The situation of the City Council of Camuñas, in Toledo, continues to be unprecedented and complex, since its mayor, Fernando Gallego, was expelled from the PP, the party on whose list he won the last municipal elections, for insulting kings on social networks, to Pedro Sánchez or Alberto Núñez Feijóo, among others.
The city councilor continues to cling to his position and has not resigned from his position, but it is not clear whether the PP councilors, who continue to belong to the party, support him, do not support him, or if the mayor himself is still included in this municipal political group.
And the situation is not clarified because the mayor himself has not authorized it until now. During the month of August, the municipal opposition of the PSOE tried to convince Fernando Gallego to explain his continuity, since he no longer belongs to the party for which he had run.
Through a motion, the socialist councillors also tried to get the councillors of the Popular Municipal Group to take a position on the issue. But this document was not debated during the plenary session convened in August because the mayor, who decides the agenda, did not authorise it.
Attention now turns to the municipal plenary session called for September 24. The local PSOE group of Camuñas hopes that its motion will then be debated and that the “veto” that, according to municipal sources, the mayor maintains against them will be lifted.
The text of the motion “opposed to his veto”
In this motion, the spokesperson for the Municipal Socialist Group, Cecilia Redondo, first explains how the Internet has promoted freedom of expression, which has empowered citizens since anyone can create a channel “to publish their point of view”. However, he points out that through social networks it is “very easy to make defamatory comments” but that, once published, “it is not so easy to delete or retract them”, since the contents can be transmitted or captured.
He thus states that someone’s life can be “ruined” and that it is just as complicated to “restore someone’s honor” when the published comment has spread on the networks. He refers to the mayor’s words by stating that when one decides to enter politics, it is “for the service of citizens, and not for oneself by tarnishing the honor of others.”
For all this, in the motion, the Socialist Group asks the mayor and his government team to give explanations and take a position on the statements made on the networks that generated the controversy, as well as on the continuity in office and in the Popular Group of Fernando. Gallego, once expelled from the game.
Today, this media asked the president of the PP of Castilla-La Mancha, Paco Núñez, how he appreciates the fact that Gallego remains mayor. He limited himself to stating that the Commission of Rights and Guarantees of the party has already adopted the appropriate decision and thus resolved the matter. That is to say, he did not detail what the role should be from now on of the PP councilors who are still in the party and who gave the majority to Fernando Gallego as mayor.
The socialist opposition therefore has in its sights the municipal plenary session convened on September 24. It will therefore be two months since it became public that the mayor, who has been a regular on social networks for years, had published numerous insults on X (formerly Twitter) before becoming mayor and also once he took office.
In September 2023, having barely taken over the command, he charged against King Felipe VI, whom he described as “meek” or “lazy governed by a red woman”, in reference to Queen Letizia, whom he had on other occasions described as a “raspa” or “communist plebeian”.
Later, when the legislature had just opened, he attacked the kings, taking advantage of a tweet from the president of the Community of Madrid. He has also written about the Civil Guard on various occasions and moments on his social networks to call the Benemérita “mercenaries” or “fucking ticket collectors”. His comments do not stop there. In recent years, his fiery criticism of Pedro Sánchez, the president of the government, has also been common, whom he has called “shit”, among other subtleties.
He has also written several times about the last two presidents of the PP. About Pablo Casado, he wrote in January 2020: “You represent the people less and less, even those who vote for you.” The national leader of the ‘populares would remain at the head of the party for another two years.
And regarding the current leader of the national PP, Alberto Núñez Feijóo, in 2021, when Pablo Casado was still leading the party, he published several comments on social networks in which he called the then president of Galicia a “disguised nationalist”, a “pest” or a “clown” and assured that he would always be “a second boy”. On other occasions, he showed himself to be a supporter of the far-right party led by Santiago Abascal.
sexist and negationist comments
Other of the most striking comments from the current mayor, already in opposition to the Camuñas mayoralty, are characterized by their sexist, sexual or other tone, even adding to the denialist messages on climate change. He doubts the political capacity of several women of the Spanish left. In response to a tweet, he called Leire Pajín, Susana Díaz, Irene Montero or Ada Colau “suspected of living the art of living of the sneaky blowjob.”
The first vice-president of the Spanish government, María Jesús Montero, has not been spared from her publications either, which she calls a “slut” and also addresses renowned journalists such as Almudena Ariza, from RTVE, or Rosa Villacastín with her comments. He also comments on “the blow” received by PP councilor Miguel Ángel Blanco and which, he says, would have been “more beneficial” to others, referring to a publication about the former leader of Podemos, Pablo Iglesias.
Camuñano’s PSOE had already announced that it would request a plenary session to clarify the mayor’s future. It has not ruled out a motion of censure either, but this last possibility is currently ruled out until the position of the current PP councillors is known. The socialists only have three councillors, compared to five for the popular party, not counting the mayor.
The mayor of Camuñas later declined to comment. elDiarioclm.es of his publications on social networks and it is not possible at the moment to contact him to know his plans at the head of the municipal council.
