Alternativa Ciudadana will compete in the next general elections on June 26 with Unidos Podemos, the confluence in which Podemos, Izquierda Unida and other forces have joined at the national level. This has been confirmed to La Voz from this party, which is integrated in the island coalition Somos Lanzarote. According to them, AC has proposed that Manuel Plasencia be part of the Unidos Podemos list to the Congress of Deputies for Las Palmas.
The island formation had already given its support to Podemos in some previous electoral events, but had never been integrated into its lists. In addition, they ran separately in the last municipal elections and to the Cabildo. AC competed in those elections within Somos Lanzarote, with parallel candidacies to those of Podemos and Ganemos. Now, its decision to go to this electoral event together with Unidos Podemos coincides with the tension that Alternativa maintains with Somos in Lanzarote.
As Andrés Barreto explained to La Voz, the Alternativa assembly decided to "join with Podemos and IU in Lanzarote" and Unidos Podemos offered them the possibility that one of its members would be integrated into the list, before which they proposed Plasencia. Barreto stresses, however, that they have not asked for "any" specific position on the list and accept that Unidos Podemos determines "the place they want".
"With sincerity, we have no interest in having more or less positions, it is a more symbolic issue with the confluence, that is why we gave it that name," he says when asked if there will be more AC members on that list. Barreto stresses in this regard that the "important" thing is the "confluence" and that "the people who have been fighting for the rights of citizenship have taken a step".
"If the released gentlemen of Somos want a party, let them register it in the Ministry"
Regarding the situation that this leaves between AC and Somos Lanzarote, Barreto emphasizes that Somos was created as an "instrumental party". "Somos was not a political party, it was a hinge party," he says, emphasizing that it is made up of 5 organizations and that "none of them has been dissolved." Thus, he insists that Somos "is not the sixth party", something that, in his opinion, is what some "upstarts" intend.
"If the released gentlemen of Somos did not have political parties and wanted to have a political party, let them go to the Ministry of the Interior, let them legalize a political party and integrate into Somos". Based on this approach, Andrés Barreto defends that "Alternativa is going to continue acting as Alternativa." "We are not creating schisms, nor are we going to create schisms, we are simply Alternativa and we are going to continue being Alternativa because we have not diluted ourselves," he reiterates.
Thus, according to him, it has not "crossed their minds" that their councilor in the Cabildo, Mary Paz Cabrera, will leave the Somos group, as she is the "representation of AC" and will continue to defend their proposals. "What happened to the initiatives presented by Vecinos Unidos in Arrecife? Has there been any hecatomb?", he asks, referring to councilor Andrés Medina, who also ran under the Somos Lanzarote banner but presents initiatives freely after multiple tensions with this confluence.
"I think there is an error in the legal interpretation. For example, citizens can present initiatives in institutions. If citizens can, political organizations more," Barreto adds.
"They have not come to work honestly in politics"
"The day that the 3 released from Somos decide to clarify if they are, like Somos, the sixth party of the constituent parties of Somos, maybe we can start talking about something," Barreto adds. Meanwhile, he considers that it is "impossible", because, in his opinion, "these three released have not come to work honestly in politics." "They are going to continue like this because they have not come to politics to solve or solve the problems of citizenship," he continues, stating that "that is not the Somos that we defended and created."
Thus, he affirms that Alternativa Ciudadana has an "absolute rejection" of some recent actions of Somos. He alludes among them to the support of José Dorta in Haría to the candidate of CC to the Senate, the mayor Marciano Acuña. AC, he points out, "does not accept" that Dorta makes that "public pronouncement" and that "Somos has not said absolutely anything." "We also do not accept the ways of acting of Somos in Haría, privatization of services, the issue of overtime, etcetera," he adds, considering that "the unjustifiable is justified."
Andrés Barreto is especially critical about the release of Somos representatives in the different institutions: "you cannot be against the salaries of the released and the next day collect the salaries they rejected." "For 13 years we were about 15 people in the public administration defending our work as councilors and councilors and we did not charge a penny because we had clear ideas. These, the first thing they have done is criticize it but then put their hand out," he adds.
"There is a fundamental problem, they have created a political party that they did not have and they have considered that that is their party. And I insist again, Somos is not a political party, Somos is the sum of 5 parties that have not dissolved," Barreto insists. "What no one can pretend is that AC disappears as a political organization," he concludes.
