Tesorillo independence is closer and unstoppable

San Martin del Tesorillo

JIMENA/San Martín del Tesorillo (Agencies) Candidates at this year's municipal elections are well aware that, if the Junta gives its blessing -and there is no reason to suppose otherwise- San Martín del Tesorillo (plain Tesorillo to its friends) will become a separate municipality from that of its present one, Jimena de la Frontera, by the end of this year. Naturally, and because the long-sought segregation is at an advanced stage in the complicated process it requires, all candidates support it. A confusion of bureaucratic names may need some clarity for our readers.>It could be said that there are two mayors for Tesorillo (mayors are elected officials, unlike the UK). The ELA, or Local Autonomous Entity in its Spanish acronym, is headed by Belén Jarillo, of the Partido Popular (PP), but the ELA has only some of the devolved powers it takes to run a municipality. One of those principal powers is Town Planning, which is still under the aegis of the Council in Jimena. In fact, Tesorillo once had that power but it was taken away after a row about what and what couldn´t be built under the regulations; Jimena is run by the PSOE with an overall majority of one.

Jarillo is running again at the Local Elections on May 22. Against her will be Jesús Solís (PSOE) for a second time.

At the municipal elections of 2007, PP managed to get 613 votes; PSOE, 505; PTI (Plataforma Tesorillo Independiente), 273; IU (Izquierda Unida), 74; and PA (Partido Andalucista), 52. The PTI has left the battlefield this year, and the PA is in disarray after a disastrous showing at the last general elections.

(Note: Do you know how to vote at your local elections? - it's quite different to anything in the UK... We will be putting up some guidelines closer to the date: May 22. Watch this space!)