BENIDORM

Benidorm, for years the Brits favourite low cost holiday resort, is at the centre of the news these days not for lager louts fighting or the increase in prostitution but for the strange circumstancias surrounding the political situation within the Town Hall where history,as supposedly it has the habit of doing, is repeating itself. In1991 the socialist mayor was deposed in a motion of no confidence by Eduardo Zaplana of the conservative Popular party when PSOE councillor Maruja Sanchez deserted the socialist whip and crossed the floor to join the P.P. thus swinging the majority to the right. Zaplana later became president of the Valencian Community and will be remembered for all time as the author of the all time record taxpayers' money loser, Terra Mitica. At the time,the move was applauded by the national P.P. as being a positive move towards the governability of the city of Benidorm.
Twenty eight years on and Benidorm is ,once again on the brink of a new motion of no confidence,this time caused by another floor crossing only this time,it is a P.P. councillor who has abandoned his party whip tilting the balance of power back to the left. The Spanish saying "who robs a thief shall have 100 year pardon" could well be applied here were it not for the fact that a pact was made between the two major parties to prevent this kind of situation from repeating itself. This pact has been repeatedly ignored over the years but what is worthy of note in this case, that of Benidorm, is that the national PSOE have struck their councillors off the official party list as they have gone against the official pàrty line . This ,in itself, would not be especially newsworthy were it not for the fact that the number three of the national PSOE, Leire Pajin, is none other than the daughter of one of the now disowned Benidorm socialists. One can imagine that Sunday lunch with Mum and Dad may be a hazardous practise in the Pajin household at the present time. I would love to be a fly on the wall.
There is, however , another co-incidence, Guess who came to Benidorm to support the coup when exercised by the P.P? Thats right, Don Mariano Rajoy the then number three in the Popular Party. The same Mariano Rajoy who has been vociferously protesting at this "antidemocratic act" when put into practise by the other side. Life has a habit of playing tricks and time, the habit of putting things into their place.