Justice has condemned the mayor of Añover de Tajo, Alberto Rodríguez, from IU, for not convening ordinary municipal plenary sessions and for violating article 23 of the Spanish Constitution, which includes the fundamental right of councilors to participate in public affairs.
The judge has agreed with the Socialist Municipal Group, estimating the contentious-administrative appeal that it presented in April 2021 against the mayor of Añover de Tajo for refusing to convene ordinary plenary sessions, breaching the agreement adopted in the plenary session of July 2019 that established holding bimonthly plenary sessions on the last Thursday of the month.
In the ruling, the judge makes it clear that Alberto Rodríguez breached “the agreement adopted on the periodicity of the sessions”, and that is that from November 28, 2020 to July 1, 2021, he did not call a single ordinary plenary session.
Given the excuse of the pandemic used by the mayor, the judge specifies that the Regulatory Law of the Bases of the Local Regime contemplates when exceptional situations occur “to constitute, hold sessions and adopt remote agreements by electronic and telematic means.”
In addition, the Contentious-Administrative judge in his ruling declares that the non-call of plenary sessions “violated the appellant’s right to political participation contained in article 23 of the Spanish Constitution”, and considers that “the attitude of the Mayor’s Office- Presidency constitutes a limitation to the right that citizens have, in this case through their legitimately elected representatives, to participate in public affairs, since there is no greater obstacle than preventing some councilors from promoting the actions of the bodies through whose decisions municipal life unfolds.
The decision of the Contentious-Administrative Court estimating the resource and imposing the costs of the judicial process to the mayor of Añover de Tajo confirm that the PSOE was right to demand the convening of ordinary plenary sessions. In addition, as reported by the PSOE, it confirms the attitude of continuous blockade of the opposition work carried out by Alberto Rodríguez, who prior to this sentence had already been there for an entire year, between November 2019 and November 2020, without calling an ordinary plenary session of the City Council, “undemocratic attitudes that since he governs in coalition with the Popular Party have already reported other judicial convictions.”
