Javier Arenas on a visit to Almunecar

Javier Arenas, leader of the PP for Andalucia and candidate for the First Minister of the Junta, said he was willing to stop a new law going through which would mean that politicians cannot be a mayor and a member of parliament at the same time – he said he would take it to court, if need be.

The cynical will conclude that the only reason that the socialists in power at the Junta want to push this through is because most of their mayor’s were wiped out during the last municipal elections, whereas the PP have a whole herd of dual-roll politicians – a clear example is the Mayor of Motril, Carlos Rojas, who is not short of funds thanks to his 63,000-salary, for being a regional member of parliament.

But the fact remains, that regardless of who might benefit or lose from such a new law, the idea is a logical one, because how can a mayor of a town of 50,000 inhabitants do his job efficiently and also carry out the task of representing his party in the regional parliament? Surely, giving up one post would be to the benefit of the other, and in the case of a mayor dedicating the time gained from renouncing a parliamentary seat would be to the benefit of the inhabitants of the city in which he was elected as mayor?

Your thoughts, anybody?

(News: Sevilla, Andalucia)