New Interim Gestoras Shape the Political Landscape in Alicante Province
The weather event known as DANA forced the provincial executive committee of the Popular Party to hold its meeting remotely on Tuesday. The main agreement reached unanimously was to approve three new gestoras in the province, bringing the count past ten. The three local management bodies will begin operating in Callosa de Segura, Banyeres de Mariola, and Pinoso. The gestora in Callosa de Segura will be chaired by Inmaculada Cascales. In Pinoso, the top governing body of the local PP will be the gestora chaired by Noelia Rico, while in Banyeres de Mariola the proposed president to lead the gestora is Juan Antonio Espinosa.
Callosa de Segura has seen particular controversy. The decision followed notices by the town’s mayor Manuel Martínez Sirvent and the first deputy mayor Trino Grau that they were resigning from their public posts as councillors. The move arrived just weeks after Martínez Sirvent resigned the mayoralty, following months of gridlock in the minority administration. Once in opposition and without local power, the former mayor and Grau, his deputy and trusted aide, have stepped away for good.
Earlier in the year 2024 the PP had already approved gestoras in San Fulgencio, Crevillent and Dénia. The latter two required approval from the PPCV because these towns have more than 20,000 inhabitants. As president of the gestora in San Fulgencio they appointed José María Ballester; in Crevillent Lourdes Aznar; in Dénia Pepa Font, whom the party sought to bolster after she doubled the municipal election results in 2023. Those gestoras were also preceded by resignations from party leaders, underscoring a season of internal shifts across the region.
Muro de Alcoy, Monóvar and Granja de Rocamora have also been municipalities in the province where the PP has had to rely on these mechanisms in recent times after internal problems surfaced. These interim bodies are designed to keep local services running and governance stable while leadership transitions are navigated.
The use of gestoras reflects a broader strategy by the party to safeguard municipal administration during periods of leadership changes and to preserve continuity of services for residents across the Alicante region. Analysts note that this pattern, observed in several towns, signals a pragmatic approach to governance that prioritizes local stability amid political shifts.