Antonio Benitezhe number two on the PSOE list in Esteponaha abandoned his party and, as it has been formalized in the extraordinary plenary session this past Friday, he has become a non-attached councilor of the municipal Corporation.
Benítez assures that this decision comes from a long time ago and has occurred after seeing a “lack of resources and representation” of the Estepona socialist group, “lack of listening” by his party at the provincial level and difference of ideas with the federal PSOE. “This party does not represent me”, he has assured in statements to Europa Press.
The already non-assigned mayor recalls that in the municipal elections, where was campaign manager, the results “were not something to write home about but we got 1,000 more votes”; so he hoped that the PSOE of Estepona would have a representation in the Diputación de Málaga, something that ultimately has not occurred.
Thus, he laments that “There is no active listening” within the Malaga PSOE and, in the Diputación, “again represented by the same people, it is always the same”. To this, he has added differences of ideas with the party at the national level for “pacts with the extremes, with the extreme left.”
With all this, he took the step to non-attached councilor, something that has become effective this past Friday with the approval of the composition of the Estepona City Council. In this way, and according to the regulations, Benítez has been expelled from the PSOE but, he recalls, “it was a voluntary decision”, denying personal and economic issues with other political parties.
After learning the news, the PSOE of Estepona has issued a statement in which it informs that it has requested the minutes from the councilor for requesting his transfer to non-attached. The Socialists consider that this decision “only harms the local group and that if Antonio Benítez has decided to abandon the discipline of the socialist group, for consistency, he should also abandon the act of councilor and return it to the PSOE”.
However, the mayor has reaffirmed that he will not deliver the minutes and will continue as a non-attached because “above all I owe myself to the people of Estepona”, he said. Thus, he assures that the residents consider it valid to continue making proposals and working “for the residents, not for the initials.”