Two sexual assault complaints from fellow PP members have left José Ignacio Landaluce facing a possible no-confidence motion. PSOE and Vox say they will support his removal after 12 of the party’s 15 councillors quit his government.
Once registered, the no-confidence motion would go to a vote at noon on the tenth working day. At Algeciras City Hall, twelve of the 15 Popular Party councillors have already left the mayor’s government, an 80% split in the party’s municipal group.
José Ignacio Landaluce has refused to resign and says he is innocent. He remains in office with three loyal councillors, two women and one man. He has been mayor since 2011.
The PP leadership in Cádiz is preparing a motion against its former member. On October 14, Andalusian regional government president and Andalusian PP leader Juanma Moreno Bonilla said the motion would be filed if Landaluce did not step down first. Provincial PP chairman Bruno García said PP and Vox councillors had signed it and planned to register it at City Hall in the coming hours.
The PP has put forward councillor Jacinto Muñoz as its replacement candidate. Vox’s four councillors say they will back Landaluce’s removal, but will not join the new government or seek political concessions.
The complaints have revived questions about how the party handled earlier allegations. The PSOE had reported alleged sexual harassment and/or sexual abuse involving two PP councillors. The Supreme Court prosecutor’s office archived that case after the women denied the reported events. In December 2025, Landaluce left the Senate and resigned from the PP after the accusations, but stayed on as mayor.
A separate complaint against Landaluce reached the Supreme Court’s Criminal Chamber in late September 2026. It concerns two alleged incidents, dated December 2020 and April 2021, reportedly at a medical centre managed by the mayor and in his office. The court asked the prosecutor whether it should admit the complaint. The case was at the preliminary review stage, and no court had established the allegations. Landaluce has denied them and said he would defend his innocence.
Socialist regional spokesperson María Márquez says Moreno was told about an account of alleged abuse a year earlier in the Andalusian Parliament and did not respond. The PSOE is pressing the PP to file the motion and has called the case Moreno’s “Nevenka case”. The phrase refers to the trial that ended with the conviction of Ponferrada mayor Ismael Álvarez for sexually harassing councillor Nevenka Fernández.
The PP’s parliamentary spokesperson in Andalusia, Toni Martín, has defended the party’s response. He said it acted within 48 hours of learning of the firm complaints and demanded Landaluce’s resignation. PSOE and Vox have publicly backed his removal, while the socialists have again offered their votes to form a new majority. Adelante Andalucía and Por Andalucía have also called for his removal through the legal procedure.
The local dispute is separate from the national contest over housing and power covered in Spain’s housing debate.
Landaluce, a doctor and 67-year-old politician, previously served as an MP and senator. He says his former colleagues are seeking his political destruction. The PP had not registered the motion when the party announced it had been signed and would be submitted in the coming hours.
