The pre-campaign for the municipal elections on May 28 is charged with controversy in Vigo and the clashes between the PSOE, which has governed for 16 years, and the PP have raised the tone in the last week. The fuse was lit by the decision of the Government of Abel Caballero to order the immediate removal of a canvas of the popular candidate, Marta Fernández-Tapias, which was hanging from a building in the central Colón street. Since then, there has been an exchange of accusations between the two main parties in the city and the PP has decided to counterattack by placing similar giant posters and banners in emblematic points of the city. "If the PSOE tried to silence us, it will not succeed," they warn, amidst accusations of "censorship" and "absolutely despotic attitude."
From the municipal government they justify the decision to order the removal of the canvas in urban matters and explain that the canvas is linked to a work for which a license expiration file was opened almost two months ago, in January. They add that it is a protected building, which is why it has also opened a conservation file that involved the imposition of a coercive fine with the objective that the owners activate a viable project to rehabilitate it.
The explanation does not convince the PP. In conversation with THE WORLD. Marta Fernández-Tapias explains that the night before the aforementioned canvas was placed there was a different one hanging in the same building that no one had ordered to remove and that in recent months that facade housed advertisements for car brands, alcoholic beverages or banks without her The City Council take no decision. However, his image was posted on February 27 and on the 28th a file was initiated that ended in his immediate withdrawal order. It is also "unheard of speed in Vigo", denounce the popular.
Within the exchange of reproaches last week, the Town Planning Councilor, María José Caride, insists that on January 12 an Urban Planning inspector paid a visit to the building, which requested a building permit in 2018 and was not being executed. He issued a report in which it was warned that the canvas that was on the façade -another one at that time- lacked a municipal license and authorization from Heritage, as it was a listed building.
The person in charge of Urban Planning assures that the owner of the building was informed that he does not have authorization to install an advertising banner "and he understands it", so that what seems "surprising" to him is "an attitude of a Popular Party that believes that it is above the urban norms". She also insists that the file was not opened after the placement of the PP canvas, but before.
Marta Fernández-Tapias, who was convalescing from surgery when the controversy began, returned to work and acknowledged that this municipal decision was not expected, which she believes "attempts against fair play." In any case, she is not surprised, but rather believes that it is in line with the performance that she attributes to Abel Caballero: "He believes that he can do whatever he wants and the misfortune is that it is not only with me, it is with the citizens."
Thus, in his opinion, this action "reveals the true image of the mayor", who considers that "Vigo is his farmhouse", and brings to light, before the rest of Spain, "his true face, beyond the memes", in reference to the viral images and jokes that Abel Caballero usually stars in for his activities in relation to Christmas.
The removed canvas includes an image of Fernández-Tapias, also a territorial delegate of the Xunta de Galicia in Vigo, with the motto "everything is possible in Vigo" and, after its removal, the PP has decided to use that same image in digital format on a screen on the façade of a three-story building at Porta do Sol in Vigo. In addition, it has installed posters of similar characteristics in the Castro area, right in front of the City Hall, and this Tuesday also in O Berbés.
The popular mayor explains that "indeed, in Vigo everything is possible, including censorship" and warns that "they are not going to silence us." Hence this new campaign so that the image they want to "censor" is all over the city. "Since they don't let us express ourselves as we want, we are going to do it as we can. They are not going to intimidate us, we will take the canvas where we can," she added.
The controversy monopolizes all the conversations in Vigo and has a particularly high tone on social networks, where the Galician PP has referred to the mayor as Tito Abel, in clear reference to Tito Berni, the ringleader of the Mediator plot. In the case of canvas, they see one more of the "scorns" to which Tapias assures that the PSOE is accustomed to his party and they counterattack with campaigns that are becoming viral in Galicia.
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