2 days Ago By Xavi Tedó
In Setcases, the game of musical chairs isn't just for children, it's for politicians. In eight years, there have been three motions of no confidence to remove the mayor, and all three, paradoxically, have been promoted by councilors from the same party as the mayor. This Monday, the third will be consummated.
Three of the five councilors on a list linked to ERC, the only party in the council, have decided to remove the mayor due to "disagreements" and "lack of communication and transparency" when making decisions. The sponsors of the motion are Francesc Marcer—the future mayor—Sílvia Bassagañas, and Cristina Gardell, who will use their majority to dethrone Joan Casadevall, who only has the support of the Councilor for Culture, Núria Vila. Casadevall, like the rest of the councilors involved, has declined to comment, but admits that the straw that broke the camel's back was the new POUM project.
The councilors pushing the motion believe the mayor has promoted the project without sufficient consensus within the council. Some residents don't hide their surprise, despite the constant back-and-forth. "I'm 88 years old and I've never seen that before: now it's those from the same party who are fighting," laments Josep Descamps.
This retired carpenter doesn't mince his words when it comes to criticizing the replacements: "I don't know what the hell is bothering them, they put someone in today and take them out tomorrow," he says, emphasizing that, in his opinion, the current mayor was doing a good job. "It's a disgrace; they change them every now and then," he concludes indignantly. Some take it with humor.
This is the case of Marc Peiris, who runs Ca la Núria, one of the two pharmacies in this small town of less than 200 inhabitants, next to a butcher shop. "The mayor's chair is cursed, they should throw it into the fire," he says, laughing. A curse he attributes to the fact that the various mayors make agreements without seeking consensus: "I don't know what it is about this chair, but the mayors rule the roost with mayoral decrees, believing they have unilateral control of the town.
" In a town where fewer than a hundred people live year-round, there are those who prefer not to get into trouble: "I don't care, I understand that if they throw him out, he won't do too well," a resident, uncomfortable with this new political earthquake, simply states. The last three mayors did not complete their terms. Disagreements between elected officials have been a constant in recent years in Setcases, to the point that none of the last three mayors have been able to complete their term.
And as if it were Groundhog Day, the councilors who ousted the incumbent mayor have accused him of governing without listening to their opinions. Throughout this series, the protagonists are always the same, running for office under different parties, sometimes coming out well and sometimes not. The mayor and the councilor now being ousted from the government pushed through a motion of no confidence against their fellow Republican candidate, Anna Vila, in January 2022, a year and a half before the end of the previous term.
And then, Casadevall, who was the number two on the ticket, was elected mayor with the support of the opposition Socialist councilor, Carlos Fernández. Francesc Marcer, also a Socialist, who has now run for ERC and will be the new mayor, abstained, while the mayor, Anna Vila, naturally, voted against. Anna Vila had won the 2019 elections with the ERC party, but two years earlier she had already won the mayor's office.
She had done so, then from the Socialist party ranks, with a motion, precisely, against Carlos Fernández, then mayor, who would take revenge five years later by joining forces with the two ERC councilors to oust her. Her "opaque and individualistic" management was also the reason they gave for her replacement. The motion was passed with the votes of Anna Vila and another Socialist councilor, Santi Molas, and Joan Casadevall, the outgoing mayor who at the time headed the CiU list.
A third councilor from the PSC list, Miquel Giménez, was the only one who voted against it because the former mayor did not appear at the plenary session and would leave the town outraged by his dismissal..
