“I will sit down to negotiate but I will not accept blackmail.” This is what the president of the Formentera Council, Llorenç Córdoba, spoke out on Monday following the announcement that seven of the eight councilors of Sa Unió will resign from all their positions. Córdoba recalled that the insular Minister of Tourism, Artal Mayans, has not yet revealed whether he will act like the rest of his colleagues and has explained that he hopes that other councilors “will think again.” Of course, he has also made it clear that he will not reinstate José Alcaraz, president of the PP on the island, in his positions as vice president and counselor of Economic Promotion and Island Administration.
Llorenç Córdoba has described Sa Unió’s attitude as “blackmail”. And he explained that, in the midst of negotiations to resolve the crisis he himself opened last November, it was the representatives of the coalition who gave him “two hours” to accept that Alcaraz would regain his positions under the threat of resigning if not. accepted. Although he has defended both the coalition’s electoral program and its politicians, he has also slipped that it is in the hands of “some important businessman on the island,” who would be responsible for the current situation. However, Córdoba has insisted that “the door is open, there is no resentment”, waiting for one of the resigners to reverse his decision. But he has also stressed that the “conflicting” councilors, in clear reference to Alcaraz, must leave the institution, leaving their minutes, to allow other members of the Sa Unió electoral list to enter the island Government.
Despite the good words, Córdoba has attacked Sa Unió, accusing its councilors of “kidnapping” the institution and “leaving the officials stranded,” who this Monday are working without any political direction. “They are putting pressure and have taken the Consell hostage,” he lamented, “I would be a bad president if I gave in to this blackmail.”
Córdoba has also criticized the resignations for abandoning their functions as government councilors but not their acts as elected officials. And, he has assured, “they don’t want to work but they have a contract in their pocket with which they cannot be fired.” The councilors can, indeed, resign from their positions or be dismissed by the president but, as elected officials, they must be the ones to resign their position in the institution. Something that, in the case of the seven resignations, has not happened nor is it expected to happen. Córdoba, who was expelled from Sa Unió at the beginning of last January, has indicated, on the other hand, that he does want to govern with the coalition: “It is the coalition with which I ran for the elections but they are making it very difficult for me.” difficult”.
The president has highlighted the importance of the Tourism Minister, Artal Mayans, not having resigned and returning to work this Monday. A “sample of responsibility” that he has publicly thanked. But he is aware that only with Mayans he will not be able to govern, so, at this moment, he is analyzing possible solutions together with the secretary of the institution, Ángel Custodio Navarro, “and other jurists.” In this sense, Córdoba has admitted that the situation is “complicated”, which is why he has asked Sa Unió to continue “negotiating” to find a solution that allows the coalition to maintain the Government of the Formentera Consell.
Regarding the possibility of governing with the opposition, Llorenç Córdoba has indicated that he has contacted the PSOE and GxF but without specifying anything in this regard. The president has indicated that this is his “obligation” because “we must work in all possible ways” given that he cannot “recompose the government of Sa Unió.”
