- What is the most important thing you have left to do before the current Legislature concludes?
- The issue that we are going to give the final push to before the current Legislature concludes is that of planning. We are one of the few tourist town halls that have the General Plan adapted to the Land Law, and now the obligation we have before December 31 is to adapt the General Plan to the Guidelines Law. Our forecast is to go to the initial approval, put it to public information and in the months remaining of this year go to the provisional approval and send it to the Government for final approval. We are totally convinced that this is necessary for the renovation of the tourist infrastructure, and that is why we want to do it before the Legislature ends. Puerto del Carmen celebrates 40 years since the arrival of the first tourist to the area on October 12, and if we delay with the elections in between, we are talking about the year 2008, 2009, without doing anything, and we are concerned because of the contacts we have with the business sector, we are concerned about the issue of renovation, because the economy depends not only on the municipality of Tías, but on the entire island of Lanzarote. And that is what we are working on, because the ultimate goal is to establish a consortium, taking the initial step in this Legislature. It would be a consortium involving the City Council, businesses, the Cabildo, the Canary Islands Government and the central Government.
- That General Plan, and your demand that its determinations be included in the Special Territorial Plan (PTE), was interpreted as a "protest" on your part, and the rest of the Lanzarote mayors, to the document presented by the Minister of Territorial Policy of your same party, Carlos Espino. Do you regret having had that prominence?
- It has not been my objective to confront anyone, but the City Council of Tías cannot afford to remain calm in the face of the development of planning, which is the future of any municipality. And with this I am not saying that we want a planning to grow more in tourist beds. We have a General Plan to maintain the 30,000 tourist beds, which belong to 210 different owners. This is not Playa Blanca, which belongs to 20. Of those 210 owners, 50 only have 2,000 beds, and the tour operators, as the tourism market is, have taken away their guarantee and no longer send them clients. That is a concern for the City Council, which has to create the necessary mechanisms to make a pool with those beds, reorient them and relocate them anywhere in Puerto del Carmen. We, to maintain the economy of Puerto del Carmen, have to fight to maintain that amount of beds, and for that the first thing to have up to date is the planning. Planning to demolish, to build new, to renovate and to diversify.
- Diversify in what way?
- When we talk about diversifying the offer, we are not saying that everything should be golf courses, marinas. Here we are talking about nautical tourism, that they finish the dock, see all the possibilities we have with the sea, maritime excursions, diving centers. Then, health tourism, reorienting the area of Pocillos and Matagorda to what the family is. The golf course is underway and will be finished, and take advantage of the route of trails, with a study we did with the Commonwealth of the South, and sports tourism, with an urban park of 180,000 meters, on a land whose majority belongs to the City Council and where we want to go to an administrative concession. We want to make municipal sports schools, with a double objective: for tourists and for residents. We also want to do something related to water, not an aquapark, because that is out of fashion and no longer sells in Lanzarote, but something more original. That is the position and the approach that the City Council of Tías has put on the table, now it is necessary to enter into discussion and debate.
- And as for rehabilitation?
- Puerto del Carmen is currently structured in four zones, with the golf course area and the Rancho Texas, which we can say is the leisure area; the town, which we would say is residential; at the other end, Pocillos and Matagorda, which is tourist; but what worries the City Council and should worry everyone is between these last two zones, where it was built 40 years ago, with partial plans and as it was coming out. So, here we have the General Plan approved but in that area we can practically not act, and we refer it to a detailed and detailed study, which we call ARI, Integral Rehabilitation Area, where we have everything, residential, tourist, commercial of all kinds, which is not bad, but we have to reorganize it. And that is what I have not been able to award yet, and I want to do it before the Legislature ends. But my question is, why am I going to embark on the ARI if I have no guarantee that the PTE can be included in this land pool that we have here; to spend 300,000 euros on a study and not get anywhere? That would be deceiving people, creating false expectations.
- And what has happened that there are people within your own party, such as the Minister Carlos Espino, whom you have not managed to convince of this need to include it in the PTE, or like Enrique Pérez Parrilla, who has described it as nonsense?
- I do not want to commit any nonsense. We have the planning approved, and when there is an approved planning, it is not that the government team of the day, in this case the PSOE or the City Council that it is, gets 100 percent. If we had wanted to get 100 percent in the General Plan of Tías, we would not have approved it yet, but we would be fighting. With the Plan we have had to reach a consensus with a monitoring commission, a consensus with the Government of the Canary Islands, fundamentally with Tourism and Territorial Policy; we have had to have favorable reports from Coasts, the Ministry of Defense, Aena, and the Cabildo, which also reported favorably. And we must not forget that, that the Cabildo reported favorably to the General Plan of Tías, and it was last year, around the corner. So, what does Tías say? In the PTE respect me at least the approved General Plan, because it is the only possible option that the City Council has to renovate and try to put that area on track, because if not, it will get out of hand, and then it will be too late to act.
- And what happens, Espino does not like your General Plan or it is difficult for him and he does not want to fit it into the PTE?
- I do not know if he likes it or not, what I know is that I have an approved General Plan, adapted to the Land Law, strictly complies with the Guidelines Law, we are not going to build more beds, and what we intend is to get started and make decisions.
- But what is happening that there is this sparking?
- I do not know what is happening, I know the approach that we are going to defend from the City Council of Tías. And we have already declassified many partial plans and we have denied some residential licenses on the first line of the sea, such as the 70 homes that we denied the day after the General Plan. What now where 70 homes can be built now a 4-star hotel can be built? But it is sad that a plot on the first line of the sea, in an obviously tourist area, 70 homes are built being able to build a hotel, always within the limits of the beds that the City Council of Tías has.
- And did you explain all this to Carlos Espino, did you talk to him about it?
- The Cabildo knows this perfectly. In order for them to inform us, we had to bring the stack of papers. And the Cabildo was in the conferences that were held in the month of November in El Fondeadero, on the occasion of that tourist study. And the Cabildo has the Memories of those conferences. That now he wants me to send them officially in an extract? We will also send it to him, but the Cabildo knows it, it is not alien to this.
- In conclusion, would it be serious in your opinion that the PTE did not include what is included in the General Plan of Tías?
- Yes, the word is correct is that; it is a serious problem for the municipality of Tías that the PTE does not include in the General Plan of Tías, with a favorable report from the Cabildo.
- And do you think that request will end up prospering?
- We will continue in that fight.
- Do you think the PTE will come out in this Legislature?
- Now I have my doubts, but it would be a mistake not to approve it in this Legislature. But we must not only focus on the PTE, because another of the big problems of Lanzarote is the PIOT. And do not misinterpret that the City Councils want to load the PIOT. In the Cabildo, not only this government, which has not had much time but has not moved anything either, but all those who have passed, with a PIOT totally outdated, to which nobody has put their hand. And the problem with this is that it does not come out until 2009.
- Do not you think that this pulse of yours with the Cabildo for the PTE will take its toll among the citizens, since it has been wanted to make understand that you want to go beyond the current model of containment of growth?
- I am with what the people of my municipality think, and the people of my municipality live, directly or indirectly, solely and exclusively from tourism, and that is why everyone is concerned about tourism. I have a study of what the people of the municipality think about the diversification of the offer, and the neighbors want the offer to be diversified, without burning more territory. The City Council at no time proposes to burn more territory.
- Is Lanzarote in the middle of a tourism crisis?
- I would not say crisis, but we are not in the best moment. We are in a moment of reflection. We have to reorient Lanzarote as a destination, without losing quality, but we cannot forget that we are talking about an island not with 70,000 inhabitants, but with 140,000, and with 70,000 tourist beds with which we have to live the 140,000. That is the reality that we have had to live, and whoever does not want to understand it, is doing a disservice to the island. People are no longer hooked only with the beach, but we have to offer other things.
- It is said that Playa Blanca has "eaten" Costa Teguise touristically. Is the same thing happening to Puerto del Carmen?
- I do not think so, but I do say that Puerto del Carmen has to go to the renovation, that is the key but that does not happen. And that is why I am going to defend that idea, and I will continue in that war.
- Tías and Yaiza make up the Commonwealth of the South. Do not you regret promoting and developing joint initiatives with José Francisco Reyes, who is considered by many as the "black sheep" of the mayors of the island?
- I with the Macomunidad defend the things that affect us both, and to date we have raised and achieved many things, which maybe if we had gone alone, we would not have achieved. This is a Commonwealth of services, and then each one orders its territory as it seems convenient.
-Tías is one of the municipalities that has been most affected by the phenomenon of immigration. Coalición Canaria has brought up again projects to deal with this, such as the residence law. What do you think?
- We in Tías have faced the multiculturalism that we have to achieve integration, because there is no other way. Keep in mind that we are in Europe, and if we are in Europe, we are with all the consequences, for one thing and for the other.
- The latest surveys released indicate that in the City Council of Tías the current distribution of forces would be maintained in the next elections. Would you like to go for re-election again?
- You know what is said in these cases: we are available to what the governing bodies of the party say. If the party proposes it, I would have no problem accepting it.
- And do you think that you will continue to be equally supported by the party or that the discussion about the PTE will take its internal toll on the PSOE?
- In Tías we have no contradiction in terms of the approach that the City Council is taking. The party in Tías is clear, we know the realities of the municipality and we know what are the advantages that can bring us in the future.
- That debate about the PTE and its staunch defense of the interests of the municipality has made some see him as the "rebel" within socialism. Do you feel that way?
- I have never been characterized as a rebel, I am characterized by defending the interests of the citizens of the municipality of Tías, and I will continue to defend them. You have to govern not only for those who have voted for one, but for all citizens.