The PP candidate, Jacinto Muñoz, was proclaimed this Wednesday the new mayor of Algeciras after the censure motion promoted by his own party together with Vox against José Ignacio Landaluce, who did not attend the plenary session and had already formalized his resignation from the post last Sunday, went through. The two PP councilors who remained loyal to the previous mayor --Yessica Rodríguez and Patricia Bueno-- also did not attend, while Vicente Palomares was present at the session.
The initiative that has allowed Muñoz to take the helm of the City Council has gone ahead with 15 favorable votes, corresponding to 12 PP councilors and three from Vox, while the seven PSOE representatives have opted for abstention. Opposed were Vicente Palomares and Gema Amparo Esteve Crespo, of Vox, who has broken the voting discipline of her group.
The plenary meeting opened with a minute of silence in memory of the victims of the railway accident that occurred in Toledo, after which the different spokespeople expressed, in their speaking turns, their support for the relatives and those affected by the accident.
Next, the full reading of the motion registered by PP and Vox was carried out, in which the reasons justifying the convening of this extraordinary plenary session against the until now mayor of Algeciras were detailed. Account was also given of the resignation letter submitted by Landaluce last Sunday.
In his intervention, the new PP mayor, Jacinto Muñoz, stressed that the decision "does not arise from improvisation, nor from personal interest, nor from a desire for prominence" but from his "responsibility with Algeciras".
He acknowledged that "many citizens ask themselves how we have gotten here, how 12 councilors who for so many years have worked alongside Landaluce have ended up promoting a motion of censure. I consider that they deserve an explanation", pointing out that they found themselves "before a situation of extraordinary gravity".
As he explained, before activating the motion of censure they demanded that the former mayor "step aside" in order to "focus on his legal defense with all guarantees" and allow the City Council "to continue working with the stability it needed".
"I asked him from respect, from the many years we had shared and with the conviction that we were still in time to find a different way out," Muñoz has added, who has insisted that "before presenting a motion of censure, we tried to avoid it".
The now mayor has indicated that a dozen PP councilors withdrew their support from Landaluce on understanding that "in those circumstances, keeping him was no longer compatible with our institutional responsibility", alluding to the complaints by two militants for alleged sexual assaults.
Along with this, he has underscored his respect for the presumption of innocence of Landaluce in the face of said complaints for alleged sexual assaults, but has specified that that "does not mean renouncing exercising our political responsibility".
He has emphasized that "personal loyalty deserves respect, but no loyalty can replace the responsibility we have with the institution we serve. We do not intend to erase the past or turn this disagreement into a personal judgment. Nor do we want this situation to prolong the uncertainty in our town hall. We have not come this far to resolve a personal issue, we have come this far to assume an institutional responsibility".
On behalf of Vox, Eva Poza has spoken, who has criticized that the resignation announced by Landaluce on Sunday "changes nothing" and "comes late and forced by this motion of censure", justifying her formation's favorable vote to "return institutional stability to Algeciras from today, if possible until election day".
Along the same lines, she has emphasized that Vox supports the motion "in exchange for nothing", since they have not demanded from the PP "council positions, nor posts, nor salaries, nor offices", underscoring that they will not join the municipal government nor have they agreed "to any quid pro quo".
Likewise, she has warned Jacinto Muñoz that his support "is not a blank check" and that Vox will continue "very closely" the judicial proceedings after his statement as a witness in the Landaluce case last Friday. "We facilitate governability, but we do not endorse the management. Vox will continue the opposition, demanding security in our neighborhoods, cleanliness in our streets and respect for the money of all the people of Algeciras. We will watch every decree, every contract and every euro," she has emphasized.
From PSOE, councilor Francisco Fernández has communicated the abstention of his group, reproaching the PP for having "supported" Landaluce throughout all this time despite the socialist warnings about the behavior of the now former mayor, and "by insulting" PSOE and by "talking about invented hoaxes that today only come out of Mr. Landaluce's mouth, but whom 15 councilors of this plenary hall have defended to the death".
"They knew it years ago. There were screenshots, there were recordings, there were testimonies, and there were internal communications, and you looked the other way for electoral calculation and for damage control, obviously not for the victims", Fernández has criticized.
The socialist councilor has had words of support for the two women who have denounced Landaluce, to whom he has conveyed "all our respect, all our support and all our solidarity" because "with the victims one does not play".
As for the abstention, he has indicated that it responds "out of consistency and responsibility", rejecting supporting a PP candidate who "has been through the court and about whom there is a signed document of which he would have to give explanations", alluding to an alleged writing signed by one of the complainants after a meeting with Muñoz. "This motion of censure comes from a pact with the far right, its natural habitat, since they are building bridges for what may happen in May. But I already tell you that in May the numbers are not going to add up for them neither alone nor with them", he has added, questioning that someone who "is going to the Senate and who has to be away at least two days a week" access the Mayor's Office, and defending that "Algeciras needs a full-time mayor and does not need to seek accommodation or parliamentary immunity, because the one who loses is our city".
On the part of the Popular group, Javier Vázquez Hueso has backed his formation's action around the Landaluce case, in terms similar to those set out by the new mayor.
"Some call us traitors and others accomplices. Some say that we have made decisions too soon and others that we should have done it a long time ago, but I assure you that I had never been prouder of a group of councilors from the Partido Popular, which has stepped forward just at the moment when there is a firm action, such as a woman's complaint", the Popular councilor has stated.
In this context, he has recalled that the PSOE filed "a political complaint" before the Supreme Court against Landaluce "without any basis and whose only motivation was the Andalusian elections", a document that, as he has remembered, "was neither even admitted for processing", something that, he has said, "helps no woman, it only increases pain and insecurity".
He has reiterated that his group withdrew support from the former mayor after the complaints of two women against him became known. "We took a personal leap into the void, leaving our work and our salary, but acting with conscience above all else", he has maintained.
Once the spokespersons' interventions were concluded, the vote on the motion of censure proceeded, which was approved with 15 votes in favor, seven abstentions and two votes against. At that moment, the city command baton was handed over to Jacinto Muñoz, formalizing his taking office as mayor.