The Contentious-Administrative Chamber No. 1 of Ciudad Real has ruled in favor of the former mayor of Malagón, Luis Carlos Segura (Somos Malagón), by upholding the contentious-administrative appeal he filed after losing the mayoralty last year due to an agreement between the PP and a renegade PSOE councilor.
The appeal focused on the fact that the resignation of the four councilors from his group, announced verbally at the end of the plenary session in which he himself handed over the mayoral staff, lacked legal validity. As argued, for this resignation to have been effective, it should have been communicated before the session and listed as a specific item on the Agenda.
By declaring this resignation null and void, the legitimacy of subsequent plenary sessions held until the Central Electoral Board officially appointed the replacements for the seats is called into question. Among these is the session in which Adrián Fernández, from the PP, was elected new mayor, an appointment whose validity could be challenged if the judicial proceedings are prolonged as a result of this ruling.
The plaintiff maintained that an extraordinary plenary session was held at the City Council on July 2nd with a single item on the agenda: the mayor's resignation. Once this resignation was accepted, the now former mayor announced that the four councilors from Somos Malagón had submitted their resignation from their seats. However, the ruling clarifies that this resignation should not have been considered effective under those conditions.
Segura himself argued that this resignation announcement should have been formalized and registered before the plenary session was convened in order to be included on the agenda, "as established by constitutional jurisprudence."
Subsequently, on July 15th, the new mayor of Malagón convened another extraordinary plenary session which the councilors from Somos Malagón did not attend. They were not notified of the session because the new mayor did not convene, as he should have, a specific plenary session to formally acknowledge the resignation of the four councilors, and therefore it was understood that they remained councilors in full exercise and, consequently, should have been summoned.
The defendant argued in their submissions that it was not essential to include the councilors' resignation as an agenda item for it to take effect.
In the Legal Grounds of the ruling, reported by Europa Press, the judge concludes that the announcement of resignation by the councilors of Somos Malagón "cannot be considered in essence a declaration of will of resignation by the councilors, but rather it is information that the already former mayor conveyed to the plenary session, announcing that those documents had been submitted".
"In reality, there was no such submission, since to speak of submission those same documents would have had to be registered in the City Council's Registry beforehand, as established by constitutional jurisprudence. This was not done, and those documents were registered at the end of that plenary session, so the formalization did not take effect with the processing and holding of a plenary session after the one held on July 22," the ruling adds.
Thus, the procedure followed "cannot produce any legal effect on the effectiveness of the councilors' resignations in the plenary session of July 2, as the requirements established by constitutional jurisprudence have not been observed".
The magistrate further specifies that the acceptance of the Plenary Session of the Corporation is not an essential requirement for the resignation to take effect before said body, and it can even be revoked as long as the Plenary Session has not formally taken cognizance of it.
Likewise, it is understood that, by not having convened or held a subsequent plenary session with an item on the agenda expressly dedicated to that resignation, said councilors "continued to hold their seats".
Consequently, the judge upholds the contentious appeal and orders the defendant to pay costs. "I uphold the contentious-administrative appeal filed against the resolution, which is now declared null and void for not being in accordance with the law," the ruling concludes.
Political Background in Malagón
In the last municipal elections in Malagón, after an internal split in the PSOE, the distribution of councilors was configured with 4 seats for Somos Malagón, 3 for the PSOE, and 6 for the PP.
Somos Malagón and PSOE sealed a Government pact whereby they would alternate the Mayor's office for two years each. Under this agreement, Luis Carlos Segura assumed the Mayor's office for the first half of the term. However, as the plenary session in which the handover was to materialize approached, the socialist candidate destined to succeed him, Justine Martín, decided to withdraw.
After this resignation and with the support of a renegade PSOE councilor, the PP managed to add one more vote to its six seats, which allowed it to change the majority and take control of the City Council last year. Since then, Adrián Fernández has served as mayor.
The ruling now known, against which an appeal to the Supreme Court is still possible, opens the door to requesting the annulment of the plenary session in which Adrián Fernández was elected mayor.