Vivas dismisses Daniel López Ruiz as political advisor to the Socialist Group

The president of the Autonomous City of Ceuta, Juan Jesús Vivas Lara, has dismissed Daniel López Ruiz as political advisor to the Socialist Parliamentary Group, effective October 26, 2026. The decision was made at the request of the group itself and is formalized in Decree 736, published in the Official Gazette of the City of Ceuta (BOCCE) number 6,667, dated November 6, 2026, in the Authorities and Personnel section. The dismissal affects a trusted position within the local opposition, appointed just three months prior.

Who requested it and the grounds for dismissal

According to the official text, the process began with a written request registered on October 26, 2026, by the Spokesperson for the Socialist Parliamentary Group, who expressly requested that the advisor be dismissed. The decree cites this written request as the origin of the resolution and sets the same date as the effective moment of the measure.

The resolution was signed by Juan Jesús Vivas Lara on October 28, 2026, with the intervention of the acting secretary general, Miguel Ángel Ragel Cabezuelo, who dated his signature October 30, 2026. A week passed between these procedures and the publication in the gazette; thus, the dismissal was published on November 6, with effects already consummated since the 26th.

An interim advisor appointed in August

The position is not newly created, nor is it becoming vacant for the first time in the term. Daniel López Ruiz had been appointed as political advisor via Decree 85, published in Extraordinary BOCCE number 40, dated August 13, 2026 (p. 3215), in the same administrative act in which his predecessor, Lucía Cerdeira Argüelles, was dismissed as political advisor (Decree 84, p. 3213). His tenure in the position therefore lasted slightly less than three months.

The position appears in the dismissal decree under the generic designation of “POLITICAL ADVISOR,” within the list of personnel being dismissed “as interim staff.” The document identifies the holder by their national identity document number, partially redacted in the publication (***0975**), a standard practice in these types of personnel decrees.

The legal basis: interim staff and free dismissal

The decree is based on the regime for interim staff of local administration and autonomous institutions, and expressly cites the following regulations:

• Article 104 of Law 7/1985, of April 2, regulating the Bases of the Local Regime, in relation to Article 176 of Royal Legislative Decree 781/1986, of April 18.
• Article 41.14 d) of Royal Decree 2568/1986, of November 28, which attributes to the Plenary the determination of the number, characteristics, and remuneration of temporary staff and reserves the free appointment and dismissal to the mayor or president.
• Article 12 of Royal Legislative Decree 5/2015, of October 30, which approves the Recast Text of the Law of the Basic Statute of the Public Employee, which defines temporary staff as those who, on a non-permanent basis, only perform functions of trust or special advisory.
• Article 14 of the Statute of Autonomy of Ceuta and Article 21 of Law 7/85, which support the president’s competence to resolve.

The text further recalls that the appointment and dismissal of these employment officials must be published in the official bulletin of the corporation, which provides coverage for the insertion in the BOCCE.

Appeal deadlines

As is mandatory in acts that exhaust the administrative route, the decree opens two avenues for appeal:

• Optional appeal for reversal (recurso potestativo de reposición) before the same body that issued it, within a period of one month from notification or publication, in accordance with articles 123 and 124 of Law 39/2015, of October 1.
• Contentious-administrative appeal before the Contentious-Administrative Courts of Ceuta, within a period of two months, according to article 46 of Law 29/1998, of July 13.

The document clarifies that, if the appeal for reversal is chosen, the contentious appeal cannot be filed until the former is expressly resolved or its presumed dismissal occurs.

The move leaves the Socialist Parliamentary Group without its political advisor during a period of ordinary plenary activity and confirms the practice of the group itself driving the replacement of its trusted personnel, while the Presidency limits itself to formalizing the decision. For readers interested in the internal life of the Ceuta opposition, the decree provides documentary evidence that the dismissal is not the result of an initiative by the City Government, but rather an express request from the socialist spokesperson, and that it occurs less than three months after the appointment published in August.

Source: Official Bulletin of the City of Ceuta (BOCCE), no. 6,667, November 6, 2026, section I (Authorities and Personnel), pp. 3790-3791 (official reference: Decree no. 736).