Torrevieja constituents will be able to choose between eight different candidates on 26 May when they go to the electoral colleges to cast their vote in the municipal elections with representatives from the PP, PSOE, Los Verdes, Sueña Torrevieja, Ciudadanos, IU-Unidas Podemos, Vox and Contigo Somos Democracia, all extremely hopeful, some rather more than others, that they will be the next mayor.
However the APTCe, a party led by Domingo Soler that was born of the PP split, has disappeared from the electoral scene while Los Verdes and Compromis are now unified.
The Partido Popular’s Eduardo Dolón, a PP candidate for the third time, hopes to regain the mayor’s office that he lost in what was a dramatic failure in 2015 to his Los Verde namesake. This time he will be fighting the election without the ex-deputy Joaquín Albaladejo, but with support from much of the business community as well as the very popular and extremely capable Rosario Martinez by his side at number 2, despite the downturn in the party’s national popularity, it is hopeful of achieving the 13 councillors needed to wrest overall control from the Los Verdes coalition.
Andrés Navarro heads the PSOE list after surviving a very tough internal struggle. The PSOE hopes that the national results, which provided the first victory to the PSOE in 30 years, can be expanded into Torrevieja which would see the party increase the number of its councillors from the 4 achieved in 2015 to 7.
Los Verdes will be fighting the elections with Compromís, the veteran José Manuel Dolón , having remained as mayor against all odds with just four councillors (the same as the PSOE in 2015).
Sueña Torrevieja, the surprise of 2015, has Pablo Samper back at the top of the list with Alejandro Blanco at number 2 while Pilar Gómez Magán, Ciudadanos, has predicted that “the orange wave will continue to grow in the upcoming municipal elections on May 26 because it has been shown that we are the only alternative to bipartisanship. She anticipated that the C’s will double the number of councillors from 2 to 4.
Vox is perhaps the great unknown going into these elections although with their internal struggles and recent sackings it is currently a party in disarray. Led by Carolina Vigara and Juan Carlos Ramos, the party is reluctant to use conventional media, choosing instead to work the streets with their information tents.
After the celebrations and commiserations of the recent general elections many of Torrevieja’s party’s have adjusted their political ambitions, all but one perhaps, who, despite disappointing national results insists that he has the team and the policies that Torrevieja needs. “I am joined by 13 men and 14 women who have in common their love for Torrevieja,” he says.
But what we now wait to find out is exactly how that love will be reciprocated for the PP by the Torrevieja voters on 26 May.
