Torrevieja’s socialist party (PSOE) has continued with the presentations of the people who make up the candidacy for the Local Elections. On this occasion, it was the turn of Carolina Ponce, Germán Martínez, Milagros Rosales, César Berná and Teresa Lozano (the previously announced candidates can be seen here).
The PSOE candidate for Mayor, Bárbara Soler, explained that “We have had little time to put together the whole candidacy, but for us the electoral programme is essential and we have worked hard to offer the best ideas for the people of Torrevieja”, before presenting the next five names on the list.
Carolina Ponce García, who occupies the third position on the PSOE list, is a graduate on Social Education from the University of Murcia and is a technician in social integration, where she received a special mention for her work experience at the Quatre Camins Penitentiary Centre in La Roca del Vallés. She also has postgraduate studies in Psychosocial and Legal Care for Minors, Family Mediation at the University of Elche, and in prevention and intervention with gender violence. Her vocation has always been directed towards the social and educational area. For the last four years she has been working in an Integral Recovery Centre for women and their children, victims of gender violence, in Alicante. Previously she worked in real estate and commerce and did an internship in the Social Services of Torrevieja. “We need social services with enough staff to attend to our population in the way they deserve, and we are going to do it”. Born in Cornellá de Llobregat, Barcelona, she moved to Torrevieja in 2000 to start a family. She has three children and among her hobbies are van trips and discovering villages, mountains and coves in Alicante. She has been closely linked to the children’s and youth association movement “Esplai” in Catalonia, has been a volunteer with people with disabilities and has given various educational workshops aimed at children and support for the immigrant population. “Diversity is part of Torrevieja and we must value it and build an inclusive city, where no one is left behind. We must avoid having second-rate neighbourhoods and we must take into account the areas far from the centre and the residential areas, and we are going to do it”.
Germán Martínez Pérez, candidate number 15, holds a Diploma in Music Teaching from the University of Alicante and the Elementary Music Degree from the Francisco Casanovas Conservatory in Torrevieja. He has been a career civil servant as a teacher since 2008, when he obtained the tenure for kindergarten education in the CEIP Virgen del Carmen, and since that same year, he has been part of the school’s management team as secretary. Germán is a person who has had a lot of contact with local music. From 1990 to 2017 he was a percussionist of the Unión Musical Torrevejense, sharing his hobby with his father Joaquín Martínez Aniorte “el Cuco”. He also was part of the group “los Sangochaos” during his first three years as a musician. “Music is an essential part of our culture and we have to support it more so that it represents us inside and outside Torrevieja”. He has decided to take the step into politics because he sees the need for change in the city, as he considers that the current government team is worn out and without ideas, based on videos of projects, most of which never see the light of day. Germán stated that “the candidacy of Bárbara Soler is a breath of fresh air that Torrevieja needs to build the city we want”.
Milagros Rosales joins the socialist candidacy in the 18th position. Closely linked to the PSOE for more than two decades, she has expressed “her joy to see that a young woman can be mayor of the city of Torrevieja, and hopes that it will help to improve the conditions of La Mata”, an area of the city to which Milagros is closely linked and which she believes should be protected, both the urban areas and the Natural Park or the Roman port. Milagros was born in Salamanca and, like so many young people looking for a better life, she emigrated to Zurich (Switzerland), where she lived for two decades working in cleaning services and in the Post Office for 15 years. Thanks to this experience, she speaks German, Italian and French. She took early retirement in 1999 and moved permanently to Torrevieja. She is very proud of her family. She is mother of three children and grandmother of five granddaughters and two grandsons and is very proud of them. As her father used to say, she is a rebellious and warrior woman, with many concerns and desires. She is a defender of equality between men and women and she admires the elderly, all those generations who have given everything in very difficult times, and she believes that the administrations cannot forget them. “Older people deserve a model of active aging and that the City Council or the State do not forget them when they implement new bureaucratic procedures”. She is a defender of La Mata and considers that “Torrevieja cannot be understood without La Mata, but the Town Hall does not seem to understand this”. Since she settled in Torrevieja, she has collaborated with different associations such as the Asociación de Vecinos de la Mata, the federation of neighbourhood associations or the association of Madrileños in Torrevieja, where she was part of the choir singing habaneras, one of her hobbies. She is currently a member of the Andalusian Cultural Association, because she has Andalusia in her heart. “For me, the PSOE candidacy is made up of very diverse people and is the one that best represents the Torrevieja I have known. An open and welcoming city that deserves politicians who think about the wellbeing of all the people who live here, and that is Bárbara Soler’s objective”.
At number seven of the socialist candidacy is César Berná Poquis, electrician assistant and civil servant of the Torrevieja Town Hall since 2006. Son of a local salt lake worker, he is aware of the importance of the salt lakes for our city. “I would like politics to take into account the cultural legacy and environmental heritage of the salt lakes of Torrevieja and La Mata. The history of our city cannot be understood without salt and the way it is extracted from our ‘salinas’”. César also demands greater support for cultural events such as the making of salt boats and points out that “it is important to know that the lack of a rainwater management plan is a serious problem for this industry and for the people who work in the ‘salinas’”. He is also a person involved in the cultural and festive life of the town. His hobbies include his passion for the Carnival festival, in which he has participated since the 90s and in whose organisation he currently collaborates, and choral singing, regarding which he has been a member of various local entities for the last three decades. He is running with Bárbara Soler’s PSOE because he believes that “another policy can be made, more social and egalitarian, preserving traditions, but looking to the future and, above all, focusing on the youth”.
In the tenth position is Teresa Lozano, administrative technician by the Chamber of Commerce of Madrid and based in Torrevieja since 1999. She has an intermediate degree in English from the Official Language School of Torrevieja and studies Geography and History at the UNED. Her professional career has been developed mainly as an administrative technician in the Human Resources department of a telecommunications company in Madrid, with branches all over Spain. She has experience in contract management, payroll and dealings with public administrations, among others. She has also worked as an organisational technician in the same company and as an administrative assistant in the Archive for the Torrevieja Town Hall. Her main hobbies include hiking and singing, and she knows that “the culture of our city has a great relationship with singing and I would like to contribute to its dissemination beyond our borders”. Teresa says that, although she was not born in Torrevieja, it was her love for this city that made her move here for good. “My family bought a house here more than 40 years ago, and many of the best memories I have in my life have happened in Torrevieja. I want to support Bárbara Soler’s candidacy to continue working to improve this city, to support the development of its neighbourhoods and to make it a more modern and even more welcoming city”.
Bárbara Soler has shown her pride “to lead a team with a strong social focus, with people with experience in the fields of education, social services, the culture of our city or its associative movement. We want a Torrevieja for everyone and we are going to do it” she added.
