28-M election campaign, live | Two of the seven arrested for buying votes in Mojácar (Almería) are PSOE candidates | Municipal elections 28M | Spain

2023-05-24 13:32:29

What has happened in the last hours

On the thirteenth day of the electoral campaign, these are the main news at 1:30 p.m. this Wednesday, May 24:

– Seven arrested in Mojácar for buying votes. Two are on the PSOE list. The Civil Guard has arrested seven people for buying votes for the 28-M elections in Mojácar (Almería). After initially being informed of the arrest of four people, three new names have then been added to the list of detainees. Two of them are part of the PSOE electoral list for the municipal elections: they are Francisco Bartolomé Flores, number two on the list, and Cristóbal Vizcaíno, number five, according to sources of the investigation. The operation is still open and there are three others under investigation. The operation, Civil Guard sources say, has nothing to do with the arrests in Melilla, also for alleged vote buying.

– Moreno asks to go all the way in the alleged purchase of votes in Mojácar and “reinforce” the vote by mail. The president of the Junta de Andalucía, Juanma Moreno, stated this Wednesday, regarding the alleged plot to buy votes in Mojácar, that it is “very serious in terms of democratic quality that there are people who in one way or another try to alter the will of the citizens” and has asked the State Security Forces and Corps and the judicial authorities to be “determinative” and to go all the way so that those who seek to alter the electoral processes pay their responsibilities. He has also suggested that, although voting by mail in Spain is “completely secure”, “perhaps it could be strengthened a little more”.

– The Central Electoral Board refuses to annul the 761 votes that were cast without DNI in Melilla. The Central Electoral Board has confirmed this Wednesday the decision of the Melilla Zone Electoral Board and will not annul the 761 votes deposited in the Post Office before the obligation to deliver them in person and with the DNI was imposed. This requirement to prove the identity of the voter was taken by the JEZ when the first suspicions of possible electoral fraud in votes by Mail were raised. The Coalition for Melilla party had requested that annulment.

– Podemos proposes the creation of a fund with contributions from banks to help families with the rise in mortgages. Four days before the municipal and regional elections, Podemos is trying to recover the initiative on housing. After a campaign marked by the right-wing discourse on EH Bildu, the party’s general secretary, Ione Belarra, announced this Wednesday that her formation will soon promote a bill in Congress that contemplates the creation of a Social Responsibility Fund with contributions from banks operating in Spain to “protect” families from rising mortgage prices. In addition to helping those households that cannot afford the installments due to the strong rise in the Euribor in recent months, this fund would have a compensatory nature and would serve to recover the bank rescue from the 2008 crisis, Podemos sources specify.

– Pilar Lima, from Unides Podem, files a complaint with the Prosecutor’s Office against ‘El Hormiguero’ for a hate crime and discrimination. The Unides Podem-Esquerra Unida candidate for the Valencia City Council, Pilar Lima, has filed a complaint this Wednesday with the Valencia Prosecutor’s Office for hate crimes and discrimination against the El Hormiguero program, “after the mockery made in her program attacking her status as deaf person and the LGTBIQ+ collective ”, communicates the formation. “I present this complaint not only for myself, but to stand up to a media power that sends very dangerous messages, and that is that if you are deaf, lesbian, if you are a person who does not fall into the canon of some consider that you are not capable and that you can be the object of ridicule ”, Lima declared at the door of the courts. “The words of the program are the basis of bullying at school, they are the basis of violence against groups on the street, in the networks and in all areas, and that is intolerable,” added the candidate in a statement.

– Colau proposes to prohibit large holders from selling housing “if it is not for living”. The mayoress of Barcelona and common candidate for re-election, Ada Colau, has proposed to prohibit vulture funds, large real estate companies and other large holders from selling housing “if it is not for living”, to prevent tenants from being expelled for speculative sales . The mayoress explained that in order for town halls to be able to do so, a state law must be obtained that allows it.

– Revilla warns of a PP-Vox alliance to govern Cantabria: “It is a danger”. Cadena SER and EL PAÍS held an electoral debate this Wednesday with the five candidates for the presidency of Cantabria. Miguel Ángel Revilla (PRC), María José Sáenz de Buruaga (PP), Pablo Zuloaga (PSOE), Félix Álvarez (CS) and Leticia Díaz (Vox) have met in Santander to present their political projects and take the pulse of the region . The PRC and the PSOE, who govern in coalition, have vindicated their management despite the covid crises and the war in Ukraine, while the opposition has criticized their management and has demanded more ambitious measures. Revilla has closed the debate, taking for granted a pact between Vox and PP in the event that the sum of the votes gives them to govern: “It will be a reality if there is enough vote, and that is a danger.”