The PSOE will only govern in five of the 27 municipalities of the Almanzora region
Until 12 years ago, the Almanzora region was known in the province as the Red Valley, because most of the municipalities were governed by the PSOE, which also ran the Diputación and the Junta de Andalucía with an iron fist at that time.
Much has happened since then. Until the 2011 elections, only towns like Fines resisted being governed by non-socialist mayors. The 2011 elections were a turning point. Towns such as Olula del Río, Macael, Oria and Tíjola changed political sign and colour. And a counterweight began to be built, the opposition to a single management model based on the clientelist policy of with me or against me.
Today, in 2023, things are quite different. The towns continued to change colour and the PP’s political strategy worked.
In Albanchez, Amador López, who is standing for the Partido Popular in these elections, maintains the mayoralty with 5 councillors compared to 2 won by the PSOE.
In the municipality of Alcóntar, where the only España Vaciada candidate in the province of Almería was standing, the current Partido Popular mayor, Antonio Ramón Salas (4), retained the mayor’s office, although he lost one seat to this new party, which won 3 councillors.
The predictions in the municipality of Arboleas were fulfilled. The PP and UCIN candidates have the key to snatch the mayoralty from one of the historic mayors of the Almanzora, the socialist Cristóbal García, who has gone from 9 councillors in the 2019 elections to 5 in these elections. Pepa Rodríguez, who was his right-hand woman until just a few months ago, now heads UCIN and has won 2 councillors, while the PP won 4 seats.
Rodríguez herself assured La Comarca Noticias in her interview that her only red line after the elections would be «not to go back to where she was not wanted» in reference to Cristóbal García who lost 473 votes in these elections. It is to be expected that after these declarations, she will sit down to talk with the Popular party, something that will already be discussed at the candidacy dinner this Sunday night.
In Albox, María del Mar Alfonso’s PP won, just a few votes short of an absolute majority. UCIN won 6 seats and Mary Trinidad’s PSOE 3. In an interview on Cadena Ser, she assured that she would not make a pact with Torrecillas. Now the ball is in his court, although sources close to the candidacy suggest that there could be an abstention by the socialist group to allow the most voted list to govern, a political gesture that would be appreciated by the residents of the municipality.
Pedro Guerrero has made history in Armuña de Almanzora, where the Partido Popular will govern for the first time since 1983. A young and renewed candidacy that was convinced that they would succeed, and so it has been thanks to a 20-vote difference. In Armuña, as in Purchena and Zurgena, the non-continuity of the men who won the last elections has ended with the triumph of the popular opposition.
In the municipality of Bacares, another historic socialist fiefdom, Encarnación Zaguirre managed to maintain the government, after the departure of José Segura, with the same result as four years ago; 4 councillors for the PSOE against 1 for the PP.
In Bayarque, the PP wins a plenary session with the 5 councillors that make up the municipal council. Antonio Pordoy will be able to govern this small municipality in the Almanzora with complete peace of mind.
The PSOE maintains Cantoria as one of its most important municipalities in the Almanzora. Purificación Sánchez continues to maintain her absolute majority with 8 councillors, despite having lost one in these elections to the PP (3).
In Chercos anything can happen. The longest-serving mayor in the province, the popular José Antonio Torres, has lost his majority and it is very likely that his own family will take the municipal government away from him. In this small town in the Almanzora, the PP has been left with 2 councillors, 2 PSOE, 1 C’s, VOX 1 and Independientes por Chercos 1.
Cobdar will continue to be governed by the PP (4) against one PSOE councillor (1).
In Fines, Rodrigo Sánchez maintains his mayoralty after 20 years at the head of the local government, with 6 seats for the PP, compared to 5 for the PSOE.
Loli Moreno, mayor of Laroya, one of the longest-serving mayors in the Almanzora, has done it again. 5 councillors for the PP out of the five in the municipal corporation.
The PSOE has lost its majority in Líjar (3); everything points to a new pact with Izquierda Unida, which in these elections won 2 councillors, the same as the PP. Everything seems to indicate that the same pact will be sealed as 8 years ago.
Manuel López, the only mayor in the region who has maintained his candidacy for Ciudadanos, has revalidated his government in Lúcar with an even more comfortable majority. 5 councillors for C’s against 2 for the PSOE.
Raúl Martínez consolidates his position as one of the strongest mayors of the Almanzora. He will be serving his fourth legislature at the head of the Macael government, and continues to increase the distance with the PSOE. The popular candidate has won 9 councillors against the PSOE’s 4.
With Martínez, among the most voted in the Almanzora, is also his neighbour and colleague, the mayor of Olula del Río, Antonio Martínez Pascual, who will be mayor for the fourth time and has only lost 13 votes compared to the last elections. The PP maintains the 7 councillors against the 6 obtained by the PSOE. And VOX and IU CON ANDALUCIA are left without municipal representation.
Oria will continue to be governed by the popular Marcos Reche. Once again, the numerous candidacies that have been presented in this small town of the Almanzora, have only consolidated the support for the popular candidate who will complete his fourth term as mayor with 7 of the eleven seats.
María Joaquina López, will continue to be the mayor of Partaloa with ADEPART (7), which although it has lost 139 votes with respect to 2019, will continue to govern with an absolute majority against the PP which has obtained 2 seats. The PSOE has not managed to obtain representation in this municipality of the Almanzora.
In the town of Purchena, a town that so far has not known any government other than that of the PSOE, Pepe Luis Serrano will go down in history as the first PP mayor in this town in the region. A worker of the savings bank, now retired, who has achieved 5 councillors for the popular party, and snatched one of the most important socialist fiefdoms in the north of the province.
Tight ranks in Serón. Manuel Martínez Domene has maintained the majority of the PSOE in the local government, after the departure of Juan Antonio Lorenzo, secretary general of the PSOE in Almería, and former mayor of this town for the last twenty years. It has only lost 3 votes compared to 2019. And although the PP is only 102 ballots away, Celia Granados is once again unable to win the mayoralty. Serón will continue to belong to the PSOE, a town that knows no other political colour.
Adrián de Manuel won the elections in Sierro at the head of the list of a group of voters, «Juntos x Sierro». With 239 votes he has won the 7 councillors that the corporation has.
The PSOE maintains the mayoralty of Somontín, with 4 councillors, compared to the 3 obtained by Ramón Rueda at the head of the PP.
The Popular Raúl Guirao wins again, 5 out of 5, in the government of Suflí.
José Juan Martínez, the current mayor of Tíjola, has more than revalidated his government of the last four years. He joined the PP months ago and has received the endorsement of his administration from the people of Tíjola, who have rewarded him with 8 councillors compared to the three obtained by the PSOE. An absolute majority for Martínez, who triples the result obtained by the PSOE in these elections.
And in Urrácal, the PP continues to distance itself from the PSOE. Emilia Mateo (PP) has won 6 of the seven councillors in the municipal corporation, a fact to be highlighted as in the last elections she won by only one vote.
In Zurgena Domingo Trabalón will be the new mayor. The young Popular leader won the municipal elections with 865 votes against 425 for the socialist party. Absolute majority for the PP with 8 councillors against 3 for the PSOE, a candidacy backed by many historical party members in the Almanzora region, which has lost more than six hundred votes in these municipal elections.