The bar La Esquina de Zamora looks like a museum of exceptions: there you can have a couple of beers and eat a couple of montados without raising your eyebrows when you see the bill, and you’ll find the only mayor of the United Left (IU) there . a provincial capital. Francisco Guarido recharges with beer. The frenetic political rhythm he pursued was corroborated by societal confidence: he won the elections by a wide margin, albeit this time without an absolute majority. The former school janitor now has the keys to the city and takes refuge in something as unusual in his job as normality. In this way, he received the voice of those who choose conservative options at the regional or national level. “I’m normal, they love me too much, I don’t deserve it,” he summarizes.
Zamora (59,400 inhabitants) was not conquered in an hour at the time of Sancho II of Castile, nor in those times when there is more talk of “sanchismo” than local government. The alliance with the PSOE that put Guarido at the helm in 2015 came about after decades of activism, street and social movements. In 2019, she achieved an absolute majority. And he seduced the Zamoranos through a newspaper. The City Council fondly remembers how, in opposition and during assembly hours, they produced a magazine, distributed from mailbox to mailbox, in which they explained their proposals and analyzed the cracks in the consistory then governed by the PP: “They gave. “I filed five complaints, but the judge filed them, I personally risked a lot, but we were right.
Guarido and his team released a PP city map with “irregularities” in exchange for a court case for alleged secret disclosure. They, too, were acquitted: “Everyone knew it, people appreciated it.” Ink and paper have worked for them through 16 years of opposition and eight years of local power. As part of this campaign, 35,000 copies were distributed over 80 pages reporting on the management carried out and future projects. The expenses come from healthy party coffers, because the city councilors donate part of the salary. Guarido earns €36,000 a year after a halving.
The success has only changed one routine for the mayor: he no longer walks to the town hall because the streams of people stop him to talk about their circumstances. The rest stays the same. She wears a short-sleeved shirt with her now-grey hair, which is unusual on the political front. There are no suits or big jewelry in the office, except for a couple of hand-made dolls with raised fists that a girl gave him when he won the election. The communist city council has no sickles, no hammers, no busts of Karl Marx, and nothing very symbolic either, because they don’t want to bother anyone who comes to his empire, no matter what their ideology. Yes, there is a Holy Week painting, a Zamora landmark and as far removed from the first mayor’s creed as it is present in his economic prayers: “It is a business for the city, for hotels and shops, either way .” protect it.”
Francisco Guarido, his wife and Deputy Mayor Laura Rivera and David Viñas, Member of the Mayor’s Cabinet, at La Esquina bar. Emilio Fraile
The more than 150,000 visitors to the April processions did not see Guarido and his councilors among the ranks of authority, a tradition that ended when he took office. “We have separated the religious from the citizens and the people vote for us. It would be catastrophic to appear in this photo!” explains the politician, knowing full well that his atheist program is also triumphing among Catholics. It was surprising at first that he did not take the oath kneeling before the Christ of Insults, which is unconvincing paraphernalia for those who hear the hackneyed “Galic Village of the Left” as a reference to his fiefdom. “I’m not bored, it’s a beautiful phrase, with love, it downplays the situation, but it seems that when we talk to the Junta de Castilla y León (PP-Vox) or the Provincial Council (PSOE) we are isolated “The most Bolshevik thing is the speakers’ shirts in plenary sessions,” concludes the mayor, who has always opposed the IU deal with Podemos and has left his mark on Zamora with key measures such as debt reduction, quick payment of suppliers, or cutbacks on corruption A progressive nuance is to segment the aid according to the income it affects “People don’t be fooled, we’ve increased CPI taxes and they understand that,” he thanks.
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The mayor receives three calls during the morning, with La Internacional ringing the bell. One from his wife and Deputy Mayor Laura Rivera: “We take politics home and debate like any councillor.” Another from David Gago, the socialist leader in Zamora, who invites him to a meeting to discuss the new legislature negotiate. “I’ve known him since he was a kid,” he adds. The last point, spam, makes him drop some swear words.
The most natural side comes out just before leaving the office when he’s asked the ruse of his popularity: “You love me too much, damn it, I don’t deserve it, I don’t pet old people.” To that “out there” belongs also his Talisman bar in the humble neighborhood where he lives and grew up both personally and politically. Parishioners hesitate when they see it: “Have the usual 30-year-old whiskey” and get a compliment from those who drink red wine: “It’s really hearty, not like the king!” [emérito, Juan Carlos I]!“. After a while they will tell you the usual, a bench needs replacing because there is work to be done and an elderly person has no place to sit, the tiles are dancing and tree branches need pruning.
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