The Coordinadora Reusenca Independent (, literal translation: "

Reus Reus () is the capital of Baix Camp, in Camp de Tarragona, Catalonia, Spain. The area has long been an important producer of wines and spirits, and gained continental significance during the time of the Phylloxera plague. Currently it is known f ...

Independent Coordinator") or Cori is a

political party A political party is an organization that coordinates candidates to compete in a particular area's elections. It is common for the members of a party to hold similar ideas about politics, and parties may promote specific political ideology, ...

based in

Catalonia Catalonia is an autonomous community of Spain, designated as a ''nationalities and regions of Spain, nationality'' by its Statute of Autonomy of Catalonia of 2006, Statute of Autonomy. Most of its territory (except the Val d'Aran) is situate ...

Spain Spain, or the Kingdom of Spain, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe with territories in North Africa. Featuring the Punta de Tarifa, southernmost point of continental Europe, it is the largest country in Southern Eur ...

. It was formed in 2003 and stood lists of candidates in

municipal A municipality is usually a single administrative division having corporate status and powers of self-government or jurisdiction as granted by national and regional laws to which it is subordinate. The term ''municipality'' may also mean the gov ...

election An election is a formal group decision-making process whereby a population chooses an individual or multiple individuals to hold Public administration, public office. Elections have been the usual mechanism by which modern representative d ...

s of 2003. 2007 and 2011. It obtained its first seat on the ''Ajuntament'' (city council) of Reus in 2007. The party is led by Ariel Santamaria, who is also its sole city councillor (''regidor''). Santamaria has gained a certain notoriety for attending council meetings dressed as

Elvis Presley Elvis Aaron Presley (January 8, 1935 – August 16, 1977) was an American singer and actor. Referred to as the "King of Rock and Roll", he is regarded as Cultural impact of Elvis Presley, one of the most significant cultural figures of the ...

Political philosophy

The official philosophy of the Cori is Juantxism, or "being a ''Juantxi''": its 2003 campaign slogan was "put another ''Juantxi'' in City Hall" (). ''Juantxi'' () is a term in Reus

slang A slang is a vocabulary (words, phrases, and linguistic usages) of an informal register, common in everyday conversation but avoided in formal writing and speech. It also often refers to the language exclusively used by the members of pa ...

: according to the Cori, it refers either to "an action which is grotesque or ridiculous" or to "a grotesque person who has certain delusions of importance".

Policy initiatives

Municipal sexodrome

One of the first policy initiatives of the Cori after gaining its seat on the Reus city council was to propose the construction of a "sexodrome" in the city's technology park. The proposed structure was to include bars and discos, along with "spaces for couples, groups and veritable orgies". The Cori pointed out that, as well as providing jobs and leisure opportunities for Reus residents, the sexodrome would be a major tourist attraction. The proposal failed to pass the city council, in part because the Cori were unable to say how much it would cost to build and run the sexodrome.

Sagrada Família

In the council meeting of 30 November 2007, the Cori proposed that the

Sagrada Família The Basílica i Temple Expiatori de la Sagrada Família, otherwise known as Sagrada Família, is a church under construction in the Eixample district of Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain. It is the largest unfinished Catholic church in the world. Desi ...

, the best known of the architectural works of Antoní Gaudí, be moved stone-by-stone from

Barcelona Barcelona ( ; ; ) is a city on the northeastern coast of Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second-most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within c ...

to Reus. The justification for the proposed move was the possible danger to the Sagrada Família from construction work on a new rail tunnel beneath Barcelona, and also "so that Reus can finally have its own Gaudí monument and that we can regain the slogan 'Reus, Paris and London of the 21st century' that is: 'Sagrada Família, Eiffel Tower and Big Ben'".

Political history

The Cori ran for the first time to Reus's local elections in 2003, failing to get a seat after getting only 3'24% of the overall vote, below the threshold of 5% required to get a seat according to Spain's local electoral law. In 2007 local elections, however, the party gained a seat after securing 1.831 votes, a 5'05% of the overall vote. In 2010 the party ran for the first time to the Catalan parliamentary election, with Santamaria running as head of the party in Barcelona's province instead of Tarragona, Reus's province. The number two spot in Barcelona's list for the Cori was Miguel Brau Gou, a 77-year-old transvestite, widely known in Spain with the name Carmen de Mairena. The Cori did not get the 3% of the vote in Barcelona's province, failing to reach the threshold required in Catalonia's electoral law in order to get a seat. Finally, the party lost its seat in Reus's local council in Spain's 2011 local elections. Early recounts of the vote had given Cori a number of votes above the 5% threshold, but after a protest filed by the extremist Plataforma per Catalunya a new recount was made validating votes that had been initially considered spoilt, thus making the Cori's total number of votes (1.885) a 4'99% of the overall. Ariel Santamaria announced that he would run again as head of the Cori for Reus's local elections in 2015.{{Cite web , url=http://www.cori.cat/index.php?command=show_news&news_id=607 , title=CORI - Ariel Santamaria es tornarà a presentar a les municipals del 2015 , access-date=2012-08-05 , archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120326074923/http://www.cori.cat/index.php?command=show_news&news_id=607 , archive-date=2012-03-26 , url-status=dead

Notes and references

External links

Official site
2003 establishments in Spain Joke political parties in Spain Political parties established in 2003 Political parties in Catalonia