"Two years in which we have worked to end a long decade of darkness and that are conditioned, irremediably, by a pandemic that has forever changed our way of living, thinking and acting." This is how the president of the Cabildo, María Dolores Corujo, summarized her first two years in government, during a press conference in which she took stock of the first half of her term, which she says has been thought "by and for the people."
Corujo began her speech by recalling the commitments made in her inauguration speech, “the guidelines of a government group that came to work to restore dignity to this institution, respect for the workers of this house and social peace to the staff of the Tourist Centers; of a group of people sensitive to the situation that dozens of human beings and social groups in a situation of extreme vulnerability were suffering and excited to undertake the projects that this island so demands and needs. A group of people who immediately began working with rigor and transparency to release the moorings that bound us to the past.”
“And the truth is,” Corujo defended, “is that, despite the obstacles we have encountered along the way and the mistakes we may have made, because no one is exempt from them, we can say that the balance is satisfactory despite the complex and extraordinary situation that has accompanied us during the last year and a half.”
“We have put an end to the forms and practices of the darkest decade of democracy in the Cabildo of Lanzarote; we have torn down the walls erected during those years and built bridges with other administrations and with social and economic agents to build the future together from dialogue and respect. We have restored dignity to this Institution, humiliated and trampled on by the previous president, and we have given a notable boost to the work of social services. We have put an end to the hunt undertaken against the workers of this house and restored social peace to the unfairly treated staff of the Tourist Centers. And all this without knowing the difficulties that we were going to find in the management of this institution, hidden behind unbearable PowerPoint sessions and glued monologues that praised a more than deficient work”. In this sense, the president announced that they are "working on the approval of a series of procedural instructions that will provide legal certainty, agility and homogeneity to the Corporation, and the rigor and institutional character that it should always have had.”
“The pandemic that changed everything”
“But when we were processing the approval of our first Budgets, the pandemic that changed everything broke out. The world stopped and went into shock because no one was prepared for something like this,” the president recalled.
“The fight against the pandemic has focused all our energies and has forced us to set new priorities. We started working on social action so that nothing was lacking for the most disadvantaged groups, and we adopted measures that would allow us to face such an extraordinary situation on an island with enormous dependence on tourism. Luckily,” Corujo pointed out, “we have had the assistance coverage of the ERTE because, otherwise, we would have had a much worse time.”
“Despite the alarmist speeches of the doom-mongers, we refused a Temporary Employment Regulation File in the Art, Culture and Tourism Centers because it would have meant that Lanzarote and La Graciosa had surrendered, and we were not going to allow that. If they remained open,” Corujo argued, “the whole world would know that Lanzarote and La Graciosa remained open to face with hope the return of tourism and the recovery of economic activity and employment. The ERTE would have been, in addition, unnecessary, as endorsed by the auditors of the recently approved accounts, which reflect something more than 157,202 euros of profit.”
“Culture, sports, festive celebrations and many other ordinary activities have also been paralyzed during this time. For this reason, the 2021 Budgets emphasize social policies and aid to people who have been having the worst time, although they also contemplate direct aid to SMEs and the self-employed, although I must admit that we have been delayed and I sincerely apologize for it,” added Corujo.
The president stressed that the Budget includes a “notable” increase in the items allocated to social policies, and more than 40 million euros allocated to the Strategic Grant Plan. “In addition,” she recalled, “the Cabildo will have almost 250 million euros, expandable depending on the surpluses, to face the brutal economic recession caused by the pandemic.”
“With everything,” Corujo assured, “we have not been paralyzed during this time. We have continued working on the financing of the Island Cooperation Plan in Works and Services, attending to the demands of the town councils; in the distribution of the Canary Islands Development Funds for the period 2020-2021, destined for works in all the municipalities of the island for an amount of 31 million euros; in the tenders of the Social Services area and in that of 200 social houses in the Maneje neighborhood, which will be the first official protection houses to be built on the island in 26 years; in the commissioning of the four wind turbines that make up the 'Arrecife' Wind Farm; in the tender for the 'San Bartolomé' Wind Farm for 12 million euros; in the improvements made to the road network, executed or in progress; in the tender and/or completion of new sections on the Island Cycle Route; in the tender for several energy efficiency projects in public space as well as in a multitude of files from other areas. As you can see, the virus has not been able to stop us.”
The future
“I am optimistic by nature, and I believe that the end of the mandatory use of masks is a good omen,” Corujo said. “If the vaccination plan continues to progress as it has so far, this summer the reopening of tourism will be noticed and, by extension, the reactivation of employment and the recovery of the economy to the relief of companies, workers and families.”
“Great challenges await us, such as the ecological transition and digital transformation. The recent approval by the European Union of the Recovery, Transformation and Resilience Plan of the Spanish Economy, or Plan España Puede, is a great opportunity to start the transformation of our productive fabric under the umbrella of the extraordinary funds that have been enabled to overcome the crisis caused by the coronavirus.”
In addition, she announced that from the Cabildo they "trust" to "deploy the digital transformation of the Public Administration and the productive fabric, especially of small and medium-sized companies, as well as the digital skills of the whole society.”
Corujo announced that the Cabildo will prioritize that these public funds “are allocated to the ecological transition and the decarbonization of the economy; to combat social inequality and reduce the gender gap". "But, also, we will prioritize that they take into account the economic sectors of care; are conditioned to compliance with strict environmental and social criteria, and serve to build a more resilient society and sensitized to reverse the climate crisis,” she added.
María Dolores Corujo concluded by expressing “her gratitude and that of the government group of the Cabildo of Lanzarote towards all the essential personnel who, for more than a year, have been watching over the collective welfare with dedication, dedication and professionalism. I am completely sure,” she concluded, “that, as we already achieved in other times, together we will overcome this adversity and very soon we will be reborn with the best we have: with effort, generosity and solidarity.”
