing tone that Vadillo and Murillo now use in the town and could relaunch them in the 2023 elections, when everything points to Vadillo rescuing his first acronym, those of the ORPO (Organization of the Working People) with which chained several absolute majorities.
Vadillo continues with office
This is the new political landscape in a town that the Board considered intervening last year if the appropriate circumstances concur so that the benefits to its neighbors do not continue to decline due to the critical state of their accounts.
However, neither Vadillo nor Murillo, who presides over the plenary session and can sign decrees, have taken a step back by remaining in the minority but on the contrary, explain in the PSOE and in IPAL, which assure that this very Tuesday Vadillo, even though his Coordinator position from today in the Official Gazette of the Province, he was still in the office that enabled him in the consistory and has met with municipal employees to whom the City Council owes several overdue payrolls.
Neither Vadillo nor Murillo give explanations about their management to the media. Their messages are sent through social networks. In one dated March 23, Vadillo affirms that since he was appointed coordinator in May 2021 by the Mayor’s Office, his salary has been donated to the City Council, a gesture that the opposition calls “one more lie of theirs.”
Governing by decree with the plenary session in front
This Thursday there will be a plenary session again at the Alburquerque City Hall. The items on the agenda are a priori irrelevant and the session will basically serve to reorganize the informative commissions. What remains to be seen is what point four brings: “Mayor’s decrees and resolutions”, since in the opposition, although it now has a majority in plenary, IPAL spokesman Manuel Gutiérrez suspects that “Ángel Vadillo, through of Marisa Murillo, will want to continue having the upper hand ».
For his part, Juan Carlos Prieto, from the PSOE, believes that “the mayor presides over the plenary session and has some control over decrees and minor purchases, but there will be things that the plenary session will have to validate, such as budgets, contracts with a certain entity, adhesion to loans, dispose of assets that belong to the people or agreements with other administrations, ”he gives as examples.
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Eddie is an Australian news reporter with over 9 years in the industry and has published on Forbes and tech crunch.