The PP of Cádiz demands the resignation of the mayor of Algeciras after learning of a new complaint of sexual assault

The PP of Cádiz has decided to stop supporting the mayor of Algeciras, José Ignacio Landaluce, in office and ask him for his “immediate resignation”, after learning that a new woman has denounced him for another sexual assault. This testimony from a member is added to the complaint made by another woman before the Supreme Court, given the status of a registered person that Landaluce had until recently as a senator, for another sexual assault. 12 of the 15 popular councilors of his Government team have signed a letter, registered in the City Council, in which they demand that he leave office. The decision opens a crisis in one of the main bastions of the Cadiz PP, governed since 2011 by a councilor who last week announced his intention to run for municipal elections again, already outside the PP and without clarifying under what acronym.

The rumor that the PP of Cádiz had decided to make a move began at the end of last week, but did not materialize until this Monday afternoon. The provincial president, Bruno García, has met in a hotel in Los Barrios, as the Europa Sur newspaper has reported, with the PP councilors who continued to support Landaluce to order them to withdraw support for the mayor, request his resignation and renounce their responsibilities within the government team, in the event that the councilor refuses to resign," as explained by the provincial PP in a statement issued late today.

Until this past Friday, the PP was limited to marking its distance from Landaluce, 67, and remembering that he was no longer part of the party, after he left the party at the end of 2025 due to a first complaint of harassment that was filed. The PP justifies the change in position after having had direct contact with “two express material complaints allegedly related to Landaluce's conduct at the municipal level.” One of them is the one that became known last week, after the affected person reported it to the Supreme Court at the beginning of September.

The second woman affected is a member of New Generations of the PP and it supposedly occurred on July 10 in the mayor's own office. In his complaint, he assures that the party in Algeciras did not activate the anti-harassment mechanisms and that they tried to cover up the events, as a source familiar with what happened told EL PAÍS. Although the provincial leadership claims to respect Landaluce's presumption of innocence, it points out that having knowledge of these two first-hand testimonies has provoked "the mayor, who is no longer a member of the PP."

Until last Friday, García had limited himself to expressing his concern and remembering that Landaluce was already out of the PP. Now, the formation also demands his departure from the Mayor's Office. In fact, the instruction given to the popular councilors of Algeciras who had remained attached to Landaluce comes accompanied by an internal warning that is not trivial: the party will open a file against those who have not supported the proposal. The PP has not identified who the three councilors are who are not among the signatories, nor does it explain the reasons for their absence. Yes, he has detailed that the petition of the 12 signatory councilors has already been registered on the municipal portal with their respective signatures.

If the mayor resists, the popular ones announce that they will promote “all necessary actions aimed at recovering the government of the city.” The movement breaks the difficult balance that the councilors had maintained since Landaluce left the PP in December 2025, since they continued to belong to the party and, at the same time, kept the mayor outside of it.

Landaluce's crisis has been open for months, although until now it had not altered the support of the 15 popular councilors who support him in the Mayor's Office of Algeciras, which he arrived in 2011. The origin is in WhatsApp conversations between three PP councilors that the ultra MEP Alvise Pérez disseminated in 2024 - which have led to a complaint by Landaluce against him - and in which alleged allegations were reported. touches of the councilor. Two of those involved denied the accusations, but the controversy grew again in December 2025 with the broadcast of some audios about pressure on former councilor Laura Ruiz to deny the information.

The PSOE then went to the Supreme Court Prosecutor's Office for alleged crimes of embezzlement, influence peddling, harassment and sexual abuse. He also questioned Ruiz's municipal hiring after he resigned following a court conviction and threatened to reveal compromising information about the mayor. Landaluce suspended his membership in the PP, but retained the mayoralty and seat in the Senate. The Prosecutor's Office closed the proceedings on January 9 due to lack of sufficient evidence of a crime.

The file did not close the political problem for the popular ones either. In June, the PSOE again offered its votes for a motion of censure, but the PP did not take up the gauntlet. In fact, all these months he has avoided clarifying whether he would count on Landaluce for the 2027 municipal elections. The last shock came last Thursday, when Europa Sur revealed a new complaint, presented on September 2 to the Supreme Court by a popular activist who attributes two alleged sexual assaults to the mayor. The woman places the first in December 2020, at the councilor's medical center, where she claims that he cornered her and touched her despite her opposition. The second would have occurred months later, at City Hall: according to her story, Landaluce took advantage of her husband's momentary absence to force his hands towards her genitals. The letter also questions the alleged offer of a municipal job that she maintains that she had not requested and that she rejected.

The new complaint was still pending admission when it became known last week. The Supreme Court had requested a report from the Prosecutor's Office on the evidence of a crime and on its own jurisdiction, after the dissolution of the Cortes left Landaluce without his capacity as a senator. The mayor responded with a “resounding and categorical” denial of the facts and a request for respect for his presumption of innocence. But he also took advantage of his video statement to send a message with consequences for what had been his training: he will run again in the municipal elections. He did not clarify under what acronym. “What I know is that I want to complete the project for my Algeciras and that the neighbors support the management we are doing,” he assured EL PAÍS. Until then, the provincial PP had insisted that the councilor was outside the party, while his councilors maintained the support that allowed him to continue governing.