The spokesperson for Unidos X Laredo (UxL), Ramón Arenas, was expelled from the municipal plenary session held this Thursday after the mayor, Miguel González (PP), called him to order on three occasions for interrupting the councilor of IU-Podemos, David Palacio. This councilor, during the request turn, accused Arenas of managing a "fraudulent" profile on Facebook, under the name 'Laredo (Cantabria, Spain)', "which impersonates the City Council".
According to Palacio, Arenas "is the owner" of that page, whose description offers general information about Laredo, without reference to acronyms or parties, while its activity focuses on disseminating UxL content. The profile's presentation text indicates: "Laredo is a Spanish municipality in the eastern part of the autonomous community of Cantabria, located next to the Cantabrian Sea. It is the regional capital of Bajo Asón, and as such provides services to its adjacent municipalities."
During the session, the IU-Podemos councilor, a member of the Government team (PP, IU-Podemos, Ola, and the non-attached councilor), read a request in which he urged the mayor to contact the person responsible for the account to demand a change of name and that "it does not impersonate" the City Council "because it affects us all".
At that point, the UxL spokesperson interrupted to state that the IU-Podemos councilor "is making it up" and addressed the general secretary to argue that the Plenary Regulation does not contemplate the Government team using the turn of requests and questions as an instrument of control over the opposition. His request for protection was not granted.
For these interruptions, the mayor called him to order on two consecutive occasions, warned him that on the third he would be "out on the street" and demanded "education" and that he stop making "gestures". Arenas replied with a "calm down", which prompted the third warning and his immediate expulsion from the plenary hall.
While gathering his belongings to leave the room, Arenas protested loudly, calling the situation "a disgrace" and denouncing that the Plenary session functions "anarchically". He also addressed Palacio, reproaching him for violating the regulations: "You have no idea," he snapped. The IU councilor replied: "You calm down with me," and the mayor concluded by pointing out that "the problem is that he doesn't calm down with anyone."
After the departure of the spokesperson and the other two councilors from UxL, Lucas Roiz and Rosalía Díaz, who accompanied him out of the hall, the mayor stated that "we already know who is behind that profile," a point that Palacio ratified by insisting that "he is the owner of that page, not a follower."
To close the matter, the mayor also reproached Arenas for having "turned the Laredo Remo Club profile (...) into the Unidos X Laredo account, absorbing all its followers."
UxL Formalizes Its Protest to the General Secretariat
The following day, Friday, Unidos X Laredo reported that it had registered three documents addressed to the General Secretariat to officially record what happened in the session and "preserve the political participation rights of the opposition councilors."
In the first of these documents, UxL denounces that during the questions and answers session, a member of the Government team "was allowed" to "use a control instrument to interrogate the opposition, distorting one of the essential oversight mechanisms provided for in the Municipal Organic Regulations."
The second document states that its spokesperson raised a point of order to warn of this situation, which "was not heeded and no intervention from the General Secretariat was recorded," and that, despite this, he ended up being expelled from the Plenary.
In the third, the municipal group attaches a recent ruling from the High Court of Justice of Andalusia that declared Article 23.2 of the Spanish Constitution violated following the expulsion of a councilor during a plenary session, considering his right to political participation to have been injured.
UxL emphasizes that said judicial resolution "recalls something that should be evident in any democratic institution: the disciplinary powers of the person presiding over a plenary session are not unlimited or discretionary. They must be exercised scrupulously respecting the procedural guarantees provided for in the local government regulations."
"In a City Council, no one should be expelled for asking for the Regulations to be complied with," concludes the statement sent by Unidos X Laredo.