A woman from the city experienced a turning point in April 2018 that redirected local politics in a direction many observers had not anticipated. Her influence began to show in the public sphere, and soon after those events, she withdrew from regular public visibility. The moment marked a shift in how the city government interacted with different political groups, and it became a topic of conversation among residents who followed municipal affairs closely. The change did not come with a formal farewell speech; rather, it unfolded through quieter, subtler moves that left a lasting impression on the political landscape and the way residents perceived leadership and accountability at the local level.
Not long after she stepped back from the public forefront, the scene around the city hall grew more complex. Reports and posts circulating on social networks captured a tense moment when an individual associated with Podemos appeared in the context of traditional regional festivities. The appearances during the Moors and Christians celebrations in Alcoy offered a backdrop for political narratives to collide with popular culture, and public attention lingered on who accompanied whom and what voices offered support or criticism. In the days that followed, the person who had briefly rejoined the public stage took steps to remove traces of a high-profile online presence, choosing to vanish from the digital arena and return to a more private, less visible status away from ongoing political discourse.
Within the broader shifts in the left-leaning coalition, a figure named Belmont faced criticism for actions that were interpreted as favoritism toward a neighborhood business. The controversy arose around small-scale contracts issued by the Social Action Department and the perception that these decisions benefited local connections rather than the broader public interest. At the same time, new leadership dynamics emerged. The appointment of José Luis Barcala as mayor influenced the balance of votes within the city’s governance structure, and the strategic absence of votes from allied groups, described in some circles as a deliberate blank or void vote, contributed to shaping the command structure of the council. It was a moment when the interplay between parties, coalitions, and individual actors demonstrated how fragile majorities could be in a shifting political environment, with various factions including Guanyar and Sepulcre from Citizens weighing the implications of each move for the future direction of socialist governance.