Editorial: Calvia Mayor

I was sorry to see that the Mayor of Calvia, Manu Onieva, will be stepping down and not seeking reelection at the local polls next Spring. Rumours regarding his future have been circulating for some time. He is stepping down for personal reasons and it is no-way connected to the ongoing problems in Magalluf. I believe that Onieva has been a good Mayor for Calvia especially for the foreign residents. I have interviewed him and seen him in action at council meetings on a number of occasions and I have     b een impressed. Onieva does not appear to believe in confrontational politics. After seeing council meetings in other parts of the island I was quite amazed to see how polite meetings are in Calvia and democratic. It is a sad day for Calvia. Now some will say that Onieva could have done more to cleanup Magalluf and he has been forced out as a result of the problems in the resort. I don´t think so. Onieva has tried to cleanup Magalluf and the problems in the resort predate his time as Mayor.  When it comes to the foreign residents Ialways got the impression that Onieva was very aware of the fact that Calvia has a multinational population. Let us remember that it was the Calvia Council which passed a motion calling for the abolition of our green certificates in favour of our old style residence cards. So it is a sad loss. History may remember Onieva as the Mayor of Calvia at the time of the Magalluf crisis but this would be a great shame.