The mayor of Badajoz, Ignacio Gragera, has dismissed his press officer, Javier Gragera, from his post, after confirming that he had used a false profile on the social network Twitter, linked to his corporate mobile phone, from which he had criticized and attacked other political groups, municipal workers and the Local Police, neighbors who complained about the state of the town and even journalists. In a concise press release sent after 2:00 p.m., the city council has indicated that “nobody in the institution was aware of these actions.”
The Acho Badajoz collective has denounced this fact this morning, which was carried out through the account, which was deleted shortly after, of Laura Carrasco ‘@LauraCa06568938’, in which she pretended to be a neighbor like any other where responded to those mentioned above while praising the actions of Gragera and the councilors of Cs. The association’s spokesman, Hernán Álvarez, has assured that it is a fully planned strategy whose objective was to “muddy and adulterate public opinion and debate.”
For this reason, he had asked to be removed from his responsibilities, as has happened later, and wondered if the mayor knew what the press officer did every day on social networks, because it is a “very serious” situation. They have also requested explanations in this regard.
The mayor, who was present this morning at a press conference for the Sport Extremadura women’s football club, did not want to make a statement to the media. Javier Gragera has not spoken either to give his opinion on this fact.
Álvarez, who has stated that they have been aware of these events for less than a week, has explained that it is fully proven that he was the one who used this profile because when accessing the social network to remember the password you have to put the phone number that is associated, which in this case was his corporate. If a different number is entered, the platform gives an error. Thus, they did the test and when putting said contact it did not give them any failure. “He is fully checked and proven. I doubt that he will report us because he would not have any kind of path and denying it would be making the ball bigger. He knows. There is no debate, they are facts », he pointed out.
For the spokesman, they are techniques of Donald Trump in the United States, of Jair Bolsonaro in Brazil or of Vladimir Putin in Russia. For this reason, he has transferred the information to the different political groups of the municipal corporation. “We are very hurt, it is truly sad that this is happening in the city,” he added. In addition, she has stated that she was the last person he expected because she was “close and friendly”, for which she would like him to give a sincere apology.
