Two Orihuela government councillors failed to attend Thursdays ‘no confidence’ vote introduced by the PSOE on mayor Emilio Bascuñana. Neither Dámaso Aparicio nor Begoña Cuartero attended the plenary that was held on Thursday morning.
The vote was moved by the PSOE councillor Víctor Ruiz in which he criticised the mayor for alleged espionage after he is said to have spied on private WhatsApp messages made to Damasco Aparicio.
“The problem with the Orihuela government,” said Ruiz, “is the mayor just cannot be trusted.”
Although the events are alleged to have occurred during the early part of the year Aparicio only made the matter public in July when he alleged that the mayor was privy to information that he could only have obtained by hacking into his private telephone conversations and messages. He suggested that it could have happened on as many as five separate occasions.
Despite being asked to do so by the local Spanish media on many occasions the mayor has continually failed to respond to the allegations or to make any kind of statement.
Speaking in support of the mayor, Paco Sáez (PP) said that it is a private matter. However, at no time did he deny that Aparicio’s complaint was false. He added that he does not understand how the PSOE councilor Víctor Ruiz “has had the audacity to present a motion based only on news clippings and opinions without anything proven.”
Juan Ignacio López-Bas, was also against the motion. He argued that the mayor was being reproached for facts that have not been proved and have only been published in the press.
However Ruiz said that many citizens consider that the mayor is a “a narcissist, as well as being a coward for not having answered the allegations”. “His silence says a lot because he has failed to defend himself,” he said. For that reason “the only course of action is that he makes an honourable exit and he resigns”. “Orihuela cannot afford to have a government that does not trust its mayor”.
Following the debate the motion was rejected when the vote was tied with the PP and Citizens voting against while the PSOE and Cambiemos Orihuela voted in favour. Meanwhile the Democratic Forum abstained.
