Oviedo, Apr 19 (EFE).- The plenary session of the Oviedo City Council has urged the mayor of the city, Alfredo Canteli, to remove José Luis Costillas as president of the Municipal Foundation for Culture by becoming a non-attached mayor, as well as that Ignacio Cuesta and Lourdes García, after their departure from Ciudadanos.
The three councilors have left the ranks of this party to form part of the popular lists in the regional and municipal elections on May 28, a decision that has led the orange formation to break the coalition they had maintained since the beginning of the legislature.
As of today, the councilors will have the status of non-attached, but they will maintain the same responsibilities and their salaries, they will be entitled to per diems and compensation, and they must go to all the remaining municipal commissions until the elections, where their vote will be worth 0.25.
This is reflected in the proposal approved this Wednesday in the plenary session, in which the minority of the municipal government -which has the support of nine PP councilors and the three not attached- has been made clear, since the opposition has managed to include two amendments from Somos to urge the councilor to dismiss the president of the Municipal Foundation of Culture and to reduce the intervention times of those not attached to the plenary sessions.
The proposal with these amendments has gone ahead with the vote in favor of the PSOE, Ciudadanos and Somos, the abstention of the PP and the three ediles attached to us, while the four non-attached, the ex-edile of Vox Hugo Huerta, has rejected it.
Pacho criticizes the “change of jacket”
The session has been focused on the criticism launched from the opposition bench for the march of the “default” councilors, especially harsh by the spokesman for the orange formation, Luis Pacho, who has reproached the councilors for having “changed their jacket ” at the end of the mandate “out of pure personal interest”.
“I feel relieved and liberated by the march of colleagues who are not faithful to the values for which they received the vote from Oviedo,” stressed the also Cs candidate for Oviedo Mayor’s Office.
Pacho has stated that the PP “totally loses credibility” by incorporating into its ranks three “turncoat” councilors who, with their departure from the orange formation, now “do not represent anyone, only themselves.”
“You have to have humility, but at the same time you have to have dignity”, stressed the mayor, who has assured that “everything good” that the municipal government has done has been due to the action of Ciudadanos, despite having had to “swallow toads out of loyalty and as a matter of hierarchy.”
The second deputy mayor and councilor for the Interior, Mario Arias, thanked Pacho for his recognition of the proper functioning of the local government, which “does not deny its work either”.
“There were never differences between PP and Ciudadanos councillors. The important thing has always been to work for Oviedo”, stressed the popular councillor.
Arias has also reminded the opposition that the appointment of the president of the Municipal Foundation of Culture “is not the responsibility” of the plenary session, but of the Oviedo councilor.
Criticism of the opposition to “transfuguism”
From the ranks of the PSOE, its spokesman Wenceslao López, has warned that this episode of “turncoat” in Oviedo is a “hard blow to municipal democracy”, which damages the image of the capital of the Principality.
“A defector is someone who betrays the party for which he has been elected, also betraying the citizenry. Corrupt politicians who come to fill their pockets ”, he added after regretting that there is no law that, in the face of these facts, expels them from “politics forever”.
On behalf of Somos, Ana Taboada has criticized that the departure of the Ciudadanos councilors was the “chronicle of a betrayal announced and extended over time” so that the bipartite government had the necessary support to approve important issues such as budgets or the remunicipalization of El Asturcón.
In addition, he has defended that Canteli remove Costillas as president of the Municipal Foundation of Culture, since, in his opinion, his vote cannot be allowed to be worth more than that of another non-attached mayor.
“Ciudadanos has made the mistake of feeding a monster, a PP that has mercilessly devoured him at the moment that he was no longer useful,” Taboada assured.
The Vox councilor, Cristina Coto, has criticized that Cuesta, García and Costillas have not delivered the councilor’s act to its “legitimate owner”.
“Someone must walk very stiff not to deliver the minutes and not lose the payroll,” he warned in his speech. EFE