The outgoing Mayor was left with the “honey on her lips,” as the Spanish say, when the tantalizingly close governing pact with the PA slipped from her grasp.

No, Luisa Garcia is not a happy bunny. When the PA announced a governing pact with her rivals, the socialists, she fumed that the PA had been playing her along all the time.

The new Mayor, Flor Almón, was sworn in on Saturday the 14th, thanks the votes in favour from the PA and the IU and so Motril returns to the arms of the socialists after an 8-year interlude.

The first words from the new Mayor were, “Don’t worry, the barbarians are not at the gate,” adding, “It’s not the end of the world,” alluding to the messages of catastrophe and gloom ladled out by a jilted outgoing governing council.

The truth is that one thing is exercising the role of opposition and quite another is running a town the size of Motril – but it is not the first time for the PSOE, although it will be for the new Mayor who now heads that party.

Mayor Flor Almón promised to govern for all; to be an inclusive administration for all, regardless of whether they voted for her or not – a standard message transmitted by all new arrivals to a mayor’s office and rarely kept, of course.

Mayor Almón promised to give back the town’s districts their ‘voice’ by forming a consultive council were citizens can participate in the running of their corner of Motril.

She also to make the local TV station into a ‘plural’ one; i.e., insinuating that up until now it had been limited to supporting the governing party. No more “indoctrination,” she said, just “entertainment and news.”

Good luck on that one, Sra. Almón.

On a personal note, it would be nice to receive town-hall press releases from Motril without a grinning mayor blotting out the subject of the accompanying photo.

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