Bill Anderson: I may regret this!

I know I have written about this before, but it keeps happening. DISCLOSURE: I am a serving Councillor in Mijas for the Partido Popular. I get asked on a daily basis one of two things: who should I vote for, or can you summarise the electoral commitments of the various parties in Mijas?

There are 10 parties presenting in Mijas. I would assume this will be pretty similar in the other municipalities.

I have to reply to these queries that they cannot come to me for an objective opinion bearing in mind that the political sword of Damocles hangs over my head and may be dropped or otherwise on 28th May. I am doing my best to get our commitments out there, and I’ll be damned if I do the same for the other parties who haven’t even bothered to communicate their commitments in any language other than Spanish. If they can’t be bothered, I certainly won’t do it for them. It is a bit like ringing up Mercadona and asking them to tell you what offers Carrefour has on at the moment.

I can’t even assure you that any description I give of the other parties will be unbiased. But what the hell: here goes! There are four parties that you have probably never heard of. They appear out of the ether at each election and during the ensuing legislature retreat back into obscurity. Why would you want to vote for a party you have never heard of and which has never been active in Mijas other than presenting candidates for the election?

Then there are the two new parties. One of them is recycled and revamped by someone who is on Mijas Council and now claims there is something new to offer, which wasn’t offered in his time in government. There is a brand new party. What can I say: no experience, no track record. Not much more to add to that.

Then there are the Old Faithfuls: the centre party (Ciudadanos) which I refer to as the “swingers” as they have shown that they can swing either way depending on which direction gives them the best advantage. They have done it very well as despite coming third in the last two elections have spent 8 years in government.

Then we have the far left, the nominally less left (Socialists, PSOE), the centre-right Conservatives (Partido Popular) and the far right (Vox). The last of these is yet another which appears overnight, does nothing for 4 years and then again comes out of hibernation for the elections. That is their right to do so.

Before I came to Spain, I had never had an affiliation with any political party. I would say that I maybe squinted to the left rather than leaning in that direction, but Socialism in Spain reminds me of an old aunt of mine who slept with a framed picture of Joseph Stalin over her bed. Just a personal opinion and not a statement of fact.

All I can say is that voting by political labels in Spain can lead to disillusionment. What is classed as a hot curry in a Spanish restaurant wouldn’t even break a sweat on a hardened vindaloo eater from the UK.

Please don’t ask me who to vote for. I’m not allowed to say.