One more step for mayoral hopeful Santiago Román from Cs is shaping the path for him to top the popularity poll in Sant Joan d’Alacant. The head of the local People’s Party and former mayor has moved ahead of both the PP and Citizens’ Union in the runup to the municipal elections in Sant Joan. Román’s return to the PP appears to be materializing in several ways. He left the party in 2015 amid long-standing speculation about a possible comeback in the following years. Two weeks ago, the Liberal mayor indicated that Cs is the only option he has on the table for now, but he would reconsider if a popular alternative emerges, keeping the door open to a broader center-right convergence. And now, five months before the elections, the campaign narrative tightens.
What remains notable is the lingering tension surrounding Román. His seven-year past with Román was a key factor in his departure from the PP, where he served as spokesperson from 2011 to 2015 while commanding the party’s local agenda. In those years, many argued that only a unified center-right could reopen the path to the mayoralty.
Piece of the puzzle of PP mayors in the region is missing: Sant Joan
The current head of the Sant Joan PP argues that the path forward requires a united center-right represented by the PP and Ciudadanos. He references a candidacy aimed at the May 2023 municipal elections, though he avoids naming the top of the ticket or whether Aracil will be a candidate. When pressed, Aracil suggested that wide consensus matters more than individual names, saying that the approach is what counts and the key projects matter far more than personalities.
The Sant Joan PP leader frames the union of the center-right as the best arrangement for both local governance and broader regional and national considerations. He argues that a strong center-right shows a clear path to defeating the left in upcoming contests.
fragmentation
The reaction from Manuel Aracil centers on a concern about fragmentation within the center-right, warning that disunity could enable continued leftist administration at municipal level in Sant Joan d’Alacant. In recent history, the municipality has seen the Cs ally with the PSOE, a configuration in which socialist Jaime Albero held the mayoralty for the first two years and Román for the last two, while a similar deal with the PP was rejected.
Aracil notes that the PP achieved its strongest local results in Sant Joan in 2011, when a unified center-right secured a comfortable absolute majority to win the mayoralty, only to lose it later to the PSOE. Fourteen years on, the question remains how to reproduce that unity.
Amid the discussions, the local PP leader calls for a shared front with Ciudadanos to field a joint list for the May 2023 elections and to present a coherent plan for residents that goes beyond personality clashes and focuses on delivering tangible local projects.