Political turmoil in Serranía de Ronda town: PP mayor ousted and PSOE's former-mayor to be reinstated

Another political change is afoot in the western end of Malaga province. On Wednesday the PSOE (Spanish socialist workers' party) presented a motion of no confidence at a full council meeting in the small town of Benaoján, in the Serranía de Ronda, with the support of one of the three serving PP (People's Party) councillors to unseat current PP mayor Guillermo Becerra, according to SUR sources.

The motion was signed by Benaoján's four serving councillors for PSOE, which was the party that won most votes in the last municipal elections in May 2023, together with PP councillor José Antonio García Delgado. The motion also proposed PSOE councillor Soraya García Mesa as the new mayor. She had previously held this post between 2015 and 2023 and also between 2007 and 2009, the year that she was ousted from the mayor's office by a motion of no confidence by the left-wing IU (Izquierda Unida) party and two independent parties.

In the last local elections PSOE won four seats, while PP won three and the local, independent APB group (Agrupación Progresista de Benaoján), led by former mayor Francisco Gómez, won two. A pact to govern together was made between the latter two groups, which allowed the PP to govern for the first time in this town in the Guadiaro Valley.

García Delgado justified his decision to support the PSOE motion in a letter addressed to Patricia Navarro (the PP party's provincial president), his fellow PP colleagues in the council and local residents. In the letter he stated that he is taking this step out of "conviction" and because he believes that the direction taken by the municipal government, of which he is a member as the councillor in charge of public works, "does not represent the values or the PP's way of doing politics."

"The ongoing management is generating a profound institutional erosion, growing neighbourhood unrest and a clear deterioration in the image of the local council, of our town, but also of our party within the municipality and beyond", said the councillor, who was local president of the PP and a mayoral candidate a few years ago.

The Partido Popular has already announced that it will open a case against PP councillor José Antonio García Delgado because "we will not allow this kind of speculation", while the councillor stated in his letter that he is not acting out of personal interests or specific differences of opinion. "I do it because I believe in the PP project in Benaoján and in the province. I do so because I am concerned that our acronym, which we have worked so hard to dignify in Benaoján, is being associated with a way of governing that is far removed from the closeness, effectiveness, sensitivity and good image that we have always defended", he added in the letter.

"This motion is not against anyone personally. It's a call for reflection, an opportunity to correct course and hand back to my municipality the leadership it needs", he says.

From the provincial leadership of the Partido Popular, secretary-general José Ramón Carmona described García Mesa as "the mayor of party defection" and criticised her "inconsistency." After describing the 2009 vote of no confidence she suffered as "inappropriate", she now "betrays her ideals in order to sit at the head of the town council."

"It is regrettable to see that they've been plotting this manoeuvre for some time, behind the backs of their residents and the PP, relying on a defector, all because of this burning desire to govern that pushes the socialists to do whatever it takes to get into power," said Carmona. She went on to reproach this particular socialist politician for not sticking to the simple way to reach an agreement and, instead, deciding to "betray her principles to break the prosperous and ambitious PP government in Benaoján". She accused her of "putting her own interests and those of the party before the general interest of the municipality."

In response, Soraya García Mesa explained that the presentation of the motion of censure was a "difficult but necessary" step for Benaoján to open a new period of "stability, good management, real dialogue and progress."

In a video on social media, García Mesa stated that these two years of municipal mandate have seen a management marked by "erratic, improvised political decisions, many of them marked by ignorance or lack of understanding of how local government works." She denounced the growing "tension" within the municipal council and among local residents as a result of a leadership that "has failed to unite, engage in dialogue or build trust."

"The governing team has acted without coordination, without transparency and without a clear direction, which has created a disastrous image inside and outside the municipality that is harming not only our coexistence, but also our opportunities for development," she said.

García Mesa recalled that, from the beginning of her current term of office, she had reached out to the local and provincial PP to build a majority that would allow the town's projects to move forward, but the current mayor refused this approach. "Even so, we remain open to dialogue with the provincial PP and councillors who share the belief that the general interest comes first," she added.