It should have been a debate about the state of the municipality of Santa Cruz, but it turned into a string of reproaches from both sides. The first confrontation between the government team and the opposition in the extraordinary plenary session held yesterday in the capital had to do with the format chosen by CC and PP, which did not correspond to that of a debate on the state of the municipality, which was what had requested PSOE, UP and Cs.
The CC spokesman, Juan José Martínez, defended that the law does not allow it to be held in an election year, so the plenary session was carried out with the usual dynamics, only extending the times of each group. When the mayor, José Manuel Bermúdez, took the floor with the opposition intervention slots already exhausted, they got up and left the plenary session, accusing Bermúdez of avoiding the debate.
The former socialist mayor Patricia Hernández had already warned at the beginning of the plenary session, after the mayor did not open it as the opposition expected, that she was not there to receive “sermons”, but to debate, as she had been requested on numerous occasions. . The debate on the status of the municipality has not been held since 2016.
The opposition as a whole focused its criticism on the figure of the mayor, accusing him of breaking his electoral promises. “How many years do you need to fulfill your 2011 government program?” Patricia Hernández questioned Bermúdez.
PSOE, UP and Cs made an extensive review of the announcements made by the candidate for mayor of CC since he first entered the City Council in 2011. Hernández spoke of the swimming pools promised in the previous term, “six, and today there are only two working. He owes swimming pools to the municipality”. Also the Pasea project for the Añaza coast, or the successive announcements to build the Cuesta Piedra sports center.
The return of the Sacyr canon, the money from Las Teresitas or the Next Generation funds were among the arguments defended by the opposition to demonstrate the lack of management. Ramón Trujillo (UP) congratulated the mayor for “bordering on excellence” in “mismanagement”, while Matilde Zambudio (Cs) recalled that there are “68,000 people at risk of exclusion”. She reminded the councilor of the nursery check, the 100% sustainable street, the promised 1,000 parking spaces or the demolition of the hotel in Añaza. From the Government team it was decided to divide the responses so that from the PP, each of its councilors detailed the management carried out in their areas, while from the CC Juan José Martínez, the Councilor for Social Action, Rosario González, and the mayor of Works, Dámaso Arteaga.
“Nervousness”
The mayor, after the abandonment of the plenary opposition, continued with his intervention to address a debate that “has become a debate about José Manuel Bermúdez and not about the municipality.” “You can see the nervousness of the opposition,” he said. He defended that the city has resisted the “displacements” of the Cabildo and the regional government. He spoke of the reconstruction plan that he agreed with the different social entities and defended his management against those who “supported the law of only yes is yes or those who eliminated the Ansina program and closed the Cidemat.”
The spokesman for the PP, Carlos Tarife, took the opportunity to announce that he will take the Cabildo to court if it does not hand over the rehabilitated Cidemat building, at the same time that the works in the puddle area are completed “as included in the agreement.”
Martínez spoke of the “economic reactivation” promoted by the government team since he returned to the Mayor’s Office. “The numbers give us the measure of improvement in all orders, overcoming the paralysis and lack of ideas of the previous government,” he said. He even had time to mention the Mediator case, when talking about the Next Generation funds. “We have achieved 28 million thanks to our work capacity. We have not needed any mediator,” he said.
In the absence of opposition, PP and CC debated among themselves
The opposition march led the PP to accuse CC of leaving them alone when they asked to vote against the law of only yes is yes, which the mayor, José Manuel Bermúdez, threw in the opposition’s face. From CC, in turn, the PP was accused of voting in favor of the Cabildo accounts that “mistreat Santa Cruz.”
