PHOTOS: Sergio Betancort.
Eva de Anta has become the new mayor of Arrecife this Wednesday. In an extraordinary and urgent Plenary, which has developed without surprises, the socialist has obtained the votes in favor of the 12 councilors of the PSOE, CC and PIL that make up the pact and government group. De Anta replaces her party colleague, José Montelongo, in office, who left the Mayor's Office of the city after the closure of the instruction of the Montecarlo case, in which he is charged in two parts. In her speech, the new mayor has alluded to her predecessor, stating that his resignation "is a gesture that honors him, as honored was his management", and has promised that she will work "as a team", counting "on the opposition" and "with people always at the center of our management".
Before the moment of voting for the new municipal manager arrived, the socialist councilor who enters to replace José Montelongo has taken office. This is Carmelo David Duarte, who occupied the next position on the PSOE electoral list in the past municipal elections.
The session has taken place in a plenary hall attended by political officials and various authorities of the island, such as the commissioner of the National Police, Luis Mayandía. The presence of the leadership of the Socialist Party in Lanzarote stood out in the front row, with its general secretary, María Dolores Corujo, and the secretary of Organization, José Juan Cruz Saavedra, at the head. Several socialist councilors in the Cabildo and councilors of the party in San Bartolomé or Teguise have also attended; in addition to members of other formations, such as the CC councilor in the Cabildo (and PSOE government partner in the institution) Echedey Eugenio or the councilor of Ciudadanos, Benjamín Perdomo.
After the inauguration of Duarte, who has been received with applause from those present, the secretary has begun the process for the vote to choose the new mayor. As expected, De Anta has been the only one of the spokespersons of the three forces that make up the government group that has said "yes" when asked by the secretary if she was presenting her candidacy. All the spokespersons of the opposition have also done so. De Anta has obtained the vote of the councilors of her party, of CC and of the PIL, which add up to a total of 12. Although this figure does not represent the absolute majority of the councilors that make up the corporation, as established, De Anta has become mayor as she is the one who has obtained the most votes.
Among the ovation of the public, among others with her parents and the members of her party standing, Eva de Anta, smiling, has received the baton of command of the city from Rafael Juan González. Afterwards, already officially converted into mayor, she has taken her place in the seat that corresponds to the first mayor and has given the floor to the spokespersons of the different political groups.
Promises to put "people at the center"
All the formations of the opposition have agreed to welcome De Anta, but also to remind her of her "responsibility" and make various reproaches for the management of the government group. Ganemos and Somos Lanzarote have alluded particularly to José Montelongo. Ganemos has congratulated that Arrecife no longer has "an accused mayor", while Somos has questioned the performance of the City Council as a private prosecution in the Montecarlo case, stating that they have "put municipal interests at risk".
For her part, the new mayor has begun her speech thanking the councilors who have given her their vote and also to the forces of the opposition for offering their outstretched hands, whose collaboration, she has said, she will demand "more often than they believe". Eva de Anta has praised the "personal decision" of José Montelongo to present his resignation "until his judicial situation is resolved". For the new mayor, this is "a gesture that honors him". "As honored was his management", she has added, "both as a councilor" and in the Mayor's Office. Eva de Anta has then referred to her time in municipal politics and to the past stages that she shared, in addition to with Montelongo, among others, with the former mayor Cándido Reguera, of whom she has said that she has a "fond memory".
To explain what her line of work will be, she has begun by quoting the mayor of Madrid, Manuela Carmena. "The important thing about us is what we do", she has said, pointing out that the "important thing" is the projects "for the benefit of the city". She has also defended the "continuity" of the pact with CC and PIL, stating that it is a "good pact" and that it has already "begun to bear fruit". She has stated that "continuity" will also be given to the PSOE electoral program.
Eva de Anta has made during her speech an allegation in favor of teamwork, convinced that the "sum of efforts and wills" is "synonymous with efficiency". Thus, she has promised that she will carry out her management both with the government group and with the opposition, "without forgetting the great team of municipal workers".
The mayor has promised to "carry out" the General Plan of Ordination and work so that the neighborhoods are "spaces of coexistence and quality of life". She has stopped especially to talk about a 'social' management. "I learned from my parents honesty, effort, and above all the attention and affection to take care of those you love most", she has said, adding that at the head of Social Services she has "seen suffering up close". In this context, she has promised to put "people always at the center" of her management. "And this is not just a phrase", she has continued, promising, among other things, to attend to "the most immediate needs" or to give "assistance to those who are left homeless", referring to evictions. She has also advocated for the creation of employment, with reintegration policies and training as tools to achieve it.
Eva de Anta has referred at the end of her speech to the "co-responsibility" of the Cabildo and the Government of the Canary Islands towards the "third city" of the archipelago. "We will not cease in our efforts to make ourselves heard", she has said. At the end of her speech, she has advocated for removing from Arrecife the "ugly duckling label with which it carries" and has quoted Víctor Hugo: "The future has many names. For the weak it is the unattainable. For the fearful, the unknown. For the brave it is the opportunity".
The opposition asks for "transparency" and "changes" for "the social majority"
In their speeches, the spokespersons of the opposition groups have made reproaches to De Anta both for the management that the government group of which she is part has been doing, as for her work at the head of the Department of Social Services and, especially, for the "lack of transparency" and consensus with the opposition of the Consistory. Both Ganemos and Ciudadanos have expressly alluded to the lack of a Board of Spokespersons that, Leticia Padilla has pointed out, they have been "claiming for months".
The spokesperson of Ciudadanos, Delia Hernández, has considered "null" the coordination between councilors and has alluded to deficiencies such as "dirty plots", "neighborhoods with deficient services" or "socio-cultural centers without functioning", considering that "until now", none of this "has improved". Regarding transparency, she believes that it is "insufficient" and has pointed out that the municipal transparency portal is "painful and shameful". Hernández has asked that the government group "abandon apathy" and that it "inform" the opposition.
The spokesperson of Ganemos has lamented that José Montelongo left "through the back door", to congratulate herself later that "at least we no longer have an accused mayor". Among her reproaches, Leticia Padilla has particularly highlighted the rejection of the audit of the municipal debt. "They do not want the neighbors to be aware that they pay bills for corruption".
Borja Rubio, on the other hand, has declared himself "surprised" because the PSOE "raised an accused" to be mayor. In addition to criticizing the performance of the City Council in the Montecarlo case, he has alluded to how convulsive the politics of the capital Consistory is. "This Plenary is a democratic anomaly to which unfortunately the City Council of Arrecife has us accustomed", he has said, recalling changes in previous legislatures due to breaches of pact or votes with "turncoats". He has reproached the new mayor that she has been "raising her hand for five years in decisions that go against the social majority". "Arrecife needs a change, which although I believe that you do not represent", he has told her, emphasizing that she has the opportunity to "do things differently from her predecessors".
Rubio has demanded improvements in the coastline, in the diversification of culture or in the "educational fabric so hit by the autonomous government", has criticized De Anta for the "questionable success" with which she has attended to the evicted people while she was a councilor of Social Services and has asked her to "distrust" in the PGO, stating that a plan is sought "tele-directed from Las Palmas". "We wish you all the luck, but we do not expect anything new, only continuity", he has said, assuring that the "tripartite" is leaving the "sad legacy" that Arrecife is one of the cities "poorest in Spain" and with "more unemployment in the European Union".
The last spokesperson of the opposition to intervene has been Dácil Garcías, of the PP, who has recited a fragment of a song by Miguel Bosé to reproach her management of the municipal social services and, particularly, of the home care service. Garcías has asked the new mayor to "change the course of this City Council" and take Arrecife "out of the poverty ranking".
For his part, the new councilor has thanked the welcome that all the spokespersons have shown him and has stated that he arrives with "the will to work rigorously and prioritize the general interest". De Anta's government partners, Samuel Martín of CC and Isabel Mesa of the PIL have defended their favorable vote to make her mayor, alluding to the pact and the need to give "political stability" to the city.
