The loss of the parliamentary group of the Canarian Coalition (CC) in the Congress of Deputies and the setback experienced in the past Elections in the Canary Islands, have forced this nationalist formation to seek the support of other political parties to compete in the General Elections of March 2008, as announced this Monday by its president, José Torres Stinga.
The National Standing Committee of CC has made this Monday an analysis of the results of 2007 and has set "what can be the essential elements for the 2008 Elections", based on which the electoral campaign has been planned. As a result of this analysis, according to the president of the nationalists, it has been decided to initiate contacts with the majority of nationalist forces to "try to converge" in the next elections because "for us the fundamental thing is the Canary Islands and in that area we are going to configure joint electoral platforms".
"It is essential that the Canarians understand that the voice of the Canary Islands in Madrid is still held by this organization and the loss of the parliamentary group is a consecutive loss that has meant that they do not count on CC to configure the State Budgets", lamented Torres Stinga in the press conference after the meeting.
It will be the president of CC himself who will address all the nationalist formations except Nueva Canarias (NC), which has expressed its refusal to have contacts with CC and which was precisely the cause of the loss of the parliamentary group in the Congress of Deputies after its leader, Román Rodríguez, decided to break this alliance. According to Torres Stinga, "it is very difficult to find some formula of agreement because they themselves have excluded themselves".
Therefore, CC will maintain contacts with the Canarian Center (CCN), the Nationalist Party of Lanzarote (PNL), the Party of Independents of Lanzarote (PIL), or even with Agrupación de Vecinos (AV) of San Bartolomé de Tirajana, the group led by the 'popular' Marco Aurelio Pérez.
In principle, Torres assures that there are no agreements with any political formation and that the will is that before the first fortnight of October these contacts are finalized.
Statutory debate
José Torres Stinga, after the meeting of the National Standing Committee, insists that the reform of the electoral system (the main obstacle to obtain the support of the socialists in the approval of the new Statute) will be dealt with in the Parliament of the Canary Islands and will not be included in the statutory text.
Torres declared that the proposal with urgency of the statutory report is due to that "we believe that there are sufficient reasons to say that the Statute is not going to be approved in this legislative period", given the "immovable" position of the socialists, so it is to be expected from this plenary a simple public locution of the different proposals that the political parties have maintained, with the exception of the Popular Party (PP), which has changed its initial refusal.
Torres justifies his premonition in that at the time the socialists "already warned us that without a (Government) pact there was no Statute", recalling the words of the socialist deputy Juan Fernando López Aguilar on June 8, something that he considers puts "in evidence" the socialists who "penalize the Canary Islands". Moreover, he believes that the PSC "is going to put all possible tricks so that the Statute of the Canary Islands is not approved".
What is this debate for then? According to Torres Stinga, it will serve to "fix the different positions of the political parties" insisting that "the socialists' position is going to be immovable". And why then the debate? The president of the nationalists recalls that the socialists "told us that they would support the Statute if they had the support of the PP, we have managed to get them to do so and curiously the Statute that is in Madrid was supported by the socialists, who will now prevent it from being approved".
Electoral System
Regarding the main obstacle that now separates socialists and nationalists, the inclusion or not of the electoral reform in the Statute of the Canary Islands, Torres maintained that his group has shown on several occasions its willingness to talk about it but in the Canary Islands. The president of CC recalls that "all the Statutes have resolved their electoral system in the autonomous Parliaments".
On the possibility of incorporating the regional list in the statutory text, he assures that this is contemplated in the current Statute that foresees that the constituencies can be autonomous, insular or both. "That is the document that is in Madrid and therefore there is no reason to try to divert attention", he declared.
"Let the Statute be approved if they want in a single reading and then let's talk in the Parliament of the Canary Islands", he concluded.
ACN Press