Friday 1 February 2019

Early Pre-campaigning in Almería's Local Elections

After a long agony of wondering if we Brits would have the vote in the 2019 local elections, it turned out, rather at the last moment,  that we could (as long as we were registered on the polling list, available at the town hall, with the time-limit now over).
We could once again vote and even run for office.
For a while there, it looked like we could also vote in the European elections, with a choice of a number of parties who would - as happens in Europe with national parties running an international race - do nothing whatsoever for the foreign residents. Although now it seems that we can't (unless the UK stays in the EU, in which case, we can again). Not that it makes much difference beyond the experience.
In Almeria, according to a local newspaper, there are 14,000 Brits, who will be able, once again, to join their Spanish neighbours, and indeed their other EU neighbours, in both voting and - if the fancy takes them - in running for office locally. Not many of the foreign residents will vote (maybe even less this time, as there seems to be a lack of interest in presenting candidates with a slight accent, at least in Mojácar). Other (non-EU) nationalities can vote too (but not run - they are a sort of Second Class Foreigner 'B') - being those folk from Bolivia, Cape Verde, Chile, Colombia, South Korea, Ecuador, Island, Norway, New Zealand, Paraguay, Peru and of course Trinidad and Tobago.
In a small number of towns, there are a remarkable number of us (Almería, when it comes to foreign Europeans, appears to favour the British). Arboleas has 2,538 Brits out of the entire population of 4,586. Indeed, the percentage is high in several municipalities - Vera, Turre, Vélez-Rubio, Vélez-Blanco, Mojácar, Huércal-Overa, Cuevas del Almanzora, Cantoria, Bédar, Albox and Partaloa.
Other towns with lots of foreigners who certainly can't vote (like the Moroccans and the Central Africans) are over there on the other side of the province, like El Ejido and so on - hotbeds for the far-right Vox party.
Do the town halls take any notice of their foreign residents? They do if there are foreign-born councillors in the ayuntamiento.
Otherwise, why bother?
In reality, politics is about speaking for the people. I suppose, 'speaking for your supporters', but, in the end, speaking for your community. Good, hey? In all the years I've been following politics in Mojácar (we foreign Europeans only got the municipal vote in 1999), only one party leader, Ángel Medina from Ciudadanos Europeos, ever offered public meetings, or workshops. The eight years he was active, he would have a public meeting every couple of months (with me as translator and Nº 2 candidate). No other party, whether the PP of Rosmari, the PSOE or any other formation, whether representing a national or local party, has ever had a single non-election meeting ever. Which begs the question - who do they think they are representing... their families, cousins, envelope-holders, land-owners?
So, in Mojácar at least (and remembering that we had eleven choices back in 2003) - what alternatives are there this time? So far declared, we have the Ciudadanos Mojácar as a new party, plus the Partido Popular (Rosmari's group), the PSOE and probably the Izquierda Unida. Will Somos Mojácar or something similar - an independent multinational group - be on offer? We hope so.  

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