Absolute normality today in the town hall of Chercos, Almería, after yesterday a part of the population of this small town in the Almanzora Valley, with 300 inhabitants, protested in front of the doors of the town hall against the motion of censure that PP, Vox and Independientes of Chercos presented (and prospered) against the socialist Eduardo Mena. The baton of command thus returned to the popular José Antonio Torres, 98 years old, who was the victim of an “escrache organized by the Socialist Party of Almería at the door of his home” that led him to be “admitted” to a health center. from Albox, according to the PP Almería. The same sources have not determined whether
The socialists, for their part, deny the majority since they deny that the mayor needed medical attention. “It is false that we have carried out an escrache. During the motion and in the presence of the Civil Guard, neighbors of different political ideologies have shown their rejection of this traffic of wills,” explains the party through its social networks, a text with which they also respond to the president of the Junta de Andalucía. , the popular Juanma Moreno, who echoes this event. “I am saddened that you have been the victim of such despicable harassment. I wish for his speedy recovery,” expressed the leader of the PP of Andalusia regarding Torres.
After the storm comes calm, and today the doors of the town hall where between 60-70 people gathered yesterday, according to what one of the witnesses of the event told La Vanguardia, opened completely normally. “People gathered here to protest against the motion. There were whistles and comments, yes, but no threats. The people rose up, but not only against the mayor but also with the parties that signed the motion,” explains this neighbor from Chercos, “they sang in favor of Eduardo” and “against the PP and the party representatives who came ”, it was said that “the motion was legal but immoral” and “nothing more.” “It is true that there were people who followed the mayor and the PP delegation when they left the town hall down the street, but no one knocked on the door of their house or had to go to the doctor,” declares this same source. What they did do was throw fake 200 and 500 euro bills in his path.
This is the line defended by the PSOE, from which they deny having promoted any “escrache” as well as criticizing the fact that there has been a motion of censure in the council and that, after 7 terms (24 years), José Antonio Torres returns to power despite to not have “even 10% of popular support.” “This is an injustice,” explains Mena, “I don’t understand what great interests the PP could have in committing this outrage. The people do not agree with it, it is going against the people completely.”
And it was a part of the neighbors who raised their voices. With shouts and with megaphones they sang: “Eduardo, friend, the people are with you” or “They are coming from Almería to take away our mayor’s office.”
It was in the last municipal elections when the socialist Eduardo Mena managed to be the most voted list, winning the mayor’s office with two of the seven councilors that make up the city council and with the support of the mayor of Independientes por Chercos. In front of them, two other PP councilors, one from Vox and another from Cs.
Just yesterday, the Independent councilor showed her support for the motion of censure promoted by PP and Vox, in a way that broke the political balance that prevailed in the town, causing a shift to the right. The mayor of Ciudadanos abstained from appearing at the plenary session.
This change outraged a part of the inhabitants of this Almería municipality, among them some socialist members, according to the PP of Almería in a statement. “A dozen people encouraged by the PSOE of Almería, among whom was the former deputy mayor María Dolores Mena, daughter of the former mayor of the PSOE, went after the end of the plenary session to the first mayor’s home to scold him, insult and threaten him,” the letter states, a fact for which Torres “once he was already at home, had to be transferred to the health center after the members of the socialist picket had harassed him to unsuspected limits with disqualifications.” and even knocking on the windows and door of their home.”
Given these “attempts of aggression by the PSOE” that had been taking place since Tuesday morning, both “the first mayor and all the members of the PP of Almería who were with him, as well as provincial deputies or mayors of the region who have attended the plenary session to accompany José Antonio Torres, they have had to be escorted by the Civil Guard in response to the PSOE’s attempts at aggression,” says the PP.
The mayor “reached out his hand today to the Socialist Group in the City Council once the plenary session had ended despite ensuring that the attitude of the PSOE hurt him in the depths of his being and has indicated that he will continue working for his municipality with the same “always illusion”, includes the text issued by the PP of Almería, a tranquility that is also predicted by the witness of the events who has spoken with this newspaper. “This will be a matter of a few days, then everything will calm down,” he commented.
Today, it seems, tranquility reigns in the town and, although some neighbors are still “surprised” and without understanding how something so specific has attracted so much attention, except for “interests of the popular people,” they detail, they consider that soon In time, normality will return to the town.
