Even on the very eve of the swearing-in-ceremony for the new mayor of Almunecar, nothing is certain… Well almost; Almunecar is certain to have its first ever mayoress.

Eva Gaitan, who took over the candidacy position from Juan Carlos Benavides for the CA, held seemingly pointless negotiation talks with the leaders of the PSOE and PP. We say pointless (naively, perhaps) because both of these two opposition parties announced before hand that they would not be doing any deals with the incumbent mayor, J.C. Benavides – or his replacement figure, Eva Gaitan.

One of the Benavides most vociferous opponents, yet the most insignificant, from a political point of view, called upon the citizens of Almunecar to join a protest march at nine o’clock tomorrow morning – an hour before the plenary meeting begins – to demand that all councillors should accept a 50% cut in their salaries and the money saved donated to the social dining rooms, which are over run with families unable to feed themselves.

One thing is for sure, nobody is going to nod off (fall asleep) during the plenary council meeting tomorrow.

The local PSOE received the go-ahead from the provincial headquarters to vote as they saw fit; i.e., support the PP bid for the mayor’s seat on the council, so the most likely event will be that Trinidad Herrera will be sworn in as the first mayoress in the history of the town, with the votes in favour from her own party, the PA, the IU and at least one vote from the PSOE, to give her the majority.

One thing is being sworn in as the maximum municipal authority and quite another is being able to head a viable governing council, so Trinidad is probably being handed a poisoned chalice, so to speak.

There is some concern that outside investment will stay away, in fear of the political instability – who wants to sign an expensive deal with one politician to see him or her replaced several months down the road and replaced by somebody who might not share the same objectives?

Could there be something in the wings between the CA (mayor’s party) and the PSOE? The thing is that over near the Almeria border, Abuñol (Abunol), the local PSOE needs the support of the corresponding CA councillors to gain control of that municipality. Could there be a trade off?

As we said, it should be an interesting morning, tomorrow.

(News: Almunecar, Costa Tropical, Granada, Andalucia)