Tomás Rodríguez, the socialist candidate who was supposed to replace Elma Saiz, appointed Minister of Integration and Social Security, as councilor of the Pamplona City Council, has withdrawn from taking the seat. The next person on the PSN-PSOE list, María José Blasco, also resigned. The list continues, but the future inaugural, the 23-year-old student Miguel Matellanes, will no longer have time to do so before this Thursday, when the motion of censure is voted on, the mayoralty will be transferred to EH Bildu, with the votes in favor of the PSN . Therefore, the Socialists will have one less city councilor in this plenary session. In any case, the success of the motion of no confidence is not in jeopardy since the four groups supporting it – EH Bildu, PSN, Geroa Bai and Contigo-Zurekin – have 15 councilors (out of 27), one more than necessary to remove it. forward.
The PSN-PSOE has assured in a statement that Tomás Rodríguez's resignation was due to the “constant accusations, attacks and pressure” he suffered from the Union del Pueblo Navarro (UPN). Rodríguez was scheduled to take the minutes of an extraordinary plenary session that was scheduled to take place on Thursday, December 28, just minutes before the vote on the motion of no confidence against UPN Mayor Cristina Ibarrola. Following this request, the leadership passes to Joseba Asiron (EH Bildu), thanks to the pact concluded between the nationalist party and the PSN. “This does not cripple the application. The motion is accepted, the Socialist Party will continue to support this change in the office of the mayor of Pamplona in order to implement urban projects that were demanded by the citizens and that had paralyzed the UPN,” noted the organizing secretary of the PSN in SER. Ramon Alzorriz.
The next person on the Socialists' list, María José Blasco, has also resigned from her vacant seat, and in this case the Socialists are arguing that the position of councilor is incompatible with her current position. Neither Rodríguez nor Blasco have spoken in person to explain their reasons.
The position will eventually be filled by the next person on the list: Miguel Matellanes, a law and political science student and former parliamentary aide. However, as Socialist sources confirm, the necessary procedures to implement this change cannot be completed before Thursday.
“This is what happens when practices and methods from the past are used, insults and accusations that should hardly fit in a democracy and what the right-wing parties in a democracy do permanently when they lose,” Alzórriz emphasized. The organizing secretary of the PSN has accused Cristina Ibarrola, still mayor, of having interrupted the municipal plenary session on December 14, in which Rodríguez was supposed to take possession of his minutes. “As soon as he was suspended, he made some public statements in which he pointed out his colleague Tomás and provoked him to take office and show his face in front of the citizens of Navarresa.”
At the press conference that Ibarrola offered after the agreement between PSN and EH Bildu to implement the motion of censure was published, his words were as follows: “Also councilors of the Socialist Party of Navarre. If they had had just a little, just a little bit of decency, they would not have been able to tolerate, internally and six months ago, the pact made since June to give this city to people like Joxe Abaurrea [número 3 en la lista municipal de la coalición abertzale]“. He addressed Elma Saiz directly and assured that “she preferred to leave the yes vote for Asirón to someone else.” “His love for Pamplona was quite courageous, very credible,” he said ironically. The tone of the political debate sharpened significantly in the following days, as UPN leaders called the socialists such terms as “scum” and “liars.”
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🛑 ANNOUNCEMENT: Law sells coexistence and respect
They talk about respect. They talk about defending democracy. If they don't win, that's their respect. This is the right thing 👇 pic.twitter.com/zode6Q7GEb
— Navarre Socialists / ❤️ (@PSNPSOE) December 26, 2023
Alzórrilz also censored the “ongoing attacks by various social networks and related media outlets highlighting PSN council members through photos.” “The accusations that the right will now make, cloaked in a moral and patriotic discourse, are very dangerous discourses from other times that should never return,” he added.
Rodríguez placed sixth on the list of voters presented by the PSN for the local elections, in which they obtained five councilors in Pamplona, and after her resignation the position would correspond to María José Blasco (seventh), although she will finally be the eighth of the list: Miguel Matellanes.
After learning of Rodríguez's resignation and Alzórriz's accusations on Tuesday, Mayor Ibarrola stated: “The Socialist Party is nervous because the time is approaching to do what it promised never to do: Pamplona in exchange for armchairs to sell to EH BIldu.” “I hear Alzórriz lying all the time and I see that he is completely confused. I think he is capable of hurting himself by saying that someone from UPN did this to him. “That’s all he has left,” he added. The president of the regionalist formation, Javier Esparza, has also called on the PSN to “abandon victimhood and accept that the decision to ally with EH Bildu to give Asiron the Pamplona city council is repugnant even to its own officials. ” to “repel many socialist voters who do not share the betrayal of the leaders of a party that lied to them during the election campaign.” “If Alzórriz really believes that UPN has harassed the PSN, he should report it to the police station or stop complaining to ridicule,” he explained.