The reactions of the main parties of the Island were immediate today after learning the news that LA VOZ advanced in an informative scoop regarding the fact that the Contentious-Administrative Chamber of the Superior Court of Justice of the Canary Islands (TSJC) has admitted for processing an appeal filed through the urgent procedure by the Canarian Socialist Party (PSC-PSOE) against the decree issued by the councilor of the Popular Party (PP) María Dolores Luzardo on June 27, by which a plenary session was convened and the councilor of the Party of Independents of Lanzarote (PIL) Inés Rojas was proclaimed as president of the Island Council of Lanzarote. And it is that the socialists have clarified that they were not at all in agreement with the route that was finally used, clarifying at all times, as this newspaper already stated in its news, that their intention in no case is to snatch the current president's baton of command.
As the Councilor for Territorial Policy of the Cabildo, the socialist Carlos Espino, recalled, the PSC did not find the forms used by Luzardo for the succession, by proclamation, in the presidency of the Cabildo to be "correct from the beginning". "If the chamber agrees with us, we hope that from now on plenary sessions of this type will not be convened again, which set precedents." The socialists always considered that neither the report of the Central Electoral Board (JEC) nor that of the secretary of the Corporation, pillars on which Luzardo said her decision as accidental president was based, were binding, so they believe that the popular leader "imposed" a certain form of transition. Espino wanted to clarify that "the PSC has never skirted the law, but has been very respectful of it", and advanced that the only thing they intend with this appeal is "that the Cabildo does not find itself with this type of Kafkaesque situations again". According to Espino, Luzardo "knew perfectly well that she had to have met with the Board of Spokespersons, and that in any case, it was the plenary session that had to pronounce on the mechanism for the succession, since it is also the plenary session that must resolve this type of situations. The socialists explain that they did not challenge Inés Rojas' taking office as president only because "Lanzarote did not deserve more instability", guaranteeing that in the event that the sentence, which could be known in October, dictates the appointment of a new leader, they will support the current president. "Does anyone doubt that in that case we would raise our hand for Inés?" said Espino.
Rojas waits for Fajardo
The person alluded to herself, the president of the Cabildo, Inés Rojas, simply replied during the celebration of the I Regional Congress of SMEs that "those who are concerned and who have been very aware of everything that has been happening in the Cabildo are the citizens". Rojas pointed out that it is noticeable that the Institution has "resumed its activity again, with the hosting of the aforementioned Congress and the visit of the Minister of Economy and Finance of the Government of the Canary Islands, José Carlos Mauricio, to discuss already, and it is history that it is done in the month of July, on the next budgets of the Autonomous Community for Lanzarote". Therefore, she opined that it should be taken as something "anecdotal" that a specific party -the PSC- has considered it appropriate to address the TSJC. "We can understand it," she said. "I hope that Manuel Fajardo -general secretary of the socialists on the Island- will explain it to us upon his return, and also to society," she added. In any case, the president guaranteed that a new attempt at crisis would not occur again. "I am here to give stability to the Cabildo, and not the opposite," she remarked.
For his part, the also split member of the PIL Luis Arráez preferred to speak on the program Buenos Días Lanzarote, on Radio Lanzarote, of "certain uncertainty", but not of more "instability". Arráez thinks it is good that the socialists "want to demonstrate that they were right", but he affirms that, "personally I am surprised, I respect it but I do not share it, because we have spoken and, after what happened in San Bartolomé, I thought that nothing else would happen", he indicated, urging the "sensibility" of the PSC not to reproduce a new crisis.
CC understands it
On the part of the other partner of the socialists in the tripartite, Coalición Canaria (CC), its spokesperson and councilor Mario Pérez assured after the socialist clarifications that both PSC, PIL and CC "make vows so that no type of instability is generated any more because the situation in the first half of the legislature has certainly not been the best", he said.
"In any case", he added, "this clarification is made exclusively from the legislative point of view, and I think it is good that it is done through the Parliament, so that these situations are clarified once the possibility of motions of censure has been readmitted with the reform of the law, entering into a dynamic in which certain aspects do not appear regulated".
The PP saw it coming and offers help to Rojas
But without a doubt, the most critical attitude was put by the Popular Party, a formation that lost the presidency in the Cabildo and is currently in the opposition. In a statement sent to this editorial office, the PP on the Island denounces the attitude of the Socialist Party, which in its view, "have placed Rojas as provisional president until the sentence is issued", which is scheduled for next October.
To resolve this situation that they describe as "interim", the island leaders of the PP offer their support to Rojas to give stability to the Corporation again.
In the writing, the popular ones affirm that the socialists "return to generate instability in the institutions of the Island to govern at their whim, although with a small mouth they affirm that, if a new election were to occur, they would support the current president", they criticize from the PP.
They also assure that they do not trust the socialist leadership because "they have recently signed a political document and have failed to comply with it, even denying that it existed", in reference to the pact document sealed between the island secretary of the PSC, Manuel Fajardo, and the former popular president, Alejandro Díaz on the occasion of the dismissal of the CC councilors in the Cabildo.
For the PP, the only way to "clear up the doubts raised by the law is by clarifying it from a political point of view, and not by going to the courts". They also remember that this electoral law, "which generates so many doubts in its interpretation", was approved by the PSOE.
In statements to Radio Lanzarote, the PP councilor Loly Luzardo expressed yesterday surprise at the fact that the formation has presented said appeal "even being in the government team, and not in the opposition", and criticized the circumstance that "the socialists presented this appeal while they were negotiating". "It is clear that Manuel Fajardo wanted the presidency of the Cabildo", concluded the popular councilor.
