The conservative Mayor of Almuñécar, Trinidad Herrera, has announced that the municipality is open to taking in Syrian refugees.

This comes after the Mayor of Barcelona, belonging to a radical left party, announced that the city would take in Syrian refugees, which was roundly criticised by the conservative Central Government.

However, as many of the towns and cities around the country have declared for the same idea, the Central Government is altering its stance – after all, the General Elections are later on this year.

Syria has a special connection with Almuñécar laid down during the Benavides years, resulting in the Plaza de Damascus, for example. Another cultural connection are all of the marble sculptures in the Majuelo park; all works by Syrian sculptures.

One wonders how many of those artists have survived the chaos in their country? Anyway, Mayor Herrera’s move is popular, but let’s see how it works out in practice.

Editorial comment: What about the hundreds of thousands of war refugees around the world who are not Syrians? What about Libyan refugees from closer to home? What about the Ukrainian ones? Looking at it very coldly, are Syrians special because of the recent image of a deceased 3-year-old?

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