Spanish socialist politician Alex Pastor has resigned as mayor of Badalona after biting a police officer who caught him violating Wuhan coronavirus lockdown measures and driving drunk.
Pastor’s resignation was announced on Wednesday after the former mayor had been arrested the evening before in Barcelona’s Eixample district. Miquel Iceta, the head of the Socialist Workers’ Party, claimed that Pastor’s actions were “incompatible with socialism”.
The Socialist Workers’ Party had previously asked Pastor to resign from the party, Austrian tabloid Kronen Zeitung reports.
According to the news website El Español, Pastor has had a history of controversial behaviour and personal problems that largely began in 2018 when he became mayor.
“His problems with the dependencies are well known in some environments in Badalona,” Xavier García Albiol, a member of the People’s Party of Catalonia and former mayor of Badalona, said.
According to El Español, Pastor also acted aggressively during his arrest, telling officers they did not know who they were dealing with. He then struggled during the arrest, punched one officer and kicked another, then bit the officer’s arm while on the ground.
Since mid-March, Spain has enacted tough measures to stop the spread of the Wuhan coronavirus, including limiting the number of outdoor activities members of the public are allowed to engage in.
Spain, along with Italy, is one of the countries worst affected by coronavirus, reporting a total of over 213,000 confirmed cases and over 22,000 fatalities as of Thursday.
Former mayor Pastor is not the only Spaniard to make headlines for breaking the coronavirus lockdown measures in recent weeks. Earlier this month a woman in southern Spain was caught on video jumping on a police car while nude outside of a local police station.
Police arrested the woman and later took her to a local hospital for a psychiatric evaluation. The 41-year-old had previously been accused of streaking during a tribute to health care workers in Torremolinos.
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