So Arturo Grima (PP) and Martin Morales (Somos Turre) went head to head in a debate live on Radio Actualidad last week. During their introductions, Arturo Grima went off on a wild rant about previous administrations and said that the previous PSOE administrators of the town had stolen from the town… a strong word which I use intentionally, and have used in the past.
He then went on to say the previous PSOE lot had scuttled away with the profits, leaving a bunch of “babies in charge to take the rap”.
A little harsh I feel. OK, so I wouldn’t trust the current PSOE lot with the serious problems facing Turre – the leader is a primary school teacher, the second and third have no university degree IIRC and none of the top five have ever been in business for themselves or have any experience with public administrations – but “babies”? He’s probably referring to the fact that they’re all children of previous PSOE rulers.
When the presenter asked him to clarify on the theft claim, asking if he had any proof etc, Grima went off at another tangent, as is his wont (the man is impossible to transcribe, it’s a babbling stream of consciousness) and didn’t answer.
Annnnyhow……. the PSOE are now annoyed, and have demanded a public apology.
They said that while they attribute his insults to his nervousness “because he has suddenly realised it’s the elections and during the last four years he has done nothing[… ] he is contaminating the public democratic process with his slander upon our honesty”.
“A man who has been in Turre politics since the 1980’s and whose main achievement has been the sowing of hatred” sniffed the PSOE, “we do not know how it is possible that someone with such little education [they mean impolite] can be our representative“.
Grima also said during the same debate that Morales’s plans to involve citizens in the running of their neighbourhoods were stupid, as “the only people who are interested in the running of this town are the Brits and the Catalans”, adding that the average turrero voted every four years and left the running of the village to their betters – ie, him.
Grima has been Mayor of Turre three times in the last 20 years – he had to have 8 years off because he want barred from public office for a decade for abuse of power after his first term (he got two years off the sentence for good behaviour). He also admitted that during his 2007 term he was paying for things in black, ie, committing tax evasion with townhall funds (which raises a few interesting questions: ie, does nobody check the accounts, and is this one of the reasons Turre is 10 million euros in the red?). His Dad was Turre’s second Mayor.