The Mayor of Valladolid, Jesús Julio Carnero (PP), has announced that the City Council will dedicate a square to the former mayor Javier León de la Riva, from his same party and first mayor between 1995 and 2015. Carnero has highlighted the “transformative” policies of León de la Riva during four terms and has downplayed the circumstances that led to the departure from institutional life of the former politician: he was convicted of disobedience to justice by refusing to execute a sentence on urban planning irregularities. The gynecologist, who also refused to marry homosexuals, was the protagonist of numerous controversies due to sexist or misogynistic statements, including derogatory references to former ministers such as Carme Chacón ―whom he called “Miss Pepis dressed as a soldier”― or Leire Pajín ―”every time I see Leire Pajín’s face and lips I think the same thing, but I’m not going to tell you about it here.”
Carnero has justified the recognition in the “transformative” actions of León de la Riva, especially the fairs and festivals of the Virgen de San Lorenzo, which are being held these days after the now honoured man announced them in advance. “It is time for the capital of Pisuerga to recognise one of the best mayors, who for 20 years gave his best so that all the people of Valladolid could have better levels of coexistence and prosperity,” Carnero has defended, comparing him with the former socialist mayor Tomás Rodríguez Bolaños, who also has a square in his honour.
The current local leader has played down the legal problems that removed León De la Riva from the political scene: a court ruling condemned him to disqualification from holding public office in 2015. The verdict was announced just after the elections, which he won, but a left-wing alliance pushed forward Óscar Puente, the PSOE candidate.
The crime of disobedience earned him a fine and 13 months of disqualification because for almost five years he delayed the application of another judicial resolution regarding a building in the centre of Valladolid, where he resides and where various urban irregularities were committed. The judge understood a “repeated and evident passivity over time, without complying with the mandate” under a certain “intention to fail to comply” with judicial mandates, perceiving “implicitly from the repeated actions of the accused that he opposed compliance with an order”.
The previous ruling, from 2008, ordered the demolition of some penthouses that were contrary to the law, one of them in his name. Despite several judicial warnings, “he did not comply with the order to cease the use of the buildings affected by the ruling, which resulted from the mere reading of the same” and did not order the owners to abandon the properties until September 2010. He also did not comply with the obligation to “initiate disciplinary proceedings against those responsible for the urban planning infringement until May 29, 2012, without there being in any of the three cases a legal, administrative or technical cause justifying non-compliance until that date.”
“He disregarded the enforcement of court rulings,” the judge concluded. The then mayor acted “out of an obvious personal interest, due to his status as a property owner” and because there was a “professional interest” in not accepting the ruling “due to the undeniable and considerable economic cost that the execution of the ruling in its fair terms entailed for the municipal budget.” The Council ended up paying 2.2 million euros of public funds to restore the building to legal status.
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Sexist controversies
Javier León de la Riva’s political life was also accompanied by all kinds of controversies. His record includes disdain for former ministers such as the late Chacón, the first woman to head the Ministry of Defence, whom he described as “Miss Pepis dressed as a soldier” or Leire Pajín, head of Health, in 2010: “She is a very well-prepared, skilful and discreet girl, who is going to hand out condoms left and right, and who is going to be the joy of the garden. Every time I see Leire Pajín’s face and lips I think the same thing, but I am not going to tell you about it here.”
“I don’t believe in gender equality, I think it’s nonsense,” said the former mayor, who refused to marry gay couples who asked to do so at City Hall. “Rugby is not appropriate for girls. Nobody should call me sexist. I simply find it difficult to understand aesthetically, but I respect it,” he said, in a city with a long rugby tradition.
“There are times when I feel a bit hesitant about getting into an elevator, depending on who I find inside. Because sometimes the phenomenon can be the other way around. You think you’re getting into an elevator and there’s a girl who wants to get you down, she gets in the elevator with you, rips off her bra or skirt and comes out screaming that you tried to attack her,” she maintained, at a time when progress was slow in terms of equality. When she took over in 1995, she made her political line clear: “I want Valladolid to stop being the city of Ps. I’m going to clean it of lice, fleas and whores.”
The opposition in the City Council has criticised Carnero’s decision, and the spokesperson for Valladolid Toma La Palabra, Rocío Anguita, has reminded that Bolaños was given this recognition by consensus between the formations, but not this time. The spokesperson has asked whether Carnero supports the “sexist and homophobic statements that he never retracted” made by a person with “zero exemplarity” and “accused”. The spokesperson for the PSOE, Pedro Herrero, has stressed that “there is no possible comparison” between De la Riva and Bolaños: “Carnero cannot affirm that it is the city, nor the City Council, nor the Corporation, who gives this recognition to the former mayor, but that it is a private and partisan decision”.
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