Without surprises and with less tension than expected, given the political and media pressure to which the right, and singularly the PP, has subjected the PSOE in recent weeks, the councilor of EH Bildu Joseba Asiron (Pamplona, ??1962) regain the mayorship of the Navarrese capital yesterday after the censure motion against Cristina Ibarrola (UPN) agreed between the Abertzale formation and the PSN and which had the support of Geroa Bai and Contigo-Zurekin had succeeded.
It was in an extraordinary plenary session marked by democratic normalcy and by the indignation of the now ex-mayor, who in a subsequent press conference recognized the legitimacy of her successor but questioned whether it was “ethical and moral” due to the formula used .
The censure motion saw the green light with 15 votes in favor and 11?against, and then Asiron, who had already held the leadership of Pamplona between 2015 and 2019, promised the position and took office. Already as mayor and president of the plenum, the Abertzale politician took the floor to assume three commitments which, as he said, will be “pillars” in his government action. Commitments, he explained, with “the search for consensus”, with “respect towards those who think differently” and with “coexistence”.
After closing the session, the new mayor, professor of art and history at the San Fermín ikastola, in Zizur Menor, went out to the balcony of the City Hall to share the moment with thousands of citizens celebrating the motion of no confidence – the first in the history of Pamplona – in the council square, in what the mayor himself later defined as his “particular chupinazo”. The sympathizers defeated him, shouted in favor of independence and against UPN, a scene that was reproduced when the councilors of one sign and the other left. The only moments of tension took place when a small group of demonstrators with Navarre and Spanish flags burst into the square to the cry of “Asiron, fora de la bataca”, “Asiron out” and “Chivite marioneta d’ETA”, proclamations to which the rest of the crowd responded by shouting “Independencezia” and “UPN out” (UPN, out).
The plenary session began with a tense discussion between the speakers and the president of the age board, Koldo Martínez (Geroa Bai), about the timing of the use of words. Martínez granted six minutes for the mayoress and the candidate, while the groups opposing the motion demanded ten. “They have taken our word”, denounced Ibarrola, who was the first to intervene after Asiron himself resigned from his turn.
Ibarrola assured that he leaves with his head “very high” in the face of what he called a “macabre act of betrayal” in Pamplona and took the opportunity to attack the president of the Spanish Government, Pedro Sánchez, who “like Judas Iscariot Pamplona by six Bildu votes”, after considering that the only reason to evict her was the investiture of the head of the Executive.
For her part, the Socialist spokesperson, Marina Curiel, accused Ibarrola of having carried out “an overbearing, unilateral and opaque political action, alien to listening and dialogue and continuously despising the rest of the political forces”, and he denounced the remarks and insults that, in his opinion, PSN councilors have been victims of on the part of UPN. “Not everything is valid in the political discourse”, lamented Curiel, who confirmed that the PSN will not be in the government of Asiron, in which there will be councilors from Abertzales, Geroa Bai and Contigo-Zurekin.
From the PP, Carlos García Adanero intervened to reproach the PSOE and Sánchez that with this action they “finish their job of whitewashing” EH Bildu.
After the plenary session, Asiron asked to lower the intensity of the insults and disqualifications of these days, although he recognized that the regionalists now have to make a “strong opposition”, as they themselves have done in the six months of Ibarrola .
