However, this unofficial flag, the Tricolor Flag of the Seven Green Stars, is a regular in the images that have been starred by the politicians of nationalist formations of the island, in particular, and of the Canary Islands in general, and until now, at least publicly, no one was shocked when María Isabel Déniz, Juan Pedro Hernández and now José Dimas Martín displayed and display it in their mayoral offices. It is also a regular in celebrations and popular demonstrations.
But something has changed with Álvaro Pérez, whose "audacity" has led to the debate in the Parliament of the Canary Islands, where the vice president of the Executive, José Manuel Soria, has had to ask that the law of flags be complied with, that is, that it be removed. Meanwhile in Lanzarote, the councilor in the Arrecife City Council for the Canarian Coalition, Luis Morales, who also had the flag placed in his office, assures that they had never received a call for attention from the Popular Party, nor from the Socialist Party, with whom they have governed in the local corporation. He also has no knowledge that they have been admonished in the Canary Islands, knowing that "many public officials" of the archipelago and city councils had the tricolor flag of the seven stars.
For its part, the newspaper El Mundo in its November 15 edition echoed the controversy of Álvaro Pérez and highlighted in turn that it is a "separatist" flag. Something that formations such as CC and PIL deny, despite recognizing that its origin is linked to independentist groups. The truth is that in the street it is not strange to find citizens who have barely noticed the difference between the official flag, which shows a shield in the center, and the one with the seven stars, since the tricolor background is the same. Although for the parties there is a difference.
Therefore, recently, Canarian Coalition presented in the city councils and the Cabildo a motion to raise the flag of the seven stars on the day of its commemoration, October 22, and to urge the Parliament to its recognition. The first vote that has divided the vote of the PIL from its Government partner, the Socialist Party. But it has only happened in Teguise. In the rest of the municipalities and the Cabildo the motion was rejected.
And in the Villa, in addition to the claim that went ahead, the mayor has already announced that he will put, "not propose", the flag on the balcony of the City Hall. For the moment, some anonymous person has already begun to hang them in the streets of Arrecife, which this week has dawned with tricolor flags of seven green stars on poles of the medullary road and the center of the capital, as recently appeared in Las Palmas, in the middle of a flag debate.
The Arrecife City Council considered that it was due to the proximity of the day of the Constitution, December 6. Whatever the reasons, the City Council believes that citizens have the right to express themselves "freely" and do not plan to remove them.
THE POLITICAL DEBATE
Manuel Fajardo (PSOE)
- The controversy: "It is a deliberate strategy to try to recover the Canarian vote from what they call true Canarians by the Canarian Coalition".
- The flag law: "In this case it is not that it is in the office, in this case the seriousness is that the Spanish flag is being replaced by the one with the seven green stars".
- The seven stars: "We have seen that flag since we were little those of us who were born here who are as Canarian as those who were not born here".
Luis Morales (CC)
- The controversy: "In many city councils of the Canary Islands that flag is raised, most of the nationalist councilors and councilors have it in their office".
- The flag law: "We have never hidden that we had flags in the office, we are in a democratic country and we can have the right to be insubordinate to some symbols. In this case to a flag".
- The seven stars: "It is not true that it is separatist. It is a flag assumed by the generality of the people. It is something social, not political".
Loly Luzardo (PP)
-The controversy: "It is necessary to comply with the official flags and that is what the Canarian vice president José Manuel Soria said in Parliament".
-The flag law: "The biggest controversy is that the flags are not placed in the city councils in the peninsula. Here the nuance is different, it is that there are flags that are not the official ones".
-The seven stars: "For many people the seven stars is a matter of sentimentalism, but that does not mean that public officials put the official flag".
José Dimas Martín (PIL)
- The controversy: "We support the flag as many people from the Socialist Party and the Popular Party support it, another thing is that they say it".
- The flag law: "It is still in my Mayor's office and I also have it in my house and I will put it in the Teguise City Council. It is fair to defend what belongs to the people".
- The seven stars: "It is not independentist, but there are sectors that are interested in linking it to this movement. It is the only symbol that I respect".
Juan Carlos Becerra (PNL)
- The controversy: "The flag cannot be something of a group. There is a flag that is the constitutional one, the one that appears in the Statute of Autonomy".
- The flag law: "We do not find it reasonable that public officials have a flag in their office. The basic principle of a public representative is the compliance with the Constitution and the legal system".
- The seven stars: "One thing is to be nationalist and another independentist and whether you want it or not, the flag is an independentist instrument".
THE CANARIANS SPEAK
Juana Mari Cedrés de León: "I do not know the political controversy but I believe that the Canarians feel more identified with the flag of the seven stars. All my life it has always been the one that has always been exposed in official sites and in public bodies".
Juan Suárez: "It is not the official one because it does not have the shield. It should have it. Although we know the flag of the seven stars all our lives, which is related to the political parties here, we believe that if they do not put the official one, it is independentist".
Daniel Quintana: "The flag of the Canary Islands is the one with the seven stars because it represents the seven islands, I suppose, right? If it is for the peninsula I prefer a flag that represents all the islands. I knew there was one with the seven stars but I never gave it importance".
Manolo Cabrera: "I don't care about politics. But, what is the official flag? It has always been the one with the seven stars, the one with the seven islands, I think. It is the one that identifies with the Canary Islands. The political controversy is very exaggerated".
Javier García: "I did not know that the flag of the seven green stars is not the official one. I did not think there were two different flags. I had always seen this flag with the seven stars and I thought it was the official one. I also did not know anything about the controversy in the Canary Islands".
José Luis Rodríguez Morales: "The flag of the seven stars is wonderful. It only lacks the signature of Señor Antonio Cubillo. That flag that they have put on me, you can tell the one who made it that the Canarians are not two dogs to lick the crown. It is a humiliation".
ORIGIN OF THE FLAG OF THE SEVEN STARS
The first legal provision of flags of the Canary Islands appears in the 19th century, in 1845 with the flag of the registration of Tenerife. After several tests, which have nothing to do with the current one, in 1982 the tricolor with a shield is assumed as the official flag, while in many places it waves, similar with seven green stars.
- Tricolor Background: In 1961 a group of professionals and lawyers from Gran Canaria form "Canarias Libre", a left-wing nationalist group that on the occasion of the Fiestas de Teror, a municipality of Gran Canaria, launch a homemade flag with the colors from the flagpole, white blue and yellow. In the center with a pen appeared the initials of the formation "CL".
- Seven green stars: In 1964 the Movement for the Self-determination and Independence of the Canarian Archipelago (MPAIAC) incorporates the seven green stars to this tricolor flag - as a reference to the seven islands - giving it, apparently, an Africanist sense, since previous flags had collected seven stars in one case white (the flag that waved in the Ateneo de La Laguna in 1907 on a blue background and that would have influence from the American emigration), and in another case red (designed by the group República Independiente de Canarias, created in the 60s by students of the University of La Laguna, which would have a left-wing meaning. The background was divided diagonally into four triangles).
In the I Congress of the MPAIAC held in 1979 in clandestinity, the Tricolor Flag of the Seven Green Stars is approved as the flag of the Movement.
- Official flag: However, although the tricolor background created by "Canarias Libre" was imposed as the flag of the Canary Islands and is the one that currently includes the Statute of Autonomy since 1982, the seven green stars were rejected due to their independentist origin and the current one incorporates a shield with seven stars, as a stamp a royal crown and as support "two dogs in their color collared".
(* Data extracted from the Session Diary of the Parliament of the Canary Islands, September 13, 2006)
