The campaign in Pulianas, a town in the metropolitan area of Granada, acquired violent overtones yesterday with the accident, everything indicates that it was deliberate, of a cyclist. The attacker, who was arrested shortly after the events, is the husband of a former PP candidate, who three weeks ago was expelled from the party when they found almost 300 marijuana plants at her home. The victim, who was going to work by bicycle, is the number five couple on the PSOE list in Pulianas.
There are several recordings of the attack, which happened at eight in the morning on Wednesday in a busy roundabout, and some of the videos are circulating on social networks. Apparently the 45-year-old assailant rammed the cyclist with his vehicle and when he was on the ground he continued the attack with kicks and even with a stone, while the other asked him to stop. In the recording, you can see how he stomps on her head. Later, the attacker got back into his car and fled, although an hour later he turned himself in at a Granada police station.
The 42-year-old cyclist was transferred to the Neurotraumatology and Rehabilitation Hospital of Granada but has already been discharged. The mayor of Pulianas, the socialist José Antonio Carranza, offered a press conference yesterday in which he called for calm and said that the victim is the partner of Gemma Vaquero Heredia, number 5 on the socialist list for the municipal elections.
The alleged attacker is the husband of a former PP candidate who was supposed to go as number six on the electoral list but was forced to resign when, at the end of April, the Civil Guard found 292 marijuana plants in a raid in the zulo of his matrimonial home, news reported by the local media at the time. Husband and wife are under investigation in the same case.
The PP has condemned the facts in a statement and has stressed that neither the alleged perpetrator nor his partner are part of any electoral list. When the official list was published, at the beginning of May, she had already been expelled.
Some local media speculate that the reason for the attack could be that the attacker pointed to the person attacked as the person who denounced the cultivation of marijuana in his home.
The Government delegate in Andalusia, Pedro Fernández, said that the attacker had a previous record and is accused of an alleged crime of attempted homicide. "It is an unfortunate and tragic event. I wish the injured man a speedy recovery," he declared.
Although neither the Civil Guard nor the government delegate related the event to political issues, the mayor of Pulianas framed what happened in the "rarefied atmosphere" and in the "campaign of threats" that members of his party have been suffering for months. Carranza denounced that he has received anonymous messages against him and his family, and also recalled the attack suffered in March by a deputy mayor of the socialist government by the PP campaign coordinator.
