santa lucia mayor transfuguism ruling 2026

Santa Lucía Mayor Faces Ouster as 2020 Ruling Paves Way

2020 Court Ruling Sets Precedent for Defector Crackdown

A 2020 ruling by the Administrative Chamber of the High Court of Justice of the Canary Islands (TSJC) is set to pave the way for the municipal secretary of Santa Lucía de Tirajana to rule, six years later, that the town’s mayor and five councillors should be formally declared political defectors. The precedent, established in a case concerning a Podemos councillor in the same town hall, means the officials would be moved to the non-aligned group and lose key political rights, including the right to govern the council.

Legal Precedent on Breaking Party Ties

In that 2020 judgement, the TSJC upheld an appeal by Santa Lucía de Tirajana Town Hall itself. It revoked an order from Court Number 6 of Las Palmas, which had provisionally suspended a plenary agreement that had declared a councillor non-aligned and stripped her of rights linked to her political group, such as full or part-time dedication and corresponding remuneration. The Chamber concluded that if a councillor severs ties with their political party or original group, they cannot continue to enjoy, via provisional measures, the fiction of remaining integrated in the municipal group with all its political and economic privileges.

Mayor and Councillors Face Defining Vote

With this resolution as the basis, the secretary of the Santa Lucía de Tirajana Town Hall must now issue a mandatory report. This will be taken to a council plenary session on the 26th to decide the future of the public representatives who chose to abandon the party under whose banner they stood in the 2023 elections, Nueva Canarias-Frente Amplio Canarista, to join Municipalistas Primero Canarias. Those affected are Mayor Francisco García and councillors Arminda Santana, Roberto Ramírez, Minerva Pérez, José Mario Bordón and Juan Francisco Guedes. Their case mirrors that of the Podemos councillor from over five years ago.

Political Alliances and the Balance of Power

Three other Nueva Canarias councillors, Yaiza Pérez, Lev Ramos and Ofelia Alvarado, remained loyal to the party for which they were elected. However, the mayor dismissed them from the governing group in January for having supported with their votes a motion by the Partido Popular concerning political defection. The mayor of this town of 83,000 inhabitants remains in power thanks to the votes of the five defecting NC councillors and the five from the PSOE, plus the support on specific issues of one councillor who is himself non-aligned—a status he acquired upon leaving the local Coalición Canaria party, Fortaleza.

Next Move Rests with Local Socialists

The next step will not be administrative or judicial, but political. All eyes are on what the five PSOE councillors, who currently support the five NC defectors, will decide to do. This must take into account not only the stipulations of the anti-defection pact but also the relevant fact that the Monitoring Commission of the National Anti-Defection Pact in Spain is chaired by the Minister of Territorial Policy, who is none other than Ángel Víctor Torres, the secretary general of the Canary Islands socialists.

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