Calvia´s Mayor replies to European MP Robert Sturdy

Staff Reporter Nájera has written to European Member of Parliament Robert Sturdy, denying accusations that her council is deliberately slowing down the process for EU residents to register on the electoral roll. As reported in the Bulletin on March 13, Sturdy was contacted by a couple who now live in Majorca, as he is the MEP for their former constituency, and he, in turn, discussed the issue with Carlos Ripoll, the Balearic MEP of the Popular Party. The council denied the claims at the time, and now Mayor Nájera has written to Sturdy. In her letter, she says that she is aware via the press and a Spanish representative in the European Parliament that he had intervened in a parliamentary session, indicating that Calvia was “obstructing the voting registration process for Community citizens for the forthcoming municipal elections.” She then forcibly denies the charges, adding “the municipality of Calvia has always distinguished itself by receiving with open arms all the European or non-Community citizens who have wanted to live in our municipality. In fact, in a municipality of 42'000 inhabitants, there are more than 9'700 foreigners of whom more than 7'200 are citizens of the European Union.” Nájera then goes on to describe the requisites for registration on the electoral roll, which are the same as those for Spaniards: justification of habitual residence in Calvia (eg, title deeds, rental contract, electricity, telephone or water bills), although she also points out that effective inscription in the electoral roll depends not on the town council but the Electoral Census of the central administration. She also informs Sturdy that more than 2'100 EU citizens are already included on the electoral roll. She then appeals to Sturdy's objectivity to rectify. “As Mayor, I feel I should not allow Calvia to be identified as a place in which the rights of EU citizens and citizens of the world are not respected.” She also says that reports on his intervention “have generated a certain confusion among the many European citizens in the municipality,” adding that such reports relating to the administration “do not favour the desire to participate in community life.” The Mayor ends by saying she is at Sturdy's disposition to provide him with the figures, certificates or reports he deems opportune so that he can verify the truth of what she is saying and the “absolute rectitude of the administrative procedures of council functionaries.”