Justin's Life

I was not surprised to be reading this news item in El Pais today about the Mayoress of Manilva employing her family and friends in the town hall, and also the town hall contracting the services of a company owned by her husband.

Why no surprise?

Because I'd already heard about all of this over my morning coffee across the road.

But one is innocent until proven guilty, and now that this case is being taken up by a judge in Estepona, we'll have to wait and see what the outcome is.

The timing could not possibly have been any worse seeing as the elections are just around the corner.

Despite all of this, I do actually think she's done a reasonable job as Mayoress and she has some good councillors on her side, such as Mario Jimenez (a really decent guy) and the one in charge of the foreigners department, whose name I can't recall, but he's also really good.

She also has some not so great people on her side though, such as "DD" who I was close to punching once as well as my old "friend" Zotano...although not sure if he's defected to another party again.

Still, I find it sad that a small town like Manilva can feature so many times in the press with links to corruption and underhand practices.  And as they say, there's no smoke without fire.

Talking to some local friends this morning, they were saying that they just want someone decent and honest in the town hall but they simply don't know who that person is.

Now, who's that guy representing the PP....he seems to be a bit of a mystery and no one seems to say anything bad about him.  A good candidate for the job?  We'll see.

New trees being planted, streets cleaned every day, lots of painting...it can only mean one thing....the elections are upon us again!

Every four years it seems, at least around here, things actually get done.  It's also a great time to ask the town hall for whatever it is you need doing in your area.

I just don't know why they think that taking this action just before the elections is going to make any difference to what we think of the local administration.

As always, it always too little too late.

Saying that, I haven't a clue who my vote is going to go to this year.  There isn't one particular party or candidate that really stands out to me. 

Let's see what pre-election schpeel they come out with over the next few weeks.