Benalmádena: IU demands the dismissal over the controversial insult to Mari Carmen

IU demands the immediate dismissal of the Housing councilor of Benalmádena, José Luis Bergillos, after attributing to him an insult directed at Mari Carmen, an 87-year-old woman evicted in Madrid. Municipal spokesperson Enrique Pablo Centella left the Housing Sector Council on October 7, and Toni Morillas conveyed the demand to the mayor. The episode once again places the debate on evictions and the right to housing at the center of local political discussion.

What happened at the Benalmádena Housing Sector Council

Why did IU leave the meeting?

Enrique Pablo Centella, spokesperson for the Izquierda Unida and Podemos municipal group at Benalmádena City Council, left the Housing Sector Council meeting held during the morning of October 7. According to the IU Málaga statement, he made this decision after calling the attitude of the Housing councilor, José Luis Bergillos Roldán, “indecent.”

The reason given by Centella was some words uttered during the debate when the so-called “Mari Carmen Decrees” were mentioned. IU claims that Bergillos referred to Mari Carmen, an 87-year-old woman evicted in Madrid, with the phrase “shameless whore” and added that she had “thousands of euros in the bank.”

The spokesperson’s departure was not presented as a minor disagreement over the agenda. For IU, what happened directly affects the tone with which an institution addresses a situation of housing vulnerability. The gesture turned a sector council meeting into a political crisis centered on the conduct attributed to the municipal Housing official.

The phrase that triggered the political reaction

The phrase appears in IU’s statement as part of the intervention attributed to José Luis Bergillos during the debate. The group considers those words an insult against an 87-year-old woman whose situation was being used to discuss measures related to evictions.

The issue has a very specific local dimension: the episode took place at the Benalmádena City Council and affected a municipal body dedicated precisely to housing. For the residents, therefore, it is not only a dispute between parties. It is about what level of respect is required from those taking part in an institutional conversation about families facing housing problems.

IU has focused on this contradiction. While the Sector Council was addressing the “Mari Carmen Decrees,” the group claims the councilor used a disparagement against the person whose case served as the debate’s reference. *That is the clash that ignited the controversy*: talking about housing and, at the same time, disparaging someone affected by an eviction, according to the version disseminated by IU.

The demand for dismissal and IU’s accusations

What does Enrique Pablo Centella demand?

Enrique Pablo Centella demands that José Luis Bergillos be immediately removed as Housing councilor. The IU spokesperson considers it “unacceptable” that insults occur while discussing Mari Carmen’s situation and the measures that, in his view, could have prevented a case like hers from happening again.

Centella also questions the origin of the arguments used against Mari Carmen. In his intervention, as recorded by IU Málaga, he states that Bergillos would have bought into “the far-right’s fake news” and calls for such expressions not to be normalized in a municipal institution.

The demand is not limited to a political reprimand or a public apology, at least as disseminated by the group. IU directly calls on the mayor to remove Bergillos from his responsibility. The decision about the councilor’s future is thus placed in the hands of Benalmádena’s Mayor’s Office, although the statement provided does not include a response from the mayor or a position from Bergillos himself.

Toni Morillas’ demand

Toni Morillas, provincial coordinator of IU Málaga, joined the demand and also called on the mayor for the immediate dismissal of the Housing councilor. Her assessment links what happened in Benalmádena with the position she attributes to the Popular Party regarding evictions and lease contract extensions.

Morillas claims that the Popular Party not only prevents, according to her words, the banning of evictions and extensions of lease contracts, but also “insults and sows hatred against evicted families.” It is a political accusation with provincial reach, although it arises from an episode occurring in a municipal body of Benalmádena.

The provincial coordinator also places the controversy within a context of “housing emergency.” In the statement, she says there are thousands of families in Málaga without a decent housing solution and mentions that a General Strike is “at the doors.” The source does not provide a specific number of families nor detail the call, so the argument is presented as a political denunciation by IU, not as an independent statistical report.

Morillas summarizes her position with a dilemma that is part of her statement: “either you stand with the landlords and speculators, or you stand with working families.” The tone is direct. And she explains why IU does not treat the episode as a simple slip of the tongue, but as a fact that, in her opinion, cannot be overlooked.

The role of the “Mari Carmen Decrees” in the debate

What measures does the statement mention?

IU’s statement presents the “Mari Carmen Decrees” as a tool that should have been approved to act in situations like that of the 87-year-old woman evicted in Madrid. Centella states that those decrees were struck down by the Popular Party in Congress and links them to the need to prevent a similar case from happening again.

The provided documentation does not fully develop the content of those measures nor offer a legislative text with their articles. It does include two political references from Morillas: the prohibition of evictions and the extension of lease contracts. Those are the elements IU uses to explain why it considers the debate was not unrelated to the reality of affected families.

In local terms, the discussion reached a Housing Sector Council of Benalmádena, not a national parliamentary session. That connection matters because the City Council is the space where municipal representatives talk about the consequences of housing decisions, although the statement does not attribute specific powers over the mentioned decrees to the council.

Why has the case taken on such political weight?

IU’s reaction combines three elements: the insult attributed to the councilor, Mari Carmen’s personal situation, and the dispute over measures against evictions. Together they explain why the group has demanded dismissal and not just clarification about what happened.

For Centella, humanity had to occupy a central place in the debate. For Morillas, the episode reflects a gap between the Popular Party and families demanding decent housing. Both interventions share an idea: the words spoken at the Sector Council cannot be separated from the problem being addressed.

The controversy also leaves a pending question for Benalmádena: whether the mayor will heed IU’s demand and what evaluation the municipal government will make about the words attributed to José Luis Bergillos. In the press release disseminated on October 7, there is no response from the mayor, the councilor in question, or the City Council to the accusations.

That documentary silence obliges distinguishing between the described facts and the political demands. What is confirmed by the source is that Centella left the meeting, that IU called the attitude attributed to Bergillos “indecent,” and that Toni Morillas asked for his dismissal. The attribution of the words and the derived political responsibilities are part of the denunciation spread by Izquierda Unida.

The episode, moreover, takes place at a time IU describes as one of housing emergency and with a General Strike “at the doors.” Morillas states that thousands of families in Málaga lack a decent housing solution. The group uses that context to demand that institutions place the right to housing and the treatment of people affected by evictions above partisan confrontation.

The reality is that the debate has already moved beyond the meeting room of the Housing Sector Council. Now the pressure is focused on the mayor of Benalmádena, whom IU asks to act immediately, while it remains pending to learn the response of the City Council and the accused councilor. The decision will mark whether the episode ends in a political complaint or opens a broader crisis in municipal Housing management.