The socialist spokesperson and former mayor of Orihuela, Carolina Gracia, demanded yesterday at a press conference the resignation of the current mayor, Pepe Vegara, after learning that, after refusing to make an agreement with the Prosecutor's Office, he will be tried in a case in which he faces to the request of seven years in prison.
The matter was already known when Vegara ran as a popular candidate for mayor, which is why the socialists now affirm that "he should never have been the Popular Party candidate in these elections, finding himself in the situation he found himself in."
Vegara faces a seven-year prison sentence for alleged crimes of document falsification and against the public treasury. The mayor defends his innocence and has refused to reach an agreement with the Prosecutor's Office.
"Today we see it as unacceptable that his agenda as mayor is marked by his entrances and exits from the courts. Every time the Popular Party reaches the mayor's office of Orihuela, the city is involved in embarrassing news and statements of this type," he stated. yesterday Carolina Gracia. And she added that there has not been a single mayor of this party in the city who has not ended up accused and even convicted of being mayor."
These crimes are not, as he said a year ago, “a mere disagreement with the Treasury or, as Carlos Mazón assured, minor administrative matters," Gracia stated; "when a natural person has a problem with their tax return, they ask for a complementary one, but Vegara is asked for seven years in prison and civil liability."
"Really, does no one from the Popular Party have anything to say about this news?" asked the socialist leader. "Mr. Mazón has been silent all weekend, like the rest of the popular leaders who, faced with this news, are not capable of making a serious, honest and responsible decision, or look, something as basic as resignation, like that." Simply put, here we are not talking about a mere investigation, Vegara is going to sit on the bench, and we don't care if it is in three months or a year. He has no choice but to resign."
The PSOE assures that Vegara's rejection of the agreement offered by the prosecutor represents "a flight forward", and they warn the mayor that, if his resignation has not been made effective before the March plenary session, they will raise the matter to a plenary session to that "the councilors say loud and clear if they continue to have confidence in a person like Mr. Vegara to continue as mayor."
"His time as mayor of the city has come to an end," Gracia concluded, "if he has any respect left for the institution he represents and for the people who voted for him, what he has to do is leave and prepare his defense."
