CC remains silent after evidencing its internal crisis in Haría and Pepe Torres requests a new Plenary on La Cueva

“I have no problem sitting down with Pedro San Ginés,” says the former mayor and leader of the Municipal Platform of Haría, after years of confrontation.

October 26 2020 (15:19 WET)
Updated in October 26 2020 (18:09 WET)
Haria City Council Plenary Session on the Cueva de Los Verdes Agreement
Haria City Council Plenary Session on the Cueva de Los Verdes Agreement

Two days after evidencing its internal crisis in the Haría Plenary, the Canarian Coalition still has not decided whether to adopt any measures against the councilors who voted without following its guidelines and none of its leaders wanted to make statements this Monday. Meanwhile, while CC remains silent and has prohibited all its members from speaking publicly on the matter, and while the PSOE has also not wanted to comment, waiting to see what its partner will do in this municipality, the Municipal Platform of Haría of José Torres Stinga has already formally registered the request for the extraordinary Plenary that he announced last Saturday.

In that new Plenary that must now be convened, Torres Stinga will request the “full execution” of the La Cueva ruling and “proceed to the annulment of all those agreements that hinder its execution”. And that would include both the agreement signed in 2016 by the former president of the Cabildo, Pedro San Ginés, and the addendum approved last Saturday to execute the ruling and end this lawsuit. That addendum, which prospered thanks to the divided vote of CC, involves including the compensation that had not been included in its day, setting it at 12.9 million euros that the City Council will receive.

“The current agreement is worse than the previous one,” José Torres Stinga has assured on Radio Lanzarote, thus coinciding with the discourse maintained by the CC sector that continues to defend the agreement signed by San Ginés. However, neither on Saturday in the Plenary nor this Monday has he explained why the new one is "worse". And neither did the only CC councilor who voted against and who followed the line marked by the island leadership of his party. In the case of councilor Víctor Robayna, he did not even take the floor in the Plenary and left as soon as the session ended, while the three councilors who abstained and the one who voted in favor did justify their position.

In this regard, it should be remembered that the legal reports from the Secretariat and Intervention department of the City Council have concluded that the first agreement was “harmful” for the City Council, since not even compensation was included. All there was was a “declaration of intentions”, with a commitment from the Cabildo to invest 6 million euros in the municipality in ten years, which according to the reports has not even been fulfilled in this time.

"This matter has not ended"

“This matter has not ended,” José Torres Stinga has warned, who did not want to comment on what happened with the CC councilors during the Plenary. “If the Canarian Coalition does not speak, I am not going to speak”, he has pointed out in this regard, limiting himself to saying that “what was evidenced is the poor relationship between the CC councilors and the island leadership”, since they even raised “reproaches” to their own party.

Regarding his possible rapprochement with the Canarian Coalition and Pedro San Ginés, Torres Stinga has responded with phrases such as “I do not have the gift of ubiquity” and “I do not know why they are trying to involve us in this story”, but he has not denied having held meetings or having spoken of a possible motion of censure in Haría against the PSOE.

“The situation that is being experienced in Haría is so delicate that Juan Santana has summoned all the mayors on repeated occasions. Among them has been Juan Ramírez and I have had no problem sitting down with him. And I have no problem sitting down with Pedro San Ginés either,” he has ended up adding, despite the fact that it was precisely the confrontation between the two that started the La Cueva lawsuit, which the City Council ended up winning.

What the former mayor has expressly denied is having held meetings with the Lava councilor in Tías, Mame Fernández, and with the NC councilor in Arrecife, Armando Santana, to offer them alleged motions of censure on behalf of CC. “I am absolutely astonished. I haven't spoken to Mame Fernández for more than a year and a half” and “with Armando it is absolutely false,” he has assured forcefully.

However, he has not done the same when asked about the possible meetings he would have already had with San Ginés. And as for the possibility that he is negotiating his return to the Canarian Coalition, he has assured that “that option has not even been given”, although he has not completely closed the doors for the future. “What I guarantee is that the Municipal Platform of Haría will be in the next elections. In electoral coalition or without electoral coalition”, he has added, leaving open the possibility of a hypothetical alliance.

"I think people are starting to get a little tired of this story again"

In addition, after the interview he gave this Monday on Radio Lanzarote – Onda Cero, after spending weeks without speaking, José Torres Stinga has announced that he is going to delegate the statements on this matter to the number two, Evelia García, again and that he will not give interviews again "until December".

“I think people are starting to get a little tired of this story again,” the former mayor has acknowledged, who still considers that “it is a simple matter”. Thus, he has insisted that what they are asking is that the ruling be executed, rejecting for this any type of agreement such as the one that has just been approved, which does include the compensation.

Regarding that compensation, which has been calculated based on what the ruling established and has the endorsement of the Secretariat and Intervention department, what he has questioned is that it does not include interest, which he affirms could amount to between two and a half million and four million euros more. “What happens is that we do not have resources, but we are talking to an economist to do the study for us”, he has pointed out in this regard.

In addition, as his party already raised in the Plenary, he has insisted that what the City Council has to do is “go and take possession” of La Cueva, then “sit down with the Cabildo to see how it is going to pay the debt and then establish the conditions for the future”. That is, start the whole process again, three and a half years after the ruling was declared final and more than a decade after this lawsuit began.

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CC votes divided in the Plenary of Haría and the new agreement of La Cueva goes ahead
Image of Marci Acuña's last Plenary as mayor of Haría
Intervention concludes that the La Cueva agreement was “detrimental” to Haría and that the law was violated when approving it
Pedro San Ginés and Marci Acuña
CC rejects the La Cueva agreement because it is “a disloyalty” to the agreement signed by San Ginés
José Torres Stinga at the Haría Plenary Session
Pepe Torres' Platform justifies its vote defending that Haría should "take possession of the Cave"
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