The distribution of full-time coordinators for each group is at the center of this conflict between parties in an organization that acts as a bridge between the regional administration and the 179 municipalities of the region. With just over a million and a half annual budget, the FMM does not pay per diem to its members, but it does take care of the salaries of these professionals. This is how a source from the regional PP leadership has reacted to the demand: “This is as if in the Congress of Deputies the electoral barrier is changed and voting is done by majority. You won’t like it, but it’s legal and democratic.”
For its part, the cabinet of Judith Piquet, mayor of Alcalá and president of the FMM, specified that the Federation’s legal services, consulted on Thursday, had no notification about the lawsuit; that “from the FMM we act and work within the legal framework and the rule of law”; and that “any decision to modify the statutes can always be subject to challenge.”
This contrasts an interlocutor from the affected left-wing parties. “They are preventing a political group from having the representation that corresponds to it by law,” he says. “If the next Government Board does not resolve it, we will resort to criminal proceedings,” he warns. “The FMM is supported by public funds and they are being used for other purposes, ignoring the statutes,” he adds. “By not confronting lists, the joint list does not distribute percentages of representation [para calcular el 20% que da derecho a un coordinador a tiempo completo]”, argues this source; “But what the PP does is say that the delegated votes that were taken to the Assembly are what represents you… but it does not put that in either the new or the old statutes.”
The problem began with the municipal and regional elections of May 2023. The appointment with the polls not only represented a before and after in the career of Isabel Díaz Ayuso (PP). The absolute majority of them immediately moved to the FMM, chaired until then by Guillermo Hita, of the PSOE. As a result, Judith Piquet, the councilor of Alcalá de Henares, took the position representing the conservatives. However, this change approved in the November Assembly was accompanied by one of greater significance.
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The PP took advantage of its majority to carry out a reform of the statutes that raised from 3% to 5% the representation of votes that each party must have to operate with its own group. Although the conservative formation reduced the controversy to a project to equalize this entry barrier to that of other bodies, such as the regional Parliament, the change harmed the Network of municipalities due to the change (which includes Podemos, Más Madrid, IU, political parties independent…).
“The modification directly and frontally attacks political pluralism within the Federation, curtailing the representativeness, rights and faculties of candidates that have not exceeded the now increased thresholds,” the lawsuit reads. “Indirectly, as it is an association of municipalities whose representatives have been elected by citizens, the statutory modification is limiting the right of citizens to participate in public affairs, by losing certain municipalities the possibility of appointing a full-time political coordinator. within the Federation that represents, defends and advocates for the interests of the citizens of such municipalities,” it is added.
“It should be noted that the proposed statutory modification made by the Popular Party was known to my client on November 21, 2023, via email, that is, less than seven days before the date of the meeting. Plenary”, he argues, in an attempt to cement the accusation that the change suffers from the formal defect of untimeliness of its announcement.
Más Madrid, Podemos, Izquierda Unida and the affected local independent parties govern 15 municipalities in the region, some of the weight of Rivas-Vaciamadrid (96,000 people in 2022, according to the INE), and represent 258 councilors from 91 municipalities, according to their data .
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