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Could Sunday's result have indicated a political change in our local town halls?

The overwhelming victory of the Socialist PSOE in the province of Malaga is bound to have made the numerous Partido Popular mayors uncomfortable

JAVIER RECIO

Friday, 3 May 2019, 14:05

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Last Sunday's general election marked a turning point in national and most probably local politics. The overwhelming victory of the Socialist PSOE in the province of Malaga is bound to have made the numerous Partido Popular mayors uncomfortable and nervous about whether they get to keep their jobs after the municipal poll on 26 May.

In the city of Malaga, the PSOE candidate, Dani Pérez, is already claiming more ground and his vision of taking over the mayor's office seems more realistic than ever. The thousands of votes the local people gave his party last Sunday have given him wings. This is the second consecutive election that the Socialists have been the most-voted party in the city, although this time the difference is significantly more comfortable.

Meanwhile though, the city's Ciudadanos (Cs) candidate, Juan Cassá, is also rubbing his hands together, after his group claimed the second success story of election night, overtaking the Partido Popular as the second most-voted party in a number of areas. If this trend were repeated on 26 May, the current PP mayor Paco de la Torre could find himself having to hand over his mayor's robes to Cassá if the council is to remain in the hands of the right wing, an ambition of which the local Ciudadanos leader has made no secret in recent years.

In fact Cs, known as the orange party, has overtaken the PP to become the greatest alternative to the Socialist PSOE in the majority of towns and villages in Malaga province. Among them are the significant examples of Marbella and Estepona, where the PP mayors Ángeles Muñoz and José María García Urbano have more reason now to fear for their jobs.

The Partido Popular hasn't even won in its talisman stronghold Fuengirola, where the PP normally triumphs election after election. It's true that in the local elections the candidates' reputation often goes before their political colours, but it's also true that on one hand, the PSOE is on a roll, and on the other, Ciudadanos could come out as the great beneficiary if the three right-wing parties decide to join forces to keep out the Socialists. If this were the case, the political map of the Costa del Sol cold look decidedly orange after 26 May.

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