The mud starts to fly in local politics now after the groups and parties have been decided. However 'nice' the candidates intend to be at the starting line, these fine intentions go downhill fast.
Carlos Cervantes took the first shot at 'the leaders of three different parties' for overcharging - or 'swelling' the amount of petrol used by the town hall's fleet of vehicles. Another story was about a certain beach-bar being decorated with municiple flowers and plants.
Tut tut - we're sure that it's all just a storm in a teacup.
We can add something to the 'electoral gossip' at this point: the young scion of the socialists is also owner of one of our fine discoteques (or, if you prefer 'trabaja en el bar de su padre' - according to Ideal April 24). No doubt he'll know to keep the volume down...
martes, 24 de abril de 2007
lunes, 23 de abril de 2007
Strategies
In keeping with the rest of Spain, Mojácar will be going to the polls on Sunday, May 27th. Unlike the rest of Spain, however, where the usual offer is two or three parties fighting for your support – perhaps the PP and the PSOE and some regionalist group – here in Mojácar we have (apparently) twelve parties to choose from.
This is not as democratic as it sounds, as with this many parties, there can easily be an uneasy coalition of groups within the town hall, with no clear vision of the future. In 2003, something like this happened when nine parties ran, gathering between them just 2,250 votes. Six of the parties managed to raise at least one councillor and the eventual line-up in the town hall was one right wing NGM, two PP clones from GIAL, two regionalists from PA and two communists from the Aiz – hardly an ideal mixture. Nevertheless, the coalition lasted two years before one of the PA ‘took the shilling’ and switched to back the extraordinary marriage between the PP and the PSOE. Even more curious, the PSOE with two councillors took the mayor’s chair while the four councillors for the PP happily brought up the rear.
It eventually emerged that the PP and PSOE had struck a secret deal of ‘one year each’ in the mayor’s office but when the time came to switch, the mayor, Gabriel Flores, dug in his heels. Incensed at this breach of his word (!), the PP walked out of the town hall, but two of their members rushed back in again to continue with their activities. The result was 2 PSOE (by this time considered ‘transfugas’ or ‘turncoats’ by the PSOE in Almeria), 2 PP – also transfugas, 1 PA (Jose Luis Artero – also a transfuga) and, after Angel Medina quit his post in the opposition allowing the following name on the list to go through, the Englishman Matthew Shattford, who promptly jumped into the governing junta’s arms, we can add 1 from the GIAL, also a transfuga!
In short, by the beginning of 2007, the entire town hall of Mojácar was being run by a group who represented no party whatsoever and had no votes to justify themselves.
This must not happen again.
In 2007, we have, as stated, some twelve parties. Many of them are ‘clones’ which means they are copies of either the PP or the PSOE but with other candidates. Such examples are the GIAL, the PAL and the PSA. This of course makes for fractured, weak and disunited conservative and socialist parties with little hope of attracting any support from non-obliged voters. At the same time, the outgoing town hall group – whose members are now unable to run either in the PP or the PSOE – have made a stand together as the Grupo Democratico Social. This group (whose ‘word’ may be a bit ‘shaky’) is made up, therefore, of ‘transfugas’. However, Mojácar’s best known ‘transfuga’, Jose Luis Artero, has gone into another fringe group, the Levante sin Cables – an association of people who want to stop the huge electricity towers running along the riverbed. Unfortunately, this single-issue party will have to wait until the results of the election on May 27th to see if they can ‘do’ anything – by which time, it will be too late!
It hardly seems worth pointing out that people who break their word should not be given another chance in politics…
Some other small groups, the PA, the PIMoj and the Mojacar Nueva will probably just be anecdotal. The leader of the later one has no experience in politics – or friends in high places - although he once sued a previous mayor for not letting him build an urbanisation above the Parata.
The worry is that all of these parties may hope to bring in the odd councillor and, between them, create some truly ugly hydra with four or five or even six different parties running a wobbly coalition – which none of the voters – in any stretch of the imagination – ever wanted.
I would suggest here, that there are not twelve alternatives for the next town hall, but two. One is a strong government which treats and considers all mojaqueros the same. A town hall that is bilingual, honest and forward-looking. Ciudadanos Europeos de Mojacar: united and integrated.
The other alternative is chaos; anarchy; greed and failure. We owe it to Mojácar to elect a strong town hall and to make our town the best possible place it can be.
Lenox Napier
This is not as democratic as it sounds, as with this many parties, there can easily be an uneasy coalition of groups within the town hall, with no clear vision of the future. In 2003, something like this happened when nine parties ran, gathering between them just 2,250 votes. Six of the parties managed to raise at least one councillor and the eventual line-up in the town hall was one right wing NGM, two PP clones from GIAL, two regionalists from PA and two communists from the Aiz – hardly an ideal mixture. Nevertheless, the coalition lasted two years before one of the PA ‘took the shilling’ and switched to back the extraordinary marriage between the PP and the PSOE. Even more curious, the PSOE with two councillors took the mayor’s chair while the four councillors for the PP happily brought up the rear.
It eventually emerged that the PP and PSOE had struck a secret deal of ‘one year each’ in the mayor’s office but when the time came to switch, the mayor, Gabriel Flores, dug in his heels. Incensed at this breach of his word (!), the PP walked out of the town hall, but two of their members rushed back in again to continue with their activities. The result was 2 PSOE (by this time considered ‘transfugas’ or ‘turncoats’ by the PSOE in Almeria), 2 PP – also transfugas, 1 PA (Jose Luis Artero – also a transfuga) and, after Angel Medina quit his post in the opposition allowing the following name on the list to go through, the Englishman Matthew Shattford, who promptly jumped into the governing junta’s arms, we can add 1 from the GIAL, also a transfuga!
In short, by the beginning of 2007, the entire town hall of Mojácar was being run by a group who represented no party whatsoever and had no votes to justify themselves.
This must not happen again.
In 2007, we have, as stated, some twelve parties. Many of them are ‘clones’ which means they are copies of either the PP or the PSOE but with other candidates. Such examples are the GIAL, the PAL and the PSA. This of course makes for fractured, weak and disunited conservative and socialist parties with little hope of attracting any support from non-obliged voters. At the same time, the outgoing town hall group – whose members are now unable to run either in the PP or the PSOE – have made a stand together as the Grupo Democratico Social. This group (whose ‘word’ may be a bit ‘shaky’) is made up, therefore, of ‘transfugas’. However, Mojácar’s best known ‘transfuga’, Jose Luis Artero, has gone into another fringe group, the Levante sin Cables – an association of people who want to stop the huge electricity towers running along the riverbed. Unfortunately, this single-issue party will have to wait until the results of the election on May 27th to see if they can ‘do’ anything – by which time, it will be too late!
It hardly seems worth pointing out that people who break their word should not be given another chance in politics…
Some other small groups, the PA, the PIMoj and the Mojacar Nueva will probably just be anecdotal. The leader of the later one has no experience in politics – or friends in high places - although he once sued a previous mayor for not letting him build an urbanisation above the Parata.
The worry is that all of these parties may hope to bring in the odd councillor and, between them, create some truly ugly hydra with four or five or even six different parties running a wobbly coalition – which none of the voters – in any stretch of the imagination – ever wanted.
I would suggest here, that there are not twelve alternatives for the next town hall, but two. One is a strong government which treats and considers all mojaqueros the same. A town hall that is bilingual, honest and forward-looking. Ciudadanos Europeos de Mojacar: united and integrated.
The other alternative is chaos; anarchy; greed and failure. We owe it to Mojácar to elect a strong town hall and to make our town the best possible place it can be.
Lenox Napier
sábado, 14 de abril de 2007
Nota en Castellano
Ciudadanos Europeos de Mojácar ha sido creado con estos principios básicos.
No a la discriminación. Todo el mundo que vive en Mojácar es “mojaquero”, con todos los derechos y obligaciones de cualquier vecino.
No a la corrupción. El deber de un concejal es trabajar por su pueblo, y no para sí mismo. Los impuestos y las subvenciones institucionales son las partidas del presupuesto. Un presupuesto que tiene que estar manejado de forma transparente por personas honestas y capaces.
Sí a un crecimiento planificado y controlado. Un pueblo sólo puede crecer cuando tiene la infraestructura adecuada, con planes que estén de acuerdo con las necesidades de la comunidad, y que incluyan aparcamientos suficientes, espacios verdes, edificios públicos y protección de vistas.
Ciudadanos Europeos de Mojácar trabajará para todos los vecinos mojaqueros, mejorando los servicios en todo el municipio. Haremos un esfuerzo especial para incrementar el número de profesionales de la salud cualificados, servicios sociales, policías, encargados de la limpieza pública y basuras. Pondremos personas bilingües en todos los puntos de atención al ciudadano. Haremos, pues, un pueblo moderno, sano y europeo.
No a la discriminación. Todo el mundo que vive en Mojácar es “mojaquero”, con todos los derechos y obligaciones de cualquier vecino.
No a la corrupción. El deber de un concejal es trabajar por su pueblo, y no para sí mismo. Los impuestos y las subvenciones institucionales son las partidas del presupuesto. Un presupuesto que tiene que estar manejado de forma transparente por personas honestas y capaces.
Sí a un crecimiento planificado y controlado. Un pueblo sólo puede crecer cuando tiene la infraestructura adecuada, con planes que estén de acuerdo con las necesidades de la comunidad, y que incluyan aparcamientos suficientes, espacios verdes, edificios públicos y protección de vistas.
Ciudadanos Europeos de Mojácar trabajará para todos los vecinos mojaqueros, mejorando los servicios en todo el municipio. Haremos un esfuerzo especial para incrementar el número de profesionales de la salud cualificados, servicios sociales, policías, encargados de la limpieza pública y basuras. Pondremos personas bilingües en todos los puntos de atención al ciudadano. Haremos, pues, un pueblo moderno, sano y europeo.
martes, 3 de abril de 2007
Presentation and Voting Rules
This is an introduction to Ciudadanos Europeos de Mojácar – or in English and keeping the acronym CEM – Citizens from Europe for Mojácar.
Ciudadanos Europeos de Mojácar is a new party for Mojácar with new ideas. The leading members of CEM have some experience in local politics and much more in local problems. Quite simply, the party wants to improve the quality of life for all those who live in Mojácar by making a town hall whose first priority is towards the current residential population.
The CEM is based on Ciudadanos Europeos, a ‘political organisation’ which was formed in 1992 to help Europeans with their rights and obligations as residents in Spain. The association was founded by José María Martinez de Haro, Per Svensson and Lenox Napier and has been in regular contact with the different Spanish national governments since then. Ciudadanos Europeos organised two seminars in the Law department of the Complutense Madrid University in 1994 and 1995. It was the only foreign association invited to the Partido Popular’s 1996 seminar in Valencia.
Mr Svensson was recently distinguished with a medal by the king of Norway for his services to his countrymen in Spain.
Ciudadanos Europeos has a good webpage which advises on such subjects as how to buy a house or a car in Spain, how a community works and tax responsibilities and so on. There is also a weekly update on news about Spain. Find it at www.c-euro.org .
Lenox has been interested in politics since discovering that he couldn’t vote in either British or Spanish elections – a situation which only changed in 1999. As the secretary for CE in Andalucía, he is also a founder member for CEM.
Angel Medina, the spokesman for the party and probable candidate (a decision to be taken by the party executive) has been active in local politics and, as a councillor during the first half of the past legislature, was in charge of the town’s accounts where he managed to put the town ‘into the black’ in just two years to the tune of three million euros credit: contrast today’s accounts now heavily in the red once again. Angel also headed up public transport, improving and extending the bus timetables and designing the roundabouts on Mojácar’s front. Angel is also proud to have returned Mojácar’s English library from its exile in Garrucha back to Mojácar and to have helped the Anglican Church in its facilities at Aguas Enmedio.
Angel and Lenox have been organising regular monthly ‘coffee meetings’ with Mojácar’s foreign residents for the past couple of years and have also been invited to give speeches to the British Legion and the Dames in Spain. The subject has always been to do with ways to improve the standard of life in Mojácar for all its residents through integration and mutual respect.
To this end, Ciudadanos Europeos de Mojácar has been formed with these basic principals.
No to discrimination. Everyone who lives in Mojácar is a ‘mojaquero’, with the full rights and responsibilities of his neighbour. Without distinction of nationality and origin.
No to corruption. A councillor’s job is to work for the people of his municipality, not for himself. Taxes, government subsidies and local licences help to fill the public purse. A modern town must have honest conduct and professional accounting practices.
Yes to controlled and planned expansion. A town can only grow with the correct infrastructure, with plans that are in line with the desires of the community, including sufficient parking, green spaces and public buildings.
Ciudadanos Europeos de Mojácar will work for all of the people of Mojácar, improving services throughout the community. Special efforts will be made to expand the number of qualified medical staff, social services, police, teachers and translators necessary for a healthy modern European town. We shall make a particular effort to improve the appearance and standard of the old town of Mojácar, which has been seriously overlooked over the past thirty years.
Our program will be presented soon. Some points:
A system whereby ‘views’ from private houses will be respected as far as possible when building plans are presented to the town hall.
A campaign to lower the ceiling on local rates.
To commision a public building for various social and religious uses.
A new and larger public library.
To build a pavement from the Town Fuente to the cemetery to complete the safe pedestrian route around the pueblo.
Ciudadanos Europeos de Mojácar is the only party with no private agenda. We have no personal interests in building or land improvement.
Voting Registration
A notice in a local newspaper says that many Europeans who think they will be able to vote have had this right taken from them by unscrupulous town hall staffers. In fact, it is the reverse: Europeans who thought they couldn’t vote will now, in certain cases, be able to.
The rule is that any European (plus Norwegians), over the age of eighteen who is on their local padrón and who has asked for the right to vote by filling out the appropriate form, will have their name passed to the election office (Instituto del Censo Electoral, phone 901 101 900) to be included on the electoral census. You may remember filling out such a form at the town hall or receiving and returning a notice from the Electoral Office.
However, those Europeans who had asked not to vote but wish to change their minds and those who have recently put their names on the town hall register (since January 31st), can now fill out a special form to have their name added to the Electoral Census. The town hall can help you with this – Carmen in Mojácar’s case – and the form is called ‘Reclamación al Censo Electoral (REC-1)’. This opportunity will only be open until April 16th.
In fact, anyone who is not actually on another town’s padrón may still register themselves in Mojácar.
There will also be an opportunity to check that your name is on the voting list during a special window from April 9th to 16th (this information – unfortunately - will only be available from your town hall or from the election office). The town hall will be open mornings and evenings during the week. You will be able to file a claim if your name is not listed.
The confusion created by the newspaper is that, those who were inscribed before January 31st 2007 would be asked if they intended to vote. After that time, newly registered people would have to ask to vote. Those who are unsure or confused (which is quite understandable) can ask at the town hall or contact us to ask for you.
Where there is a problem for the ‘foreign vote’ is over the postal vote. This can only be done within Spain or – for Spaniards only – through their consulates in foreign countries. Those residents who will be away from Spain on Voting Day, May 27th, will not be able to vote.
The voting process is easy enough, with each party printing up a wad of ‘papeletas’ – uniform papers with the name of the party at the top and their list of candidates running down the paper in order of preference. The first name being the leading candidate, the following names being the other candidates for the council as proposed by the Party. You identify yourself with a photographic I.D. at the Polling Station (In Mojácar, at the old school by the campo de fútbol just through and out the back of the pueblo). The best I.D. is your ‘residents card’ or your passport. You go to the right room – according to the Voting List – and you go ‘behind the curtain’, choose your paper and put it in an envelope ready for the ballot box. Don’t mark the paper and don’t post more than one in your envelope – otherwise the vote won’t be counted. At the Polling Station, members of our party (and, of course, others) will be there to help you.
A second way to vote – perhaps easier and less colourful – is by a ‘postal vote’ and we can help and advise you how to do this once the time is ready, in early May.
Our e-mail is ciudadanoseuropeosdemojacar@hotmail.com
Ciudadanos Europeos de Mojácar is a new party for Mojácar with new ideas. The leading members of CEM have some experience in local politics and much more in local problems. Quite simply, the party wants to improve the quality of life for all those who live in Mojácar by making a town hall whose first priority is towards the current residential population.
The CEM is based on Ciudadanos Europeos, a ‘political organisation’ which was formed in 1992 to help Europeans with their rights and obligations as residents in Spain. The association was founded by José María Martinez de Haro, Per Svensson and Lenox Napier and has been in regular contact with the different Spanish national governments since then. Ciudadanos Europeos organised two seminars in the Law department of the Complutense Madrid University in 1994 and 1995. It was the only foreign association invited to the Partido Popular’s 1996 seminar in Valencia.
Mr Svensson was recently distinguished with a medal by the king of Norway for his services to his countrymen in Spain.
Ciudadanos Europeos has a good webpage which advises on such subjects as how to buy a house or a car in Spain, how a community works and tax responsibilities and so on. There is also a weekly update on news about Spain. Find it at www.c-euro.org .
Lenox has been interested in politics since discovering that he couldn’t vote in either British or Spanish elections – a situation which only changed in 1999. As the secretary for CE in Andalucía, he is also a founder member for CEM.
Angel Medina, the spokesman for the party and probable candidate (a decision to be taken by the party executive) has been active in local politics and, as a councillor during the first half of the past legislature, was in charge of the town’s accounts where he managed to put the town ‘into the black’ in just two years to the tune of three million euros credit: contrast today’s accounts now heavily in the red once again. Angel also headed up public transport, improving and extending the bus timetables and designing the roundabouts on Mojácar’s front. Angel is also proud to have returned Mojácar’s English library from its exile in Garrucha back to Mojácar and to have helped the Anglican Church in its facilities at Aguas Enmedio.
Angel and Lenox have been organising regular monthly ‘coffee meetings’ with Mojácar’s foreign residents for the past couple of years and have also been invited to give speeches to the British Legion and the Dames in Spain. The subject has always been to do with ways to improve the standard of life in Mojácar for all its residents through integration and mutual respect.
To this end, Ciudadanos Europeos de Mojácar has been formed with these basic principals.
No to discrimination. Everyone who lives in Mojácar is a ‘mojaquero’, with the full rights and responsibilities of his neighbour. Without distinction of nationality and origin.
No to corruption. A councillor’s job is to work for the people of his municipality, not for himself. Taxes, government subsidies and local licences help to fill the public purse. A modern town must have honest conduct and professional accounting practices.
Yes to controlled and planned expansion. A town can only grow with the correct infrastructure, with plans that are in line with the desires of the community, including sufficient parking, green spaces and public buildings.
Ciudadanos Europeos de Mojácar will work for all of the people of Mojácar, improving services throughout the community. Special efforts will be made to expand the number of qualified medical staff, social services, police, teachers and translators necessary for a healthy modern European town. We shall make a particular effort to improve the appearance and standard of the old town of Mojácar, which has been seriously overlooked over the past thirty years.
Our program will be presented soon. Some points:
A system whereby ‘views’ from private houses will be respected as far as possible when building plans are presented to the town hall.
A campaign to lower the ceiling on local rates.
To commision a public building for various social and religious uses.
A new and larger public library.
To build a pavement from the Town Fuente to the cemetery to complete the safe pedestrian route around the pueblo.
Ciudadanos Europeos de Mojácar is the only party with no private agenda. We have no personal interests in building or land improvement.
Voting Registration
A notice in a local newspaper says that many Europeans who think they will be able to vote have had this right taken from them by unscrupulous town hall staffers. In fact, it is the reverse: Europeans who thought they couldn’t vote will now, in certain cases, be able to.
The rule is that any European (plus Norwegians), over the age of eighteen who is on their local padrón and who has asked for the right to vote by filling out the appropriate form, will have their name passed to the election office (Instituto del Censo Electoral, phone 901 101 900) to be included on the electoral census. You may remember filling out such a form at the town hall or receiving and returning a notice from the Electoral Office.
However, those Europeans who had asked not to vote but wish to change their minds and those who have recently put their names on the town hall register (since January 31st), can now fill out a special form to have their name added to the Electoral Census. The town hall can help you with this – Carmen in Mojácar’s case – and the form is called ‘Reclamación al Censo Electoral (REC-1)’. This opportunity will only be open until April 16th.
In fact, anyone who is not actually on another town’s padrón may still register themselves in Mojácar.
There will also be an opportunity to check that your name is on the voting list during a special window from April 9th to 16th (this information – unfortunately - will only be available from your town hall or from the election office). The town hall will be open mornings and evenings during the week. You will be able to file a claim if your name is not listed.
The confusion created by the newspaper is that, those who were inscribed before January 31st 2007 would be asked if they intended to vote. After that time, newly registered people would have to ask to vote. Those who are unsure or confused (which is quite understandable) can ask at the town hall or contact us to ask for you.
Where there is a problem for the ‘foreign vote’ is over the postal vote. This can only be done within Spain or – for Spaniards only – through their consulates in foreign countries. Those residents who will be away from Spain on Voting Day, May 27th, will not be able to vote.
The voting process is easy enough, with each party printing up a wad of ‘papeletas’ – uniform papers with the name of the party at the top and their list of candidates running down the paper in order of preference. The first name being the leading candidate, the following names being the other candidates for the council as proposed by the Party. You identify yourself with a photographic I.D. at the Polling Station (In Mojácar, at the old school by the campo de fútbol just through and out the back of the pueblo). The best I.D. is your ‘residents card’ or your passport. You go to the right room – according to the Voting List – and you go ‘behind the curtain’, choose your paper and put it in an envelope ready for the ballot box. Don’t mark the paper and don’t post more than one in your envelope – otherwise the vote won’t be counted. At the Polling Station, members of our party (and, of course, others) will be there to help you.
A second way to vote – perhaps easier and less colourful – is by a ‘postal vote’ and we can help and advise you how to do this once the time is ready, in early May.
Our e-mail is ciudadanoseuropeosdemojacar@hotmail.com
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