The PP has obtained 10 councillors, one more than in 2019, and Vox improves from two to four councillors – Ciudadanos loses two seats and Cambiemos one, while the PSOE remains at six. PIOC only just failed to win a seat but they did pick up almost 1,400 votes
The PP has once again won the most votes in Orihuela, achieving 10 councillors, one more than in 2019, with 11,703 votes (38.6%). The surprise improvement has been Vox, going from two to four councillors, in third place, with 4,261 votes (14%); that is, 2,366 more votes than four years ago, and eclipsing Ciudadanos, which had elected only three representatives losing two council seats, with 3,325 votes (10.9%), almost 2,000 less than in 2019.
PSOE remains in second position, with six councillors (6,629 votes, 21.8%), a number similar to those obtained in previous elections. With a total of 25 councillors, the absolute majority stands at 13 councillors so as the largest party the PP will either have to preside as a minority government or seek an alliance with either Vox or Ciudadanos.
PP activists celebrated at their headquarters last night, delighted in being the most voted party and although not achieving an overall majority, which they had said they would do, they said they were delighted in the trust that the Oriolanos placed in them at the polls.
Pepe Vegara said that starting on Monday he will assess the proposals from the rest of the political forces, because “in this period everyone will have a voice and everyone will be heard.” Thus, he stressed that it is “a special night in which the PP has regained the Mayor’s Office. It is now time to start working for the Orihuela that we have to achieve, without a spirit of revenge.”
There is no agreement, at the moment, to govern with Vox: “We have not spoken to anyone”, he said.
Among his priorities, he has said that it is “a cleaner Orihuela”, managing waste in a different way, to “make it beautiful and change the face of a beautiful and welcoming city that is experiencing the worst waste management system in its history.”
Following the fall out 12 months ago by former mayor Emilio Bascuñana (PP) and Ciudadanos,
it will be difficult for the PP to reach any agreement with C’s, to which during the campaign they have attributed “a disastrous management”, in addition to accusing them of seeking their own interests and and not those of the municipality: “We must not fall again into the clutches of these parasites of politics without forgetting that it includes in its lists two investigated for prevarication in municipal contracts, Ángel Noguera and Luisa Boné, the first of them twice,” he said.
In turn, the Ciudadanos candidate, José Aix, said before the elections that Vegara “is absolutely unable to assume any public responsibility”, referring to the fact that the prosecutor is that he be sentenced to seven years in prison.
Manuel Mestre, from Vox and a retired general of the Air Force, promised that he would transform the Department of Equality-LGTBI into that of the Family, establishing fiscal measures to support maternity and the reconciliation of working life and guaranteeing the rights of all the groups represented in Oriolan society.
At the same time, he has presented himself as the candidate of “honesty”, the whip of corruption and “an inbred and mediocre ruling caste.” Water, language policy, family, tax cuts and spending cuts and subsidies have been his great assets.
Another disaster for the coast. Four more years of neglect, decline and mismanagement by these clueless councillors, who only see the coast as a cash cow. Apathy still reigns on the coast, but hopefully next time PIOC can make a real difference.