Francisco de la Torre, almost everlasting.

Francisco De la Torre is the mayor of Málaga (Spain), my hometown.  Once again he has won the last mayoral election and it may keep governing four more years with Ciudadanos' support, a centrist party.   Mr. De la Torre, who was born in 1942, is  the second oldest mayor in Spain.  In 1969, he joined Asociación de Amigos de la Universidad de Málaga which lobbied successfully to make the dictatorship found Malaga State University in 1972. In 1972, Mr. De la Torre became president of the Provincial Deputation of Málaga.  He supported Franco's dictatorship until the last day and shortly after the death of Franco a split vote (9 to 9) took him out of the Provincial Deputation in 1976, because the rules favoured the oldest candidate and he was the youngest one.
He worked for a while as an agricultural engineer, but he was a polician to the core. He joined Reforma Democrática (right-wing party), however he left it.  Then he founded his own party where he was the president and afterwards he made his own party to join UCD (Unión de Centro Democrático) which led Spain to democracy.  And... he got elected for Congress in 1977 the one that approved the Constitution of 1978.  He helped as a member of provisional government of Andalusia to set the autonomous regional parliament  known as Junta de Andalucía.

On 23th of february, Congress was kidnaped by a bunch of Guardias Civiles (some sort militarized policemen), it was a coup d'état and all communications with the outside world were severed. But Francisco de la Torre got a small radio and, while he pretended to have a nap, listened to the radio channel, Cadena Ser in order to hear news. And he carefully transmited any information to the rest of congressmen.
After the putsch, UCD was defeated and torn apart.  Francisco de la Torre had to pay some loans given to his party and from 1982 to 1995 kept a low profile in politics without any political post in the administration. But he lobbied to get a high speed train conection for Málaga.  In 1995 he was in the PP (Partido Popular or People's Party, a right wing party) and ran as an independent member of the party in the mayoral elections for Málaga city.  His party won and his boss, Celia Villalobos (a former comunist militant, by then in PP), became the mayor.  She was great campaining, but she lacks of qualifications for the job.  However Mr. de la Torre got the Council of urban planning which means that he managed the most important department in the townhall just before the real state bubble.  In Málaga province was right in the centre of that bubble which popped in 2007-2008.

Anybody who hears Francisco's voice knows that his is as boring as the ex-vice President of USA, Dick Cheney.  But... in 2000 he became mayor of Málaga.  And since then many people acknowledge that Mr. De la Torre was a gentleman who hardly never stayed behind closed doors, but who has always avoided political bickering and too high political ambitions.  He was able to deal politely with Podemos (a populist leftist party) and with Ciudadanos which is his best ally and maybe the most demanding too.  Ciudadanos likes to make any political official involved in corruption cases be sacked.  Francisco de la Torre like to keep them longer.

Since 2000 Málaga got the cherished high speed train conection with Madrid and the first line of Málaga underground was built, the bypass roads were lengthened and the Málaga airport and the harbour were enlarged.  Málaga now has got a dock just for cruise ships.  He helped to do all this things while he kept IBI (property tax on houses) very low, lower than any other provincial capital, but Toledo. Moreover he had enough time to became member of the Senate.
Mr. De la Torre was intrumental in building many museums in Málaga, even a russian museum and the French Pompidou Museum.  That's why he was awarded with the Pushkin medal by the President of the Russian Federation, Vladimir Putin and with the Legion of Honour of the French Repuplic.  Culture is a diplomatic tool in a city with increasing number of bilingual schools (english-spanish and french-spanish).

If everything is OK, the next achievement in the city will be to finish the underground conection between the railway station and the center of the city which will make easier for all the students to reach the university in Teatinos neighbourhood.

But Mr. De la Torre has got a problem.  He hasn't  got a clear successor in his team.