The mayor of Teguise, Olivia Duque, spoke this Wednesday on Radio Lanzarote-Onda Cero to talk about the decision of the only Vox councilor in the municipality, Ginés González, to leave the party of Santiago Abascal, but maintain his areas in the municipal government.
Teguise was the only municipality in the Canary Islands that closed a government agreement with Vox. Against the guidelines of the general secretary of Coalición Canaria, Fernando Clavijo, who had established a "red line" with the far-right formation.
Last year, González (Vox) offered his support to Coalición Canaria and the Popular Party so that they could form a government in Teguise. Afterwards, the nationalist mayor Olivia Duque integrated him into her own government team, giving him the areas of the Local Police, Civil Protection and Traffic and the third deputy mayoralty.
"I cannot continue in a formation that forces its representatives to abandon their principles," González said in a press conference. This decision was made after the national leadership of Vox decided to break the agreements of the autonomous communities where it governed with the PP, after Feijóo accepted the distribution of 400 migrant children and adolescents.
"What I hope is to continue working in the line in which we have been working during this year and, therefore, that is the only thing that keeps me awake at night, nothing else keeps me awake at night," defended the mayor Olivia Duque during the morning show Buenos días, Lanzarote.
The agreement between Coalición Canaria and the Popular Party is shielded by the party agreements at the island and regional level between the nationalists and the popular, but the support of Vox has been fundamental to form a government. "That doesn't give me peace of mind, but it doesn't take it away either, I'm here to work," indicates the nationalist, who has confessed that what keeps her uneasy is knowing "if she will be able to continue working with stability."
"This year is an important year in which we have strengthened bases, in which we have talked a lot, in which we have also discussed, but in which we have finally met," highlights Duque, who defends that she "would like that stability to be maintained in Teguise."
For the moment, it remains to be seen whether Ginés González, who has moved to the group of non-attached members, will become a defector, after having abandoned the party with which he entered as a councilor to the plenary session of Teguise.
Despite the fact that Duque "does not want to close doors" to sit down and talk with other formations, she states that she "obviously" has her "preferences", which are to maintain the government with the Popular Party and Ginés González himself. Thus, she indicates that "it does not mean that at a certain moment" she has to sit down "with Nueva Canarias, or them with me, or with Primero Teguise. Obviously I don't talk about the PSOE because the agreement we have is at a regional and island level and I don't even consider it," she continues.
"I have always said that Ginés gave me peace of mind. I spoke of Ginés and I spoke of Vox because I did not relate them completely. Knowing Ginés as I have known him this year, there were things in him, in his way of talking to me about certain issues that did not position him in that extreme right," the mayor said during her intervention in the radio program.
To conclude, when asked if she would govern with a defector in Teguise, after the attacks of her party to Juan Sosa (San Borondón), Olivia Duque has pointed out that "the situation is not the same". In this case, the nationalist mayor defends that Ginés González was already in the government group, so "he is not going to improve the condition he had in the City Council." Duque insists that "he was already a councilor for a political party, while Sosa left a political party and entered to govern to give stability to a Government and he did improve his condition."
