Unusual alliance at the City Hall of La Coruña in Muxía. The local popular, nationalist and independent opposition has filed a motion of censure against its mayor, the socialist Iago Toba, who has been governing in the minority since the last municipal elections in May 2023. In his place, They propose the spokesman of Independientes por Muxía (IxM) as advisor and former head of the fishermen’s brotherhood, Francisco Javier Sar. The plenary session during which the motion will be voted on and the new mayor sworn in will be held on Monday, October 7 at noon.
The letter is signed by the three councilors of the PP, the majority opposition party; the two from IxM – one of them, Sar, the proposed candidate –; and the only councilor from the BNG. The current mayor, Toba, has been at the head of the local government for five years, but it is only since the last municipal elections, just over a year ago, that The socialists govern in a minority, going from 7 to 5 representatives. If his investiture took place, supported only by the votes of his own group, it is because the rest of the forces were not able to consolidate an alternative majority.
But since then, this gap in the socialist defense has not disappeared. And the scenario in which the rest of the groups unite to overthrow the councilor is happening now that The people agreed to support the independent Sar and abandon the conflict for the mayoralty, despite the fact that the PP has one more seat than IxM in the Society. If the opposition’s commitment is respected, Toba will be removed from office by a majority vote in the plenary session to be held in two weeks.
“Aberration” for Besteiro
In statements collected by Ep, the secretary general of the PSdeG, José Ramón Gómez Besteiro, called the motion of censure an “aberration” and he made ugly the fact that with this, the councilor “with the least votes” in the municipal elections of 2023 will become mayor with the support of the popular and the nationalists; In fact, although he did not seem surprised by the position of the PP, he accused the BNG of taking an “anti-democratic and anti-social turn” in its way of doing politics.
The opposition maintains the opposite position. PP spokesperson Sandra Vilela said that the alliance for the motion of censure is not “something improvised” or “the result of a tantrum”, but rather the result of dialogue and the concession of her group to unblock an “absolutely untenable situation”, with an advisor “incapable” of reaching agreements despite governing in a minority: “Three very different parties have put aside what separates us to unite for the good of Muxía,” he said. Francisco Javier Sar himself assured that he was acting out of responsibility towards the neighbors and not on the basis of “partisan interests”, agreeing with Vilela that the “lack of communication” and “bad manners” marked the government of Toba and emphasizing that the dismissal of the mayor “should have been earlier” and, although what awaits us may not be “easy”, “the first thing will be to change habits” within the City Council.
Finally, the spokesperson of the BNG, Mercé Barrientos, considered that there is a “democratic exceptional situation” and explained that his group supports the motion to end “16 months of delirium”, but insisted that the nationalists “will never give” a mayoralty to the PP, from which they are distinguished by “a diametrically opposed ideology”.
