All Change in Almoradi Politics

It’s almost certainly all-change for Almoradi council this Monday, with the Partido Popular set to regain control of the authority, which it lost in the May 2015 local elections. The right of centre PP, with the help of the Ciudadanos centrist party, has put forward a censure motion over the socialist PSOE-led administration under mayor Jaime Perez, which has been supported by the United Left(IU) party, and which under a pact, would have seen the IU’s María Jesús Pérez become mayor this spring.
 
With Ciudadanos now switching their support to the PP camp, a new coalition led by María Gómez (pictured left), has formed and they have enough votes to unseat Perez, with Gómez taking the top job. In an interview with the Informacion newspaper, she claims that the council has been “mired in baseless smearing of the opposition for political gain”. She said her priorities would be to put a budget in place and to improve cleaning services.
 
Gómez though, is being investigated by an Orihuela court over fraud allegations amounting to 54 thousand euros, when she was finance councillor in the previous PP administration. The deal between the PP and Ciudadanos is that if the fraud investigation goes to trial, where she would have to testify in front of a judge,  Gómez would stand aside as mayor in favour of María Quiles (pictured right) from Ciudadanos for the rest of the term. The next elections are due in May 2019.