PSOE accuses illegal pressure over Cartagena no-confidence motion

Manolo Torres, the Socialist spokesperson in Cartagena, said on May 21 that the Partido Popular and Mayor Noelia Arroyo were applying pressure “that borders on illegality and immorality” to councillors who signed a no-confidence motion against the city government. Torres said the motion was a constitutional and democratic tool meant to end what he called the paralysis of Cartagena’s city hall. The clash adds a new layer of tension to a bid by opposition parties to unseat Arroyo less than a year before municipal elections. The vote is scheduled for June 2 in the council chamber, where the opposition says it has the numbers to remove her. ### Who is accusing whom of illegal pressure? Manolo Torres said the pressure was being directed at councillors who had already signed the motion before a notary. He did not detail specific acts in the statement published Thursday, but he said Arroyo and the PP were acting out of “absolute desperation” and trying to derail the initiative. Torres linked the alleged pressure to an earlier failed no-confidence effort in the Murcia region against regional president Fernando López Miras, saying the PP had acted similarly then. He called the situation in Cartagena “an authentic barbarity” and urged Arroyo and her party to stop. ### What is the no-confidence motion trying to do? On May 19, Movimiento Ciudadano, PSOE and Sí Cartagena formally registered a no-confidence motion against Arroyo, the PP mayor of Cartagena. The parties said they were moving against what they described as mismanagement, institutional paralysis and poor financial stewardship at the council. RTVE reported that the motion names Movimiento Ciudadano leader Jesús Giménez Gallo as the proposed replacement mayor if the vote succeeds. The initiative has the support of 14 councillors, the minimum absolute majority in Cartagena’s 27-seat council. ### Where do those 14 votes come from? The 14 backers come from Movimiento Ciudadano’s seven councillors, PSOE’s four and Sí Cartagena’s one, plus two councillors who left Vox in April. RTVE identified those former Vox councillors as Diego Salinas and Beatriz Sánchez del Amo, and said both signed their support before a notary. That arithmetic matters because Arroyo’s governing bloc no longer controls a majority. RTVE said the current government side is left with 12 councillors: 10 from the PP and two who remain in Vox. ### Why does PSOE say Arroyo should be removed? Torres said Arroyo had shown she was incapable of maintaining a stable government or advancing the city. “She has not executed a single project,” he said, according to Murcia Plaza and La Opinión de Murcia. In the same remarks, Torres cited a list of local controversies, including the Los Mateos land parcel under investigation, problems in the regional health service and safety issues at Santa Lucía hospital. He said PSOE wanted to “work for Cartagena” and pull the city out of what he called the paralysis imposed by Arroyo’s PP administration. ### How has Noelia Arroyo responded? Noelia Arroyo said on May 19 that the motion was “an indecent pact” and “a pact of desperation” promoted by MC, PSOE and the councillors backing the initiative. In a statement published on Cartagena city hall’s website, she said the move did not respond to poor municipal performance but to partisan interests. Arroyo said the opposition wanted to block the final year of the term and had no shared program for the city. She also said the motion brought together councillors from different parties without a common project and would subject Cartagena to “chaos, paralysis and confrontation.” ### What happens next, and when? Cartagena’s council secretariat set the extraordinary plenary session for June 2, 2026, at 12:00 p.m. in the Salón de Plenos of the Casa Consistorial. The official agenda contains a single item: debate and vote on the no-confidence motion against Arroyo. PSOE’s regional leader Francisco Lucas said the party would abide by the result of an internal vote by Cartagena party members, according to local reporting on May 21. The council vote on June 2 will determine whether Arroyo remains mayor or whether Jesús Giménez Gallo takes office as the new head of the city government.