The provincial executive of the PSOE in Málaga appoints the current socialist spokesperson in the Torremolinos City Council as the lead candidate for the May municipal elections, amid internal clashes over the suspension of primaries.
The provincial executive of the PSOE in Málaga appointed Nieves Rosales as the candidate for the mayoralty of Torremolinos for the municipal elections in May on Monday. The meeting took place at five in the afternoon and the appointment was among the agenda items, according to Diario Sur.
Rosales is the current socialist spokesperson in the Torremolinos City Council. In the elections on 28 May 2023, she ran in the fifth position on the PSOE-A list and was elected as a councillor, taking office on 17 June 2023 in a ceremony held at the local Congress Palace.
Born in Torremolinos on 12 July 1981, she has developed her professional career as a dancer, choreographer, director, and teacher. She is a specialist professor in Flamenco Choreography at the Conservatorio Superior de Danza de Málaga and gives lectures on the current state of dance.
The party arrives at this appointment with a management team leading the local group, presided over since December by Marisa Bustinduy. The election of Rosales comes after the PSOE suspended the ordinary primary process in the locality, a decision communicated by the Secretary of Organisation of the PSOE in Málaga, José Bernal, in a letter on 3 September. According to official party sources, the measure is based on Article 86.5 of the socialist statutes, which empowers the regional executive to suspend primaries in certain territorial areas when political circumstances advise it or the general interest of the party demands it.
The resolution was not accepted by part of the membership. The former socialist spokesperson in Torremolinos, Jorge Padilla, had submitted his candidacy and argues that the suspension aims to "domesticate the true will of the membership." Last week, he took a further step and sent over a hundred signatures from members to the Federal Committee via electronic means to formally request that primaries be held.
"That Josele Aguilar and Pepe Bernal suspend the primaries just after announcing my candidacy not only harms me: it takes away the right of all the membership in Torremolinos to decide. The PSOE is built from its bases and on an essential principle: one member, one vote. No one within the party is so important as to suspend democracy out of sympathy, antipathy, or fear of a result. I will continue to defend this process, not for myself, but for all the colleagues who feel wronged. I ask for no privilege: only that the membership can speak and vote freely," Padilla stated.
After the provincial executive, the PSOE in Málaga issued a statement defending that Rosales meets the conditions to lead "a renewed, open project with the capacity to offer an alternative government to the municipality." The party describes her as a qualified candidate, with extensive professional experience, expertise in municipal political management, and ties to Torremolinos.
The municipal elections are scheduled for May. The socialist group in Torremolinos continues to be led by the management team until the request for primaries sent to the Federal Committee is resolved.
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