A government team falling from the sky

It all started as a simple formality. Major parties sometimes have difficulty finding candidates in small towns.Because they can’t find neighbors willing to step in. Therefore, in order to cover the entire region, even knowing that the possibilities of finding councilors are minimal, they decide to present lists of foreigners in these cases. On the one hand, it is a matter of prestige, and on the other hand, to offer a choice to their voters.

This is exactly what happened in the last elections in Alcosser, a small municipality with a population of just over 250 in the El Comtat region. PSOE found that it did not have any candidates and chose to submit a list of four people from outside the city..

In the socialist ranks they were sure that everything would be pure procedure without any hope of success, and moreover, except for the last period when Compromís was in power, The hegemony of the PP and previously the Alianza Popular was the general norm in the municipality.

Lottery

However The “surprise” came on election night when they drew with the PP by 68 votes. Moreover, this is completely unexpected, considering that Arturo Abad, mayor of Alcosser between 2015 and 2019, is on the popular list; but it is true that other candidates are on the popular list, as is the case with PSOE. Although they have connections to the town, they are not registered. And then came the tiebreaker a coin toss that resulted in the balance tipping in the courts in favor of the socialistsA person who asks for heads in a draw.

So they suddenly found themselves faced with the responsibility of placing themselves at the head of the municipal government; This is something their party did not even remotely consider when they recruited them just to take part in the elections. But, as the saying goes, stick with what’s done and from the first moment, Four members of the new local government decided to take their job as head of the City Council very seriously.

But the advantage is that most of them have experience in municipal government. Starting with mayor María Ballesteros, the first mayor of Gaianes Between 1999 and 2007. The rest belong to the Cocentaina socialist group.

In his predictions, Ballesteros expected that “taking into account that PSOE did not get anything from Alcosser, we would get at most one council member.” But what happened was an extraordinary surprise because no one could even imagine this.

But once they got over the initial shock, they got to work, relying on the direct cooperation of their neighbors. «We -he emphasizes- We do not know the daily life of the town, we are a kind of administrator.“So we have to work with the people here and take their wants and needs into account.”

From here, Just a fortnight ago they held a public meeting, which was intended to be a common practice during his tenure.. According to the mayor, “The response was very positive and helped us understand the concerns, take note and work to take on the projects they wanted.”

Meanwhile, the new Administration devoted itself to completing the acquisition of the subsidies already requested by the previous Conciliation Government, and also identified as its main priorities: renewal of drinking water network and repair of roads. Ballesteros also emphasizes that although it has few resources, like all municipalities of its size, they inherited a healthy City Council.

Regarding the reasons why they received this support, the mayor thinks: “I think people voted for experience“We know where we come from and we are thrilled to have lived up to expectations.”

Rosa Sellés is another member of the municipal governmentl. Between 2003 and 2015 he served as a councilor in Cocentaina in areas such as Culture, Social Services, Police and Festivals, and in addition had experience similar to the current one, which led him to become a councilor in Planes. despite being in opposition. He also admits that they did not expect to find themselves in this situation and that in fact “we are what people describe as ‘paratroopers’.” However, If we offered ourselves, we did so with all the consequences.and I’m in Alcosser almost every day to work and do what’s best for the town, I always trust my neighbors.

thirty euros

Amparo Bosch, also from Cocentaina, expresses himself with similar expressions.He currently serves as PSOE consultant at the Valencian Federation of Municipalities and Provinces (FVMP). “As soon as I entered,” he explains, “I had to take responsibility for the organization of the parties, which, it is true, had already been prepared by the previous Company.” And the total determination of the socialist team stands out, without any fee beyond 30 euros for participation in general assembly sessions, which they charge every three months. “We want to develop the town and do this hand in hand with neighbours,” he emphasizes.

Finishing fourth in the race was Marcos Llorens, who also serves as a councilor in Cocentaina.In addition to his directorship of the Center for Rural Development (Ceder) Aitana, he also served in the Urban Planning and Finance departments. At the organic level, he was general secretary of the socialist opposition and was now part of the regional executive in the field of industry. He states that he learned that he would also be on the list a week before the list was submitted, as there had previously been speculation that he would be on the Agres list. He believes that “the City Council is responsible for fining the PP, otherwise this would not have been possible.” However, “we will work hard and also “Try to create hope for people to show up from the town in four years.”