Pizarro was considered as the PSOE party’s number two in the region for many years and was right hand man to Manuel Chaves during the time he was President of the Junta. Chaves is now Minister for Territorial Policy and 3rd Deputy Prime Minister in the Zapatero Cabinet.
Pizarro decided to go after the regional government decided to replace its delegate in Cádiz, Gabriel Almagro. Pizarro’s successor at the head of the government and justice department was announced on Tuesday as Francisco Menacho, and it was at a departmental meeting after Menacho had officially taken possession of his new duties that the department’s deputy councillor, José Antonio Gómez-Periñán, presented his resignation to his new boss.
Gómez-Periñán is a member of PSOE’s provincial executive in Cádiz and was appointed by Luis Pizarro in April 2009 to the position from which he has now resigned.
The crisis in the regional government, just weeks away from the municipal elections, is reported by El País as a ‘war’ between the President of the Junta de Andalucía, José Antonio Griñán, and the Cádiz Socialists.
Also on Tuesday, the judge investigating the ERE early retirement grants awarded corruptly in Andalucía meanwhile gave the Junta a period of three days to hand over all regional cabinet minutes from 2001 onwards.
Her notification came after the Andaluz government refused to do so on Monday, offering instead only those sections of the minutes they considered relevant to the case.
