In Alcarria, Cuenca is the small town of Leganiel, with about 220 inhabitants and well known in the area for its typical white houses. In the municipal elections of May 2023, the PSOE obtained an overwhelming absolute majority, compared to that obtained by the PP in 2019. Last year, the socialists won four of the five councilors in the running, leaving the rest to the PP. Eduardo Recio became mayor, with Margarita Cuesta as number two.
However, there was no replacement on the list presented by the socialists, which gave rise to a situation that left the city hall in suspense for a few days, after the resignation of the mayor and his number two in mid-August.
The PP actually had a replacement on its lists, which is why the Central Electoral Commission confirmed elDiarioclm.es a resolution in this regard in which it establishes that these two minutes must come from the “popular”. This party now has an absolute majority in the municipal council, with three councilors.
The problem originates from the Organic Law of the General Electoral Regime (LOREG), which establishes that in towns with fewer than 250 inhabitants, each party presents open lists. They must have a maximum of three names if the municipality has up to 100 inhabitants or five if it has between 101 and 250 inhabitants. The latter case is the case of Leganiel.
A pact for “normality”
This was the electoral process in this municipality of Cuenca and in dozens of towns in Castilla-La Mancha, where the lack of replacements on the lists is common. The law provides that in the event of the death, incapacity or resignation of a councilor, the vacant position will be assigned to the next candidate with the most votes. But what happened in Leganiel, given the lack of replacements, caused the resignation of the two socialist councilors, thus nullifying the vote of the citizens at the polls.
The PP, in fact, has not wanted, for the moment, to take advantage of this situation and has agreed with the PSOE that the City Council remains socialist. In an extraordinary plenary session held this week, the socialist Ángel Fernández, already a city councilor, was elected mayor, but with a PP councilor as deputy mayor, since he usually resides in the city.
This is an unprecedented situation. But according to municipal sources consulted by this media, the objective is to contribute to “normality” in the municipality after the two resignations.
For his part, the PP spokesman in Leganiel, Raúl López, explained to Europa Press that another problem arising from this situation is that since last year’s elections until today, “a lot of things have happened”. “Those of us on the list have continued with our lives”, he explains, because it was up to him to take charge of the city at a time when he lives in Madrid for his studies.
That is why, after analyzing the situation and understanding that if they did not accept the minutes, the problem would spread even further, “to the detriment of the residents of Leganiel”, they decided that the best thing for the city was for the new PP councilors to enter, but the socialists continued to govern.
Despite this, the aforementioned municipal sources have clarified to this media that this is a support that the PP conditions on the management carried out by the new socialist mayor. Furthermore, this party does not rule out the motion of censure.
Conflict with a municipal employee
They refer, among other things, to the reasons for the resignation of the former mayor and his number two, presumably due to a conflict with a municipal employee affiliated with CCOO. It was this union that made the case public, denouncing that after the last municipal elections, this public employee began to suffer “pressure and harassment” from the resigning councilors.
“I had to be at their service 24 hours a day, without any written communication or justification, simply by appealing to the power of orientation and self-organization of the City Hall staff,” CCOO emphasizes.
According to the union, everything led to a state of anxiety for the municipal employee, who finally obtained temporary disability from his family doctor. On his return, “the situation worsened and the deputy mayor recorded the operator during his working hours.”
The last decision of the former mayor of Leganiel “was to try to unilaterally impose the signature of fingerprints, something that the workers themselves questioned, defending that the registration of working hours required by law could be done by other means or instruments.”
This is why this union, after the resignations, hopes that the people who now assume maximum responsibility for the management of the City Hall “arrive with a different attitude.”
This media has requested the assessment of the PSOE of Cuenca and Leganiel on these accusations of CCOO and on the current situation of the City Council, without there being any response for the moment.
