Leticia Padilla will present allegations to try to avoid her move to the group of non-attached members in the Arrecife City Council, and states that she has hired an “important lawyer” to prepare them.
The councilor left Podemos a year ago, although she maintained the seat and continued in the Lanzarote en Pie – Sí Podemos group, also serving as spokesperson, which implies receiving a salary.
Since then, the purple formation has been requesting the Consistory to transfer Padilla to the group of non-attached members, but it was not until last week when the mayor, Ástrid Pérez, signed a decree processing that request and giving Padilla 10 days to present allegations. For this, she relied on the report that the secretary had just issued, confirming that the councilor could not remain in her current group.
“I was informed about it on Monday of last week. I have known about it for some time through Astrid. And the normal thing: I hired a lawyer who is drafting the allegations based on the law and jurisprudence and the rights I have as a councilor,” she said on Radio Lanzarote-Onda Cero, after a week of not wanting to speak.
However, this Friday she has also avoided speaking. “My lawyer recommended that I not make many statements on the matter and I have preferred not to speak. I have heard that in the gatherings they say that I do not want to show my face and that I do not want to speak with my voters, but when your lawyer tells you that it is best not to speak until you present the allegations, well, you listen to him. I have never had a problem talking about all this, but they tell me not to,” she defended.
"The secretary's report is not binding"
Regarding these allegations, she has indicated that she plans to meet with her lawyer next week and present them on March 11. “And then we'll see,” she added, stating that she has “hopes.”
“The secretary's report is not binding. If she does not make the final decision and only informs, then someone will have to make the decision,” Padilla pointed out, who hopes that the issue does not have to reach the Plenary and that, if it does, her thesis that there has been no defection on her part will prevail.
At the time, what she alleged is that she ran in the elections for Lanzarote en Pie, although the Electoral Board itself pointed out in response to a query from the City Council that LEP-Sí Podemos was the "name of the acronyms of the coalition", but that the parties that ran were Podemos and Equo. Leticia Padilla was a member of the former and was even its general secretary in Arrecife, although a year ago she decided to leave the formation, along with other Podemos officials.
Possible dissolution of the group
Her move to the non-attached members could also mean that the Lanzarote en Pie – Sí Podemos group would be dissolved, since it would no longer have the three councilors necessary for it. In this regard, her colleague Leandro Delgado, who ran for Equo, also hopes that this situation will not occur, which would imply that he and the other councilor would move to the mixed group.
“We understand that there is no reasonable argument that says that the municipal political group legally constituted in the first plenary session must be dissolved, and the concept that many are talking about of defection is not applied either, simply because the law in the Canary Islands is very clear,” he argued, against what the municipal secretary has concluded.
“The allegations are being prepared, because the good thing about all this is that if they are done well, the law assists us, the right assists us. These things must be treated seriously, many things are at stake, including the correct democratic development of the institutions,” defended Delgado, who shares with Padilla the release that corresponds to the LEP-Sí Podemos group.
