VOICES FROM ABOVE

politics before, I can’t say whether it is the same in the UK or in other countries, but I suspect it is.

“So, just go independent,” they told me. Not an easy task in Spain where only registered political parties can stand in the elections and in Mijas, 25 people have to be presented on the list. Maybe for a younger person, but I neither have the energy nor the ambition to go in that direction.

the instructions of the National party: “get rid of political opponents by wrapping them up in court cases for years”.

The latest example of this was from what we thought was an independent party, ‘Por mi Pueblo’ which got one seat in the person of Juan Carlos Maldonado. Maldonado decided to cast his vote with PSOE and Ciudadanos, and now the party which sees itself leaning more to the right than to the left, wants him to be expelled and for him to be installed as a councillor without a party ‘no adscrito’. In his investiture he was cited as Por mi Pueblo, but the higher ups in the party are not at all happy with him and he may yet have to leave the party or be pushed out. It all depends on whether the powers that be see more value in getting rid of him or his adding to their toll of seats regionally.

Having never been involved in party

The voices that determine the direction of political parties should come from the people and not from above. Parties don’t pay councillors’ salaries, the people do, and when parties get involved it is usually as a form of political chess, where moves are exchanged for later favours in the lucrative unelected bodies such as the Mancomunidad and Diputación where salaries can reach over €70,000.

I once asked a mayor if he had to choose between his party and the wellbeing of the people which would he choose? His silence said it all. The voices from above were louder than the voices from the ballot box. This is what we call democracy.