The Rise of Gonzalo Pérez Jácome: Ourense Mayor and Candidate for Re-election for Democracia Ourensana

Gonzalo Perez jacome, mayor of Democracia Ourensana was attacked in the campaign for the leak of some audios that show his alleged corruption. In view of the results, it is evident that the public has interpreted that Jácome has been the victim of what he calls a mafia orchestrated by the Popular Party, the local press and some construction companies. The verdict is clear and Jácome has the upper hand to decide the provincial and local governmentwith three more acts in the City Council and one more in the Provincial Council.

Neither Manuel Baltar He has been excessively punished by the news of his repeated speeding behind the wheel. It is true that the president of the Ourense Provincial Council is not the head of the poster in these elections, but that his election as provincial leader is indirect, through the councilors who in turn will choose provincial deputies.

All in all, hardly any people from Orensa who voted for the PP can claim that they do not know that their vote can serve to perpetuate Baltarianism and maintain as leader a person who repeatedly breaks the speed limits on board public cars, at least once committing an alleged crime against road safety for which he will be tried this week.

Even so, the PP of the Province of Ourense has been the most voted party with more than 40% of the support. Now, all the analysts expected Baltar to achieve an absolute majority and he has not achieved it, repeating results and staying one minute away from direct victory. Therefore, it can be said that Baltar may have received some penalty from the electorate, although if so, it would be of a slight nature.

THE PP SAID THAT IT DID NOT KNOW THE SENTENCES OF ITS CANDIDATES

Another conservative politician peppered by the scandal was the candidate of the Popular Party in The Island of Arousa, Matías González Cañón. This person was sentenced several years ago for hit what was then his partner, breaking a tooth. Even the PP, when breaking the news, indicated -after alleging ignorance of the sentence- that he had asked for his resignation.

Cañón refused to promise that he would not collect his minutes, supported by his colleagues from the local conservative party. The assailant defended himself arguing that what happened had happened many years ago and had been minor, resulting in a small fine and a few days of partner work. Besides the politician said his town was small and that they all knew each other, so he trusted that the neighbors would be clear that he was a person worthy of holding public office.

Time proved him rights his candidacy won the elections, with quite an advantage as well. His list got almost 1,500 votes, which is about 500 more than the lists of Galician socialists and nationalists. Thanks to these figures, the Popular Party of Illa de Arousa grows from four to five councilors. However, it is a pyrrhic victory for González -who is not a member of the PP- because between the PSOE and the Bloque there are six deputies and, except for a great surprise, the PP will continue in the insular opposition.

This case was not the only one of a convicted criminal who held a prominent place on the list of a municipality under the acronym of the Popular Party of Galicia. José Manuel Barreiro Jardon is number 3 in the conservative candidacy in the small municipality of The Whites in Ourense. His party granted him this position, when it was public and notorious that a few years ago he was convicted of hit his disabled father. The politician hit his father who told the judge that he thought his son was going to kill him. He was convicted of abuse in the family environment.

The penalty against Barreino was not minor, as can be alleged in the case of Illa de Arousa. He was close to two years in prison, although in the end the convicted person did not enter jail due to lack of criminal record. When the sentence was confirmed, a few years ago, his party separated him from the government group but this year he was reinstated as number 3, alleging that the offender had already served his sentence. Something that was not entirely true, because about Barreiro I still have a restraining order his father’s.

The Popular Party claimed that it was unaware that this restraining order was still in force and when the scandal broke, it asked Barreiro to renounce his act, in the case of being elected. In addition, the conservatives promised that they will not integrate Barreiro into their government group. Soon they will have the opportunity to fulfill this promise, since they have once again won the local elections in Os Blancos. His neighbors have not punished the controversial selection of the candidate, rather the contrary, they have punished the party that publicly denounced the circumstance. Thus, the PSOE has lost one of the two councilors it won in 2019. That act has gone precisely to the Popular Party, which expands its majority from 5 to 6 councilors.

The scandal in Boymorto It did not arrive in the campaign but during the pandemic and it was sounded. The mayoress of the Partido Popular María Jesús Novo had to resign from her membership in the PP when it was learned that he had received the coronavirus vaccine in the first round. At that time it was only authorized for health personnel and residences. The president alleged that she visited the public residence of the municipality daily to meet the needs of the center during the crisis, so she understood that she did have the right to receive that dose. Her argument convinced the Popular Party only halfway. Concerned about the terrible image that Novo was transmitting at a time when dozens of Galicians were dying every day without having been able to get vaccinated, the PP forced her out of the formation, but did not take any action to evict her from the mayor’s office. She continued to govern as an independent, with the support of Conservative councillors.

Two years later, the PP picked her up as the headliner and the electorate has just rewarded the move. Novo will continue to lead the consistory of the Arzúa region, by getting six councilors, for the three from the PSOE and the two from the BNG. The Popular Party maintains the same number of councilors and the opposition falls back in minutes and percentage. On the contrary, Novo, the one that was vaccinated from the first despite not being a health or social health personnel, wins the highest proportion of votes. Four years ago it achieved 53% and yesterday almost 65%, approximately 100 more. The popular verdict, in this case, is also clear.