Manuel Baltar resigns to continue as president of the Diputación de Ourense

He alleges that he wants to "facilitate" the PP to maintain the institution and will continue working as provincial president of the PP for the victory of Feijóo

The provincial president of the PP of Ourense, Manuel Baltar, has announced that he will not run as a candidate to preside over the Provincial Council in the next term. He renounces the act as councilor of Esgos and will not be able to continue, consequently, as part of the provincial institution, which until now he directed.

This exit, which he justifies by "facilitating" the PP to maintain the Provincial Council, will put an end to a political cycle in which the last name Baltar has been linked to the provincial institution, in the last 11 years by the hand of the until now president; and for more than two previous decades with his father, José Luis Baltar Pumar, in possession of the provincial command baton.

On May 28, he left a complicated political scenario in the Ourensana province --both in the town hall, where Gonzalo Pérez Jácome (Democracia Ourensana), was the most voted; as in the provincial institution, where the PP was one minute away from the absolute majority-- which has not yet been clarified, with just over two days to go before the investiture sessions of the town halls are held.

Thus, after the president of the party and of the Xunta, Alfonso Rueda, avoided confirming him as a popular candidate for a Provincial Council whose governability is still up in the air, and when the discontent among his people towards him had begun to become notorious, the Ourensen 'baron' has announced his resignation from the institution, although for now he will continue to command the PP in the province.

Since before the start of the municipal campaign, when it emerged that he had been hunted at 215 kilometers per hour on a Sunday at the wheel of a Provincial Council car, he was going through his lowest hours -- the trial is still pending. Although few voices have said so in public -the former mayor Jesús Vázquez did, for example-, more and more were those who, in private, warned that he was "losing votes".

At this juncture, the logical step that, according to party sources consulted by Europa Press, was trying to make him see the leadership headed by Alfonso Rueda, was a way out. The state president of the PP, Alberto Núñez Feijóo, also benefits, since the media pressure due to Baltar's situation, upon leaving the institutional position, will be lowered.

If there will be other destinations, he himself defends his intention to "continue working, it remains to be clarified, as a definitive solution for the Provincial government is pending. In days gone by, there was speculation about Baltar's leap to the Senate, although this option has already been ruled out, and now there are voices pointing, as a way, to the European elections of 2024.

"MAKE IT FACILITATE" FOR THE COUNCIL TO HAVE A PRESIDENT OF THE PP

Meanwhile, in the statement sent to the media, Baltar argues that, given the imminent constitution of the local corporations of the province of Ourense and "as president of the party that won the elections" at the provincial level, he works to "form solvent popular governments throughout the entire territory."

"In this sense, I also work to make it easier for the Provincial Council to have a president of the PP, the only political formation that participated in the elections on May 28 with a provincial project to develop to continue promoting Ourense," he asserted.

"There is no greater general interest than the general interest of the province. For this reason, the configuration of local coprorations is not a matter of names, but of acronyms and projects. Politics is responsibility and stability," he added.

"I WILL CONTINUE FIGHTING AS ALWAYS FOR THE FUTURE OF THE PROVINCE"

Baltar rules out being part of the next provincial corporation and affirms that he will no longer take possession of his minutes as councilor of Esgos, which will place him, at least immediately and at a key moment, at the gates of the campaign of the generals of the July 23, outside the institutions.

In any case, in the statement he stresses that his passage does not diminish, "at all", his "commitment" to Ourense.

"As provincial president of the PP of Ourense, I will continue to fight as always for the future of this province, with the imminent challenge of contributing to the arrival of Alberto Núñez Feijóo from Ourense to the presidency of Spain," he concluded.