The world upside down in a town in Granada: a former PP councilor goes to Cs in the midst of the crisis

One summer night, during a concert by Taburete in Salobreña (Granada), José Berto Casares was made an offer that was not at all tempting in principle: to stand in the May municipal elections on the Ciudadanos list.

The 48-year-old businessman rejected the proposal so as not to “complicate” life more.

Casares had already attended as

of the PP to the polls in this coastal town, with 12,477 inhabitants, in the 2019 elections. But disagreements with the party's provincial executive caused his abandonment as councilor in the middle of the legislature.

Despite initial reluctance, the insistence of the Cs municipal spokesperson and the desire to work for his people made the politician change his mind.

"I ran into a friend walking along the seafront and he told me that he had lost my mind," says the exedil this Wednesday, two days after announcing that this time he will appear on a Citizens ballot.

A formation immersed in a harsh process of primaries, which are held this Thursday, and about to culminate its refoundation with the surveys on the ground.

Summer has passed in Salobreña, but the tropical climate that the municipality enjoys means that this Wednesday the sun shines on the beach bar where Casares tells his story, dressed in a shirt and a sweater that he practically has “to spare”.

The weather conditions in the area favor the cultivation of vegetables and fruit, products that the businessman distributes to the rest of Spain and other countries.

As a freelancer, he manages a transport company with nine trucks, around ten workers and a turnover of around two million a year.

“I don't run for the money.

My idea was to finish the legislature with the Popular Party”, continues Casares, whose principles are “related” to the Cs program.

“I want to continue helping my people.

And I also like Ciudadanos because I think we have to keep changing, not always be focused on them”.

Casares is an unusual case.

One of the main problems that Cs is dragging has been precisely that of the reverse jacket change: from Ciudadanos to the PP, in an intensified trickle in recent months due to the upcoming May elections.

The president of the popular, Alberto Núñez Feijóo, has been reiterating his "open door" policy to the "talent" of Cs to widen their political space as much as possible, avoid the division of the vote and even try not to present lists in certain municipalities.

As an example, that of the mayor of Badajoz, Ignacio Gragera, who announced in December that he would run for the PP instead of for Ciudadanos, the formation with which he obtained the baton of command.

"I think that now we must unite the center right and this is what leaders, militants and voters of Ciudadanos are summoned to,"

The culprit for Casares jumping into the pool at such a critical moment for Cs was the municipal spokesman for the formation, Plácido Leyva.

“We became friends in plenary sessions.

And I convinced him because I want the best managers on my list, ”says Leyva with Casares, at the bar, while the businessman non-stop attends to messages related to his work.

But both are aware of the extraordinary of his decision.

"Salobreña is going to become famous for Macarena Olona and for José Berto," jokes the Cs spokesman and candidate, referring to the controversy caused by the registration of the former Vox candidate for the Andalusian elections in the same municipality.

They also recognize that the Ciudadanos crisis at the national level will irreparably “harm” their result.

In the local elections of 2019,

Cs was the second force with the most votes in Salobreña with 745 votes.

He achieved two councilors who have worked from the opposition against a PSOE government supported by IU.

José Berto Casares (i) and Plácido Leyva (d) in front of the castle of Salobreña.Carlos Gil

But the situation then was far from what it is now.

This Thursday, 7,642 Ciudadanos affiliates are called to vote for their new leader after an internal war that has pitted their parliamentary spokesman, Edmundo Bal, and the president, Inés Arrimadas.

The primary campaign has also been especially muddy, marked by harsh accusations between the three candidacies.

Bal, Patricia Guasp or Marcos Morales will lead the game from this Friday.

“We have been fighting for two months.

But it's okay for people to confront and talk.

Of course, whoever wins, promote unity and from now on we will all row as one”, emphasizes Casares, who cannot vote for not having enough seniority.

Repair the relationship between the members of Cs, especially within the parliamentary group,

It will be one of the main stumbling blocks from next week.

An obstacle in which the applicants in contention coincide.

Casares, satisfied with the process of refounding the party —which this weekend lives its last stage with the general assembly that is held in Madrid, and which will be attended by 400 delegates to endorse the new statutes and present the future executive— shows skeptical with the result in Salobreña.

“It will be difficult, but local politics is different.

The campaign must be focused on Plácido Leyva and less on the initials.

Here the neighbor matters ”, he sentences.

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