Photos: Sergio Betancort
Euphoria has taken over the PSOE headquarters in Lanzarote this Sunday, which has celebrated its electoral victory with songs and hugs. "And this does not end here," said Manuel Fajardo Palarea, after becoming the new senator for Lanzarote. "Starting tomorrow we are going for the town halls, with socialist mayors and a president of the Cabildo who restores dignity to it," said the socialist, who was hoisted on the shoulders by party colleagues.
"I am nothing without you," said Fajardo Palarea, who wanted to highlight the work done by all the members of the PSOE during the electoral campaign. In addition, the new senator, who with 98.28% counted has obtained 15,673 votes, exceeding by 11 points and more than 6,000 votes the second force, which has been CC, also wanted to highlight that it has been a "dignified, clean and without brawls campaign".
"And I want to thank the support that all the parties have given me today by congratulating me. I think that shows that we have done things well, with a lot of respect and thinking about a better Canary Islands, a better Lanzarote, a better Graciosa and a better Spain. I think that has sunk in and that is why people have given us their trust. That is why and because of the work of all the colleagues who are here with me," he added.
Among the support received, the new senator for Lanzarote has highlighted that of the former president of the Government of Spain, José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, of whom he said that he sent him a message when the count had barely begun. "José Luis is another conejero, he loves us and we love him. And he loves us and he will defend us wherever necessary too," he said.
The island secretary of the PSOE, "doubly happy"
"I can only say one word that means everything. Thank you, thank you and thank you. Finally the island of Lanzarote has a socialist senator, the best possible senator to represent our island. He will be the voice of Lanzarote, the voice of the Canary Islands and will place our island in the place that corresponds to us," said the general secretary of the PSOE, María Dolores Corujo, celebrating that the party has managed to have a senator for the island again after eight years, when Marcos Hernández left the Upper House after two legislatures.
Corujo, who while acknowledging some concern at the beginning of the electoral count, ended the night totally "happy and content", as she acknowledged to La Voz. "And doubly happy because we have Ariagona González as a national deputy," added the island secretary of the PSOE, who is also convinced that what happened this Sunday will be transferred to the local elections and will bring "a change to the Canary Islands".
"Necessarily in our land a key change is required after 30 years of a government that I have called the regime, of CC and the PP, and that change we are going to transfer to the island of Lanzarote, to all the municipalities and also to the Canary Islands," said the island secretary of the PSOE, who also celebrated the victory of her party at the national level, where the PSOE has positioned itself as the first force achieving 123 seats in Congress, compared to the 85 it obtained in the 2016 elections, and 121 senators in the Upper House, compared to the 43 it achieved three years ago.
González: "Tomorrow we will begin to build the Spain we want"
"Spain is red and feminist," they sang at the PSOE headquarters after the intervention of Ariagona González, who was "happy" to have become the new deputy for Lanzarote in Congress, after the PSOE obtained 154,064 votes in the province of Las Palmas and three deputies in the elections to the Lower House. And it is that, in addition, the PSOE conejero also had eight years without a deputy in Congress after the passage of Miguel González through the Lower House from 2008 to 2011. "Starting tomorrow we will begin to build the Spain we want", said the new deputy.
"And that change that is going to take place in Spain is going to be transferred within a month to the Government of the Canary Islands, to the Cabildo and to the municipalities of Lanzarote. We are going to achieve that that red color that Spain has become will also become the Canary Islands", said Ariagona González. "Now what we have left is work and more work to have Ángel Víctor Torres in the Government of the Canary Islands, Loli Corujo in the Cabildo of Lanzarote, Eva de Anta in the Mayor's Office of Arrecife and the different candidates to our municipalities there in a month", she concluded.
Fajardo's "maxim": "Obedience to the people of Lanzarote"
For his part, Manuel Fajardo Palarea has highlighted that among the first initiatives he wants to take to the Upper House is the need to "change the Hydrocarbons Law and try to recover the space of the Arrecife barracks and "some pieces of land that are very important for the development of the Lanzarote marina and for the Chinijo archipelago", as he pointed out. "And the next mayor of Arrecife, Eva de Anta, will have my full support in some measures," added Manuel Fajardo Palarea, stating that one of the first things he will do after taking office as senator, "is to comply with the residents of Valterra" affected by the lawsuit of the ownership of their houses.
"And a maxim, obedience to the people of Lanzarote and La Graciosa," said the new senator, who also said that he will try "by all means" to create "a territorial group of senators to make the Canary Islands visible"
