Looking for Macarena Olona in Salobreña: "No idea, we haven't seen her pass by here"

At the Merlo butcher shop, Dolores deftly butchers a chicken while answering an order over the phone at the municipal market in Salobreña, on Granada's Costa Tropical.

“What if Macarena Olona lives in the town?

I have no idea, we haven't seen her pass by here,” says the shopkeeper.

"I just don't even know who she is," adds Dolores from the Las Tablinas bakery, in front of the food market.

"Sometimes we have seen her on the beach, but not lately," says Susana Sánchez, while she prepares a Russian salad at La Portería restaurant.

Everyone puts a face of circumstances on her supposed new neighbor and most prefer not to give their last names because of what they will say.

They do claim to know Manuel Martín Montero, president of Vox in the province of Granada, councilor in the coastal town since 2019 and owner of a hotel in the municipality.

In her huge house at the entrance to the town, Olona, ​​a candidate for the Junta de Andalucía, has been registered since last November.

She is officially one of the 12,472 residents of Salobreña.

Beyond the statistics, the reality is that she does not live there.

More information

Macarena Olona registered at the house of the president of Vox de Granada to attend the Andalusian elections

"I cannot say that she is here regularly because she would be lying," explained Martín Montero on Cadena SER early this Friday morning.

The candidate for the Andalusian presidency for the far-right party and deputy for Granada since 2019, she approached the Salobreña City Council on November 5 to register on her padrón.

She presented her DNI and an application signed by both her and Martín Montero, thus confirming that she shared her residence with her party partner.

The mayor, María Eugenia Rufino (PSOE), assures that after the administrative process it is not her responsibility to go further.

"I do not invade the personal sphere of people," she explained to EL PAÍS in her office.

“We have carried out the procedure as the norm says, the rest is not my responsibility, nor am I going to send the police to check anything.

Registration is a right and an obligation and the administrations have a duty to facilitate what the law says: everyone who resides in Spain must be registered somewhere, "said the councilor.

On a personal note, yes, she believes that it is "immoral" for Olona to register where she does not actually reside.

“We public servants must lead by example,” Rufino points out, explaining that it doesn't matter if someone wants to register in a house, a caravan or on a park bench.

The presence of the Vox candidate in the municipal building to carry out the administrative procedure generated comments among officials last fall, but little else.

Until today.

This morning, with almost summer heat, everyone was talking about Olona in the small Granada town.

Hardly anyone on the street knew she was one of her new neighbors.

With his eyes open and a look of surprise, David, who attends a bread office inside the municipal market, assured that he has never seen the candidate of the far-right party there.

“We all know each other.

We would like to see the politicians around here, ”he explained in a municipal precinct with little influx and gaunt appearance that next month celebrates its 25th anniversary.

A three-storey house with views of the castle

Manuel Martín, who is around 60 years old, arrived at Vox after the municipal elections of 2015. Until then he had developed a long career in the PP and even served as president of the party in the local group.

He now presides over Vox in the province of Granada.

He is one of the partners of the Montero rum factory in Motril.

He is also the owner of the Salobreña hotel, the largest in the municipality.

The tourist establishment is located on the outskirts of the town, on a cliff near the sea.

He lives a few minutes from there, in a house built at the entrance of the town under a huge monkey puzzle tree.

With views of the castle and the white peaks of the Sierra Nevada, it has three floors, a porch and a garden with tropical trees such as a papaya, a couple of avocados and several banana trees.

"She and many more people can live there, it's huge,"

say two neighbors, who also do not want to identify themselves, while they wait, in the shade, for the school bus to bring their children from school.

"A

all our lives, but we don't even know how to recognize her”, says one of the women, who shows a photo of Olona on her mobile to her friend.

"No idea," says the other.

During his radio interview, Martín explained that the origin of the registration is due to the friendship that unites him with the candidate for the Andalusian Government.

“She comes sometimes, on vacation, because she obviously works in Madrid.

When she comes, I give her the upper part of the house and I stay in the lower part, ”said the president of the far-right formation, who has a photo of Olona on his WhatsApp profile.

Later, Martín has declined to make statements for this newspaper and has referred to his party.

In Vox they have done the same and have left the explanations for the supposed neighbor of Salobreña, who this morning was at the Jerez fair.

While she claimed not to understand “the commotion” generated, she snapped at the journalists: “I am registered in

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