The Partido Popular held its first campaign event in Manilva on the morning of Friday, 13 November, ahead of the general election on 29 November. The event took place on the seafront promenade in Sabinillas and featured the PP’s Senate candidate for Málaga, Mario Cortés, accompanied by the party’s president in Manilva, José Manuel Fernández, the campaign director, Manolo Cardeña, and other members of the party.
The Senate candidate for Málaga, Mario Cortés, called for more resources for the Guardia Civil and the National Police to tackle drug trafficking, for the motorway to be subsidised and for the coastal train.
Security and drug trafficking at the heart of the speech
Cortés devoted a good part of his address to public safety. He described drug trafficking as “a serious scourge” which, in his view, now extends along the whole coast of the province, “from Manilva to Nerja”, and argued for tackling it “at the root” with tougher legislation and more resources, capabilities and officers for the Guardia Civil and the National Police. Along those lines, he pledged that, if the PP governs after 29 November, the security forces will have the tools they need to confront this activity.
The candidate also referred to the shortage of officers in this part of the province, a shortfall which, he said, is pushing town halls to call for new Local Police posts to cover security in their municipalities.
Motorway, traffic jams and coastal train
On mobility, Cortés referred to the constant traffic jams on the A-7 and called for infrastructure to prevent them. He criticised the Government for not subsidising the motorway despite having collected, according to his figures, more than 30 million euros in VAT on tolls, and accused it of “being nowhere to be seen” when it comes to the province’s mobility problems.
He also called for the coastal train, a demand the PP has been raising for years and on which, in his opinion, the Socialist Government “has not moved a single piece of paper”. He recalled that the Minister of Transport, Óscar Puente, announced in Congress that it would be built, but maintained that there is still neither a report nor a study. For the candidate, a fast connection to the airport is essential for the province and the Manilva area to keep growing.
Assessment of “eight years of Socialist government”
Cortés took stock of the “eight years of Socialist government” and said that the province of Málaga has been “totally abandoned” during that time, despite being an economically buoyant area that contributes significant sums to the public purse through VAT and income tax. He challenged the PSOE to name “a single project” carried out in the province in those years and asked that Málaga “be taken into account”. He also mentioned the need for regeneration work on the beaches of the Málaga coast.
The candidate closed his speech with the idea that “without security there is no freedom” and asked for votes for the Partido Popular in the election on 29 November.
