With the upcoming Municipal Elections on the 26th, the Almuñécar Mercado Municipal will become a battleground. The Mayor’s re-elections will hinge on this issue.

The underground parking beneath the market was closed because of safety concerns in 2012 and since then the business for traders above is slowly bleeding to death.

Mayor Herrera won her second term with a promise to give the town a new, more dynamic, fruit & fish market yet since then nothing has happened.

At the moment, Almuñécar’s political parties are arrayed in two camps: the El Partido Popular, Ciudadanos, Más Almuñécar and Adelante Almuñécar want to knock it down, but vary in what form the new market will take. On the other side is CA, PSOE and Vox, who want to renovate the existing building.

But the market is really only a point of focus within a struggle that is threatening to squeeze the Mayor’s party (PP) not only out of office, but perhaps out of existence. The PP is fighting for its life after the most disastrous General Election results in its history. All their hopes are pinned on holding back the rot by gaining some form of victory across Spain in these municipal, regional and European elections.

In Almuñecar, the PP is bleeding right-wing supporters to Ciudadanos on its left and to Vox on its right. And then there is Juan Carlos Benavides who is recovering from years of dwindling support.

It’s a waste of time talking about what party Benavides belongs to because it would be more accurate to say what party belongs to Benavides as Almuñequeros vote for him, regardless of the party he now finds himself in.

So, whilst the Mayor fights off flank attacks from fellow, right-wing parties, she will be squaring off with Benavides, who has always attracted voters from right, himself.

One thing is for certain, the right-wing vote is going to be spread over multiple parties whereas the left-wing vote will be scooped up by a re-emerging PSOE socialist party and a Podemos (far left) which might even be in an existential struggle itself.

Editorial note: I will try to do a summary on the political situation in Salobreña and Motril before the 26th.

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