If last week the Socialist Party ‘declared broken’ the cascade pact in the Canary Islands without actually breaking it, this Monday it was the general secretary of the Canarian Coalition, José Miguel Barragán, who resigned from his organic position, although without abandoning it for the moment. By presenting his resignation, Barragán intends to assume his responsibility in the crisis opened with the PSOE, by not having managed to avoid the motion of censure supported by CC in Granadilla de Abona.
However, his resignation must still be ratified by the National Executive Commission of the Canarian Coalition, according to the newspaper La Provincia. "If the party believes I am useful, it is not in my intention not to do so," he said in a press conference offered after the National Committee of the formation, leaving the door open to continue in office if that resignation is not accepted in the Executive. In addition, until that meeting arrives, he will continue to serve as general secretary, for a "commitment" acquired with colleagues, to face the "difficult situation" in which the Government pact finds itself.
Regarding that pact, despite the fact that the socialists declared it broken last week, the truth is that until now they have not abandoned the government group in the Regional Executive and there have been no movements in other institutions of the islands where CC and PSOE govern together. In their case, the socialists also refer to a pending meeting of their Regional Committee, which they say should make the final decision. However, it should be remembered that after the meeting of the Socialist Executive last Thursday, they announced that they had "reached the conclusion, unanimously, that the pact in the Canary Islands has been broken by the Canarian Coalition", that "the Granadilla issue has been the straw that broke the camel's back" and that "therefore, the Canarian Coalition has broken the pact in the Canary Islands".
With the PSOE, "in a dialogue phase"
In his appearance before the media, Barragán also referred this Monday to this ambiguity in the PSOE's position and pointed out that this shows that it is still "in a dialogue phase". In fact, he has announced that they will try to convene the monitoring table of the pact in the coming days. In addition, according to La Provincia, he has advanced that they will begin to "explore" the socialists "from now on" and that for this they intend to establish imminent contacts with his counterpart in the PSC-PSOE, José Miguel Pérez.
Regarding his own resignation, Barragán has attributed it to the fact of "not having been able to stop the censure" of Granadilla. However, he has also pointed to the PSOE, stating that it "played" its role so that this motion of censure could not be avoided. It should be remembered that Barragán was the main interlocutor with the PSOE during the crisis opened after the presentation of that motion of censure, and even stated publicly that he would resign if he failed to stop it, since he assured that the CC councilors in this municipality were acting outside the party.
Precisely for that reason, CC had announced the expulsion of those councilors, which would have prevented them from voting on the motion of censure, but finally it did not. And according to CC, the reason was the breach by the PSOE of an alleged agreement that both forces had reached, arising from the conversations between Barragán and the socialist Julio Cruz, to redirect the situation. However, the PSOE has flatly denied that such an agreement existed, which supposedly included the resignation of a councilor from the PSOE and another from CC in Granadilla to resolve the situation and stop the motion of censure.
"I felt that the PSOE was not telling me the whole truth and I believed that the information I transmitted to the colleagues was not correct. They could think that we were not telling them all the information," Barragán stated. In addition, he has denied that there are internal tensions in CC due to that motion of censure, as the president of the Cabildo of Tenerife, Carlos Alonso, said last week, but he has pointed out that there is "concern", because the pact with the PSOE is the "best" for the Canary Islands. Regarding his position within the Government of the Canary Islands, as Deputy Minister of the Presidency, José Miguel Barragán has explained that he has not resigned from it because it is not an organic position, but depends on the president, Fernando Clavijo, with whom he will "meet" to analyze the situation.
