The candidate for Mayor of Calvia for the ruling Partido Popular, Jose Manuel Ruiz, said that he was confident that his party would be re-elected at the local elections in May and would win by a landslide which will mean that British Councillor Angela Guerrero would be returned to office. The announcement that Angela Guerrero had been placed at number 14 on his electoral list has caused some controversy in Calvia because unless the Partido Popular win by a landslide, Angie will not take up her place as a councillor after the elections.
“Compiling an electoral list is no easy matter but I have full faith in Angie (who is the only British born councillor on the council at the moment) and I sincerely hope that she will form part of my government team if we are elected in May,” he told the Bulletin yesterday.
“I would like to underline the importance of the non-Spanish vote and I would also like to thank them for their support in the past and the future,” he said. Opinion polls at the moment suggest that it is unlikely that the Partido Popular will win by a landslide because of the growth of smaller parties such as Podemos but the bigger parties have hit the campaign trail in force and are confident of success.
Ruiz also said that the Foreigner´s Department at the Calvia Council would be retained and even strengthen if he wins the local elections. “Angela Guerrero is doing a fantastic job in this department and it plays a vital role for the non-Spanish citizens living in our area,” he said. “It goes without saying that it will be retained.” The candidate for Mayor for the ruling Partido Popular said that all voters were vital and he added that he didn´t want to make any distinction between foreigners and Spaniards. “We are all residents of Calvia and therefore we should all have the same voice,”he said.
Angela Guerrero, who writes a column in the Bulletin every Saturday, went into the last local elections lower on the list which meant that she had more chance of election. The fact that she has been moved back a few places has come about to accommodate new members of the team Ruiz is planning. There is no place for a number of present Calvia Councillors on his list. The candidate said that he was relishing the prospect of being elected Mayor and dealing with Calvia´s problems, one of the biggest is obviously Magalluf. “New legislation comes into force on 1 May which bans the drinking of alcohol on the street of the resort at certain hours and also the crackdown on pub crawls and ticket touts. We are going to need additional resources to enforce these new measures,” he said.