Meruelo/Ribamontán al Mar (EFE).- After 44 years holding the baton, the mayors of Meruelo, Evaristo Domínguez, and of Ribamontán al Mar, Francisco Asón, assume that the next elections on May 28 will be the beginning of the end of the two longest-serving political leaders in Cantabria town halls.
“The greatest satisfaction is having been able to help the neighbors and for that work to be recognized on the street,” both Domínguez and Asón, who since the beginning of democracy have governed their municipalities, maintain in an interview with EFE.
The first always with an absolute majority and the second by little, since in the premiere at the polls he needed to agree to obtain the Mayor’s Office.
An adventure since 1979
They remember with nostalgia what that 1979 was like in which two young lovers of politics embarked on the adventure of forming some lists with the uncertainty of the result, but with the “illusion” of trying to improve the quality of life in their towns.
Domínguez, along with a group of friends, headed the Meruelo Independent Association and, in the following elections, the project hatched into the Popular Alliance to later lead the Popular Party in his municipality.
In the opinion of this mayor, the political level of yesteryear was “higher, more responsible and serious”, compared to the “rattle” that elections have become today, because “things are offered and promised without credibility and there is no sentiment in what is being said”.
A vision similar to that of Asón, who detects a current of “demand” towards politicians, when before the figure of a mayor, in his opinion, aroused “respect”.
From independent to strong man of the PRC
He made his debut in the 1979 elections with UCD, then ran on a list as an independent to later become one of the strong pieces of the Regionalist Party of Cantabria.
At the gates of 72 years, he is presented to 28M after estimating that the last legislature was “atypical” due to the pandemic. A fact that prevented his team from materializing projects of interest in Ribamontán al Mar and that, now, he intends to complete, along with other improvements promoted by European aid.
In addition to bringing basic services to population centers, Asón has stressed that one of his main joys as mayor has been to promote the construction of social housing for residents.
Also, he has highlighted the stimulation of the service sector, with tourism at the forefront, to mitigate the progressive disappearance of livestock. In fact, Ribamontán al Mar has become a benchmark for practicing surfing.
All this, in his opinion, has helped the population to double, reaching 4,700 inhabitants.
A mayor with triple the population
Evaristo Domínguez will attend the elections, on his way to turning 76, despite the fact that in the previous electoral appointments he had already “breached” a promise he made to his wife that he “was going to leave” him when he reached 40 years in office .
He shares the opinion of his regionalist counterpart that he still has fringes to consolidate in a municipality rooted, practically in its entirety, in the primary sector, and whose population has almost tripled with 2,260 residents.
An exponential development determined, in his opinion, by the achievement of the agreement with the Government of Cantabria for Meruelo to house the waste and recycling plant that in its day “it was impossible to start anywhere”, he explains.
This agreement reports to the City Council an interesting economic canon that it allocates to services and infrastructures, while favoring local employment. And it is that, in the waste facilities themselves, about 200 jobs are created, reserved exclusively for registered residents of Meruelo.
Veteran friends personally and politically despite flying different “flags”, Evaristo Domínguez and Francisco Asón face this last dance with “more satisfaction than displeasure” in the balance.
The shadows of 44 years of management
On the shadows, the mayor of Ribamontán al Mar avoids specifying any episode, but acknowledges that they have existed.
His counterpart from Meruelo believes that the most difficult thing is to confront “friends” over unavoidable issues, such as land expropriations to bring services closer to third-party homes.
The two will lead electoral lists in which the experience of the past converges with the wise news of the future projected on young people, from whom they also receive help on current issues such as the management of social networks and new technologies.
By Miguel Ramos