My wife and I together with our friends Ken and Bev Cross went out for a celebratory meal last night to the four star Vera Hotel.
It was the most expensive meal out I have ever had. The total bill was just short of €360! It was a lovely restaurant with a very attentive and helpful MaitreD. We had all gone there to celebrate the result of the election and we all decided to have the Spanish Lobster (€60 per person). I had the crispy shrimp omelette to start which was delicious. It comprised 7 fritter like crispy omelettes, very thin which was €9 and a nougat ice cream with a biscuit base and a caramelised egg yolk topping for sweet €4.50. We had two bottles of the recommended Raimat Pinot Noir 2000 at €18. Two nice touches were that both the ladies were given a little gadget to hang their handbags from dining tables when out for a meal and a letter from the MaitreD thanking us for trusting his judgement including the label from the wine incorporated with congratulations.
It is a very nice restaurant and if we had not gone for one of the most expensive options I reckon we could have dined and drank for more like €160.
Well all so quiet now after the franctic past two weeks. Seems strange.
Have been in touch with Town Hall and the next thing that will happen is when we are sworn in. Apparently each councillor has to swear on the constitution. That should be fun, although Candido has intimated that he will get me a private Spanish tutor. I must make more effort!
Many people have sent me congratulations which is very nice. People seem to be genuinely appreciative. I just hope I can represent them adequately.
I will keep my blog going throughout my time with the Town Hall to report any and all things which impact on me or the expat community. I have had lots of suggestions from expats about things they would like to see done and one of those was a Town Hall newsletter. If I can get them to do that in both languages it may not be so necessary for me to update this blog. We will see.
Spent election day at the La Alfoquia polling station and was very pleased to see the excellent turnout of expats. All bar two of the people who I had canvassed turned up and voted. It was a long day 0830 until 2000 but when the result was known it was well worth it.
I do not yet have the detailed figures, however, the proportional representation system means that we have increased our seats on the council from 5 to 8 with our opponents suffering a fifty percent drop in their vote. That suggests that even without the expat vote Partido Andalucista would have won a majority of the seats solely from the Spanish voters. So it is good to know that even the indigenous Spanish wanted 4 more years of Partido Andalucista. I am told that we were only 9 votes away from gaining 9 seats. This is a fantastic achievement as there has never been a party to hold more than 7 seats on the council before
My thanks go out to all those who made the effort to vote. I now feel a heavy responsibility to all of you but will do my best.
As today is the day of reflection there has been no campaigning and I, stupidly, thought there would be nothing else to do today but we were all called into the Party offices in La Alfoquia at 7.30pm and briefed as to what we can and cannot do on election day.
It seems that we all have jobs which we will have (all day) tomorrow either being available to help voters or checking who has or has not voted and trying to ensure that as many of our supporters as possible get to the Poliing stations. It is going to be a long day.
Will have a good sleep and see how tomorrow goes.
Today is the last day for campaigning and although there are a few people that I wasn't able to find I think we got another 12 votes today. It seems many expats were reluctant to vote until they have had the process explained to them. Most also comment on how they never bothered voting in the UK because the politicians locally have no real power with it all being centralised in Westminster but here in Spain the local counciol does have power to make a difference.
So we will see!
It is 8.30pm and I have one more couple to see before time runs out.
We held our last meeting last night, because of various factors, and this being Spain, everything was changed at the last minute. We had to do the Spanish presentation between 7pm and 8.30pm. This amounted to a very quick video presentation of what had been achieved and what was hoped to be achieved followed by short speeches by the deputy mayor and mayor.
After that we adjourned to the animal park for free drinks and to meet the expats but there were not many there. This was to be expected given the current crime situation and the fact that most had attended the meeting the previous week.
Will do last bit of campaigning today then it will be fingers crossed.
Only 3 days to go until voting day and as Saturday is a day of reflection only 2 days of work!
We had arranged to hold a fiesta/meeting tonight at 7.0pm to tell all the expats that the stories being circulated by PSOE are, all bar 1, lies. Unfortunately due to a series of crimes being committed in our municipality the Mayor had to spend a lot of time with the Guardia Civil which now means he will be unable to get to ours till 8.30-9.0pm.
Andeas and I are going to host it until he gets there and we will have the free food and drink and possibly some music. So I hope people are not too inconvenienced. managed to find another 6 votes today. Hope evryone who says they will vote for us does do so!
Went to the local radio station to record a couple of advertising broadcasts for the party. As my wife says she's getting fed up hearing my voice. I think I am too!!
Well now it is getting down and dirty. One of the other parties has made statements which are obviously untrue therefore the meeting, which we were to do for the Spanish tomorrow night, is to be brought forward, so that the Partido Andalucista can refute the allegations in front of the expats. It does however mean that we have had to organise our meeting at almost the same time as PSOE. The timescale has caused this situation as we cannot campaign on Saturday, as it is a day of reflection, and campaigning is not allowed. That left Friday evening but P.P have their meeting then so it was a case of swings and roundabout.
I think unfortunately I am going to have to say a few words. Candido and Andreas are coming round to my house about 10.0pm to work out what needs to be communicated tomorrow night.
I think we will all be greatly relieved when we get to Sunday night and we can all relax.
As we enter the last few days of campaigning we are getting busier and busier. Trying to get round as many expats houses as possible. I do have to say that the general response has been excellent with the vast majority of people pleased to be able to have the possibility of having a voice on the council. As I see it it can only help us integrate. As I have said previously, and, using my experience as a Police Officer, the people I am working with (Partido Andalucista)are very hard working, community minded people who do not indulge in negative politics but are looking forward to doing what they can to improve Zurgena.
We have one more open meeting for the Spanish people which I think is to be held about 10.0pm Thursday night.
Regarding the comments from John! in the margin. I can assure you all that Candido did tell us there were many denouncements against him, by the Junta, which is the way in Spain whereby politics can impact on people's personal lives adversely. It was to point out that the first 2 of these had just been decided upon by the courts and both had ruled that the Town Hall had acted legally and correctly ( I saw the court papers). Again a case of PSOE using their power to try and influence an area they do not control. I won't bother commenting on the insults. I cannot answer John either as he has not listed any of his details or described what he does!
Oh well off out on the stump again today. I am sure we will all be glad when we get to Sunday night.
Last night we held the only Party Political meeting for the expats in our municipality. I was very pleased to see such a great turn out with in excess of 200 people there.
Candido give a video presentation of before and after he came to the office of Mayor.It did go on a bit too long but I could understand his pride in having achieved so much when so little had been done before.
He then produced two court rulings. These rulings related to occasions when he had been denounced by the Junta (P.S.O.E.) over granting building licences. Both these court rulings, one of which had only been declared at 5.45pm today, ruled in favour of the Town Hall and against the Junta. This announcement was met with a loud round of applause.
He then informed the meeting that whilst our manifesto had been truly and accurately translated (a fact I could confirm as I was party to it) one of the other political parties had done two separate and competely distinct manifestos. The one in Spanish promised completely different things to the one in English!!
He also informed us that pamphlets being circulated by one of the opposition parties made allegions against the Partido Andalucista and he promptly negated every point bar one. The one he did agree that he had not completed was the building of 100 affordable homes for local young people, but, the reason that had not been accomplished was because the Junta had stopped it!
I did a short speech in support of the current mayor and Partido Andalucista. I think it went down okay.
We did have some spies in the audience so in my speech I made sure to emphasis that we were the only party with an expat on the list and as high as No 6.
Drinks and nibbles were available after and quite a good number stayed. I had, as I thought, a number of complaints which we will have to look at if and when we are elected.
Candido introduced me to one of the new Polizia Local officers and later that same night we had a patrol round our developement. Good start.
