By David Eade – Costa del Sol News
On the Monday after Christmas the Partido Popular formally broke the anti political turncoat pact with PSOE meaning that politicians deemed of committing such acts could be accepted as candidates in the forthcoming elections.
In Andalucía this will affect El Puerto de Santa María, Jabugo, Chiclana de la Frontera, Alcaucín, Estepona, Ronda, Cañete de los Torres, Yunquera, Mengibar, Bollullos del Condado, Sierra de Yeguas, Jabalquinto, Morelabor and Genalguacil. However there are also numerous cases in the regions of Aragón, Asturias, the Canary Islands, Cantabría, Castilla y Leon, Castilla – La Mancha, Cataluña, Galicia, Madrid and Valencia.
The agreement was meant to stop a politician or a group of same from standing and being elected for one party then switching allegiance after he, she or they were elected. A commission of experts was set up to determine whether a politician or politicians had become turncoats and the pact was aimed at preventing their adopted party from accepting them as future candidates.
Perhaps the most extreme example of this can be found in Ronda. At the last election the mayor Antonio Marín had led his eight councillors from the Partido Andalucista to victory as the largest party and continued its coalition with the Partido Popular.
Months later Marín broke the accord with the PP and joined in coalition with PSOE instead. Then he and his eight fellow PA councillors resigned from their party, now sit as non-aligned councillors but have all become members of PSOE.
This has left the Partido Andalucista without any councillors at the town hall when it was elected as the largest group by the voters. The commission on political turncoats deemed Marín and his eight PA councillors all to be guilty. However the breaking of the pact means he will now almost certainly lead PSOE into the next municipal election.
It should also be noted that before he left the PA for socialist PSOE Marín had declared an interest in throwing in his lot with his then coalition partners the centre right Partido Popular. The move fell through because the PP was not keen to have him. This May the voters of Ronda will have the final say!
RONDA FAMILY EVACUATED ON NEW YEAR’S EVE
A Ronda married couple and their three children aged 21, 12 and 9 years of age spent New Year’s Eve in a hotel after a fire badly damaged their home.
The fire broke out at 20.00 at their house in the calle Juan Ramón Jiménez in the Doctor Vázquez quarter as they prepared for the evening’s celebrations. What happened is not yet clear but flames appeared on top of the gas bottle heater and the fire brigade and local police rushed to the scene to put out the flames.
At the time of the blaze the mother was in the shower and the children helped their father flee the property as he has had a leg amputated. Mercifully none of them suffered any injuries but the flames damaged the kitchen and part of the back of the house. In addition a large amount of clothing that was near the gas heater was destroyed.
The local police say the incident could have been far more serious had the gas bottle exploded. In the event both they and the fire brigade managed to take it out on to the terrace away from the flames.
The family were left in the street in tears but local families offered to take them in to share their New Year’s Eve meal. The local police arranged for them to be taken to a small hotel for the night and on New Year’s Day the cleaned up operation begun.
FIRST BABY OF 2011 BUT NO CHEQUE
It was back in May that the Spanish premier, José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, announced that the “cheque-bebé” would be withdrawn as of midnight on New Year’s Eve. The payment of 2,500 euros was made to the parents of babies but was stopped as part of the government’s austerity measures.
There have been reports that doctors were being put under pressure by expectant families to ensure the babies arrived before midnight. Now they just have the new arrival plus a new year to celebrate.
The first baby in Málaga province was delivered at Ronda’s hospital at 1.20 on New Year’s Day. He was José Antonio Jiménez de los Santos and he weighed in at 3 kilos, 750 grams.
José Antonio’s parents, María Luisa and Manuel, say the birth was totally natural and without any problems. They already have two other children, Aroa and Manuel aged 5 and 9 years respectively.
The family in the Sierra de Cádiz village of Algodonales but Ronda is their nearest hospital some 30 kilometres away. They lamented they had just missed out on the baby cheque by the skin of their teeth and said they thought the government should have maintained it for those women who became pregnant in 2010.
FOUR RESCUED
Four people were treated for smoke inhalation after a fire broke out in an apartment in the calle María Cabrera in Ronda in the early hours of the morning. In the flat were a grandmother and her two granddaughters. They were sent to hospital along with a neighbour who had led them to safety. A short circuit in the fuse box is to blame.
FIESTA LECTURE
Ronda’s mayor and the fair commission have met to decide who would be given the honour of making the opening speech at the Pedro Romero feria in September. Writer Fernando Sánchez was in the frame but was discarded because of the scandal over under-aged sex in his latest novel. Instead the honour goes to Adelaida de la Calle, the rector of Málaga University.
UNHAPPY RESIDENTS
The Andalucía public development company handed over the keys to 60 of the 111 social housing units at Olivar de las Monjas in Ronda. Five million euros has been invested in the scheme but many of the new owners are far from happy. They say there are numerous defects with cracks and damp whilst some even found building tools littering their home.
BLOOD BATH
Ronda has been included in the map produced by the Andalucía government showing the sites of common graves dating back to the Civil War and Franco era. The old San Lorenzo cemetery has six such graves in which an estimated 1,600 victims are interred. The association concerned with these events says the death toll is due to the butchery in the Serranía region.
MORE ENGINES
The Málaga fire fighting consortium is to spend 3.1 million euros on new equipment that will benefit fire teams in the entire province. The organisation has opted to lease vehicles rather than purchase them which means the funds can be spread further. The Ronda fire service has 72 operatives but it is yet to be determined what new equipment will be stationed there.
