On the 14th of June Trinidad Herrera was reelected to the Mayoralty of Almuñécar, but this time, as the head of the most-voted party.

Four years ago, her party, the PP had fewer seats than Juan Carlos Benavides but an anti-Benavides coalition denied him the mayor’s office, delivering it instead to Trinidad Herrera.

In fact, in these latest local elections, it was the first time in history that the PP had won in Almuñécar.

Juan Carlos Benavides consequently announced that he would be dedicating his time to his medical profession, although without renouncing his councillor’s seat in the municipal council.

Thus ends over two decades of local politics, often controversial and conflictive, but certainly not boring. Benavides spent most of his years in office at loggerheads with provincial and regional authorities carrying out a very personal course, changing Almuñécar, for better or for worse, into a very different town to the one he found, both physically and in collective character.

Although Mayor Herrera’s first term of office had episodes of both ‘shadow and light,’ Almuñequeros were able to go about their day-to-day business without fear of retribution – imagined or real.

Benavides was a visceral energy source, a potent driving force that marched across the municipal landscape, building up and casting down, dwarfing other local politicians. His friends basked in his generosity and jovial affability… and those that weren’t kept well out of his way.

For Benavides the 2011 local elections were his ‘Leipzig,’ the economic crisis and nationwide debacle of the PP and PSOE were his ‘100 days’ but the 2015 ones proved to be his ‘Waterloo.’

I’m not sure whether Mayor Trinidad won the elections or if it was simply that Benavides lost them, because, in the essence, it was always all about Benavides.

Over the next four years, with no bête noire to oppose and unite against, the local parties will have to face reality and stand or fall on their own merit or lack of it.

Mayor Trinidad Herrera now has a clear playing field, let us all hope that she makes a good job of it, as she is a capable administrator.

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