The PSOE and Cambiemos opposition parties in Orihuela, that comprise a total of 10 elected councillors, visited the notary in the city on Wednesday where they signed the motion of censure against the mayor of Orihuela , Emilio Bascuñana.
The spokesperson for the group, Carolina Gracia of the PSOE, explained that this is a necessary preliminary step to formalise the motion, since it is necessary for a notary to authenticate the signatures. The document has been deposited in the notary with the ten signatures where it will remain until July 23, the deadline offered to 3 Ciudadanos councillors, after which it will then be submitted to the municipal registry of the City.
Gracia asked the Ciudadanos councillors to reconsider their decision and join with them because the current coalition government which they are trying to maintain is unsustainable. She said that be signing the motion of censureship “they will once again allow the dignity and good repute to return to the mayor’s office of the city “.
However Ciudadanos leader, Ignacio Lopez Bas, who is currently a member of the coalition government led by Emilio Bascuñana, has said that he will only consider joining with the PSOE and Cambiemos councillors and toppling the PP council if they promise that he will then be elected as mayor, a move that was rejected by the two parties in question.
Indeed it is Gracia herself who is the candidate proposed in the motion of censure, who they stress possesses “the responsibility, ethics and all that is necessary to fill the mayoral office.”
But with Lopez Bas saying that he will not deliver the Mayor’s office to the socialists and that it is he who should lead that local government as the mayor, the possibility of the current mayor being removed from office any time soon seems increasingly unlikely.
The argument put forward by the leader of the Cs is that they are the centre party, closer to the political sensitivity of most of the city’s residents as well as the fact that they have been directly involved in the Government responsibilities, active participants in the preparation of the 2018 budgets and the important and necessary investment execution plan agreed by the current government team, Lopez Bas insists that he is far better suited to step into the void that will be created with the removal of the present mayor.
The censureship motion was brought about following publication in eldiario.es of a story, that brought into doubt the work that the current mayor, a doctor by profession, carried out on behalf of the Department of Health from 2007 to 2013, for which he was paid in excess of euro 55,000 per annum.
Bascuñana didn’t have a fixed position during the period, and is accused of drawing a salary without carrying out any work. However he insists that he has documentary evidence showing that he carried out advisory and administrative duties for the Ministry which involved him effecting consultations in a number of health centres.
