Thursday the 2
nd December was a day that the Opposition parties, in Orihuela Costa, of the Orihuela Town Council, would never think they could experience in their wildest nightmares! As several of them explained to me it was a day of personal shock and consternation for the future of Orihuela Costa. Having heard what they had to say I have the same feelings.
What could have caused such surprise and disbelief amongst them?
It was the day they learnt that Louise Clarke, the reporter covering the southern area of the Costa Blanca for the Round Town News, the area in which the Orihuela municipal is situated, is to leave the paper at the end of December to take up a new position. During her time with the newspaper the Opposition parties have perceived her as an ally in their fight against the governing Partido Popular party in the Town Council. They feel that she has been the most vehement reporter of all the local area newspapers in bringing to the readers attention any failings of the PP Mayor, Monica Lorente, and her team, in providing the services and facilities to the residents of the Orihuela municipality and in particular the Orihuela Costa area. The Opposition parties believe that Louise Clarke has played a considerable part, up till now, in helping them to have a chance to get their criticisms of the governing PP into print and circulated to the public. They believed in her honesty and integrity in her writings, and that the readers of the RTN felt the same. They have attributed to her the role of a thorn in the side or a stone in the shoe of Mayor Lorente. Louise Clarke has always seemed to accept and relish this task.
It is not so much the departure from the paper that has caused such foreboding, it is to where she is going.
She informed the members of the Opposition that she had accepted the offer of the newly created position of Press Officer for Monica Lorente, Mayor of Orihuela and leader of the governing Partido Popular party.
Louise Clarke is joining the government team that she has been so critical about for the last four years at least!
Why has Monica Lorente offered her this job? The simple answer in the words of Louise Clarke when I discussed it with her is “My job is to get Monica Lorente more votes on the coast,..... I will be the voice of the PP within the Town Hall in Orihuela Costa”. The other probable answer from Monica Lorente's point of view is to remove the thorn and the stone and get Louise Clarke under her control to stop future criticism from that source.
Why has Louise Clarke accepted this role? I believe the simple answer is the money, as I understand it, a substantial increase in salary from that at the RTN newspaper. For mercenary reasons, not for Partido Popular ideological reasons!
There is also, I understand, the tempting promise that, after the May 2011 elections, of assuming the role of the European Residents Liaison Officer in the Orihuela Costa Town Hall, a position currently held by Mr Stefan Pokroppa, who, it is felt within the PP, has not connected with the United Kingdom and Ireland expatriate residents. However he is to be included in the PP's election candidate list and expected to become a PP Councillor in the May 2011 elections. A reward for not doing his job properly. What if he doesn't become a Councillor, will he stay in his current position?
When I spoke to Louise Clarke about her new, unprecedented, role she commented that she will be the “Andy Coulson of the Costa Blanca”. She went on to say that it will be a “hard and challenging job” working with Monica Lorente and the PP.
I suggested that in order to carry out the task successfully a person in her position would normally be a supporter of the PP ideology and member of the party and asked about her about this. She confirmed that she is not a member and does not intend at this time to join the PP party.
On the question of whether she would miss writing about, and trying to help solve, the problems of local residents suffering from the failings of the PP controlled Town Council, she made the point that she believes she can help the English speaking expatriate residents better from inside the PP government rather than from outside as in the past. She believes that she can help and influence the Mayor and her Councillors to change their attitude to Orihuela Costa and its residents; really!
Having been in contact with representatives of the three official Opposition parties and made aware of their views about Louise Clarke's new role, I was interested to hear that she is hopeful that she will be able to liaise and work with the parties in the same manner as in the past few years whilst being a non-partisan reporter. I think not, as their trust in her has been badly damaged, if not totally destroyed, by her unexpected decision to join the PP team. How much of what she learnt as a critic of Monica Lorente from the Opposition party representatives, perhaps about their plans to bring about the defeat of the PP in forthcoming elections, will be passed on to the Mayor.
From my perspective I can understand why Monica Lorente and the PP have taken the step of creating the role of a press officer to deal with English speaking residents in Orihuela Costa. With the May 2011 local elections getting closer they have to take some drastic actions to try to convince the electorate that the party is not as bad as people on the coast think; and know. The Mayor has probably realized that the infamous Stefan Pokroppa (European Residents Liaison Officer) has no respect amongst the majority of UK and Irish residents and she needs a face in the Town Hall who the people might trust. Monica Lorente obviously believes that Louise Clarke could be that person. The PP know that the party's future fortunes in government rest with the electorate on the coast and must do anything to gain votes.
In the case of why Louise Clarke has changed sides and joined the PP government team I’m still trying to fully understand her action but thoughts such as; 30 pieces of silver; selling one’s soul to the devil; sold out for gold; what cost principles; come to mind. Unlike Margaret Thatcher who said “You turn if you want to. The lady's not for turning.” obviously for the right price this lady is for turning!
We all want to provide for our family and for their future so it is understandable that she should look for a position that offers a better financial package but at what price to ones principles and conscience. What value does it put on the words she has written in the past when criticising the actions of the PP now we learn they are to be her employer!
Having listened to her explanation and reasoning for her accepting the new position I don’t believe that she believes some of the points she made to me, and to the Opposition parties on Thursday from what I've been told. I think they are excuses, justifications, for taking the 30 pieces of silver.
I consider that uncharacteristically she is being very naive if she believes she can change the way that the PP party machine in Orihuela headed by the 'Devil Incarnate' Mayor Monica Lorente works. She might be given a few token titbits at first to make her feel at home and of some small value, but ultimately the PP is a closed shop of Monica Lorente and her dubious close cohorts, the 'illuminanti' of the PP. They are only interested in achieving their own personal ambitions and the Orihuela Town Council is just a tool for them to use as is the cash from Orihuela Costa. As suggested to me, Monica Lorente's ultimate goal is to be President of the Valencia regional government and Orihuela is a mere stepping stone to be used on the way. That's the employer who Louise Clarke will be working for and promoting to the electorate as a public spirited Mayor; really!
I have no doubt in my mind that we the sensible electorate have to stop the PP and the ‘Devil Incarnate’ Lorente from continuing to be the government in the Town Council after the elections in May 2011, for the benefit of Orihuela as a whole and the Orihuela Costa residents in particular.
There will a battle royal between now and the 22
nd May 2011 election for the Opposition parties to fight and win. The PP hunting season will need to begin with greater vigour. One thing is certain, by accepting her new role as press officer for the unpopular Monica Lorente, Louise Clarke has certainly, like any mercenary, put herself in the battlefield and the line of fire. I hope she has a very thick skin, suit of amour, and a guardian angel (although I don’t believe in such things). Unfortunately there will be casualties and if she is a victim of the fight for fair and honest government that is the way it has to be for the benefit of the residents of Orihuela Costa. She knows from her journalistic experience that politics can be a dirty game and she’s joined the dirtiest players.
I hope for Louise Clarke's sake that the financial rewards are really worth it! Once she steps over the threshold into the PP camp there will be no turning back. The good reputation she has personally built up in the past with the public will be lost. How long will it be before Monica Lorente decides that Louise Clarke has served her purpose, is of no more value to the PP and Ms Lorente's ambitions, and is thrown by the wayside. A substantial financial gain now may not lead to financial security in the long run!
It seems to me that two desperate women, one for more power and one for more money, have made a pact, an alliance, to try to mislead the electorate of Orihuela Costa into voting for four more years of the same selfish secretive government they have suffered for the last twenty or more years.
