Now all the local election posters had gone. The election is over, the counting finished and the seats in the municipality are occupied.

In Denmark the votes are counted in full public view and as soon as the counting is completed the result is published. In the case of local elections to local councils, the negotiations start for the mayor immediately after the count.

I have, as chairman of the Social Democracy, in the city Sønderborg participated in these negotiations. It is night work, the election result was published around 23.00h and we negotiated thereafter until a majority was found and a mayor was found.

The negotiations were obviously not public, but were followed by the local press and the local TV.

By asking my friends, I found out that it is completely different here in Spain, but now we have the result of the municipal elections in our municipality.

Our mayor Trinidad Herrera continues in office. The fear that I had, that it would be former mayor Benavides to regain power was not the result, but it is interesting just how close he was.

My party, PSOE, got only three seats, which can only be interpreted as a defeat. Nationally the PP went back, and therefore Trinidad’s result is a personal victory.

As you might have seen in previous ‘Danish Corners’ I am proud of our town and I have the feeling that there is stability in the town hall. I therefore look confidently forward to the next four years and I have the hope that it will manage to run Benavides out of influence.

And now to something completely different. Everyday life can be full of delightful surprises. The other day I got a response to my previous ‘Danish Corner.’ Quite Wonderfully, it shows it is not only the Editor who reads my columns.

I like to paint pictures. I was going into one of the town’s shops to buy new colors. In the background there was good blues music playing. I ventured to say to the clerk that it was glorious music, not what you’re used to hearing in a store and definitely not in a paint store. This resulted in a longer conversation. The clerk had the same love as I and found several examples of blues on his computer.

Lovely uplifted I went home and the picture I painted was actually really good… I think.

Here in the summer we have the jazz festival in Almuñécar. A very good initiative, but I am missing another kind of Jazz music other than the modern jazz, that is being played at the festival. Good blues music or swinging traditional jazz music are the types of jazz that I like.

Therefore my next big experience will be the jazz festival in Silkeborg in Denmark called the Riverboat Festival. Over 80 Danish and international groups are plying there and it is all free. I am not sure, that I will hear all the groups; but I will make an effort.