A.A./A.C.
- Before getting to the lectern, before giving your speech as the new president of CC, you seemed quite restless, we imagine due to the responsibility of the moment. Were you nervous?
- No, the truth is I wasn't nervous. I was tired, because we've had very intense days, but the final result of the congress has been extraordinarily positive for many reasons, for the attendance, for the qualification of the attendees, and for having been able to create a new political organization full of enthusiasm, hope, and on the shoulders of young people, women, and men who have defended the brand. Everyone who participated has shown that they are clear about where we should be as a political organization. If we do it with generosity, with open-mindedness, and understanding that politics is a temporary matter, we will do well. It has become clear that CC is not owned by anyone; there are no domain records here. If we continue to open the party to society, we will be able to place CC and the island of Lanzarote in the context it deserves.
- We have been looking at the list of the Executive Committee, a long list, with many new names and with a strong presence of young people. Is that the change, that renewal, you are referring to?
- Indeed, we have a magnificent list, also composed of the ex-officio members. If I'm not mistaken, there are thirty elected people plus the ex-officio members who are representatives of the National Political Council and the National Executive Committee. In the Political Council there are forty-five full members and forty-five alternates, being the body of greatest representation of both the seven municipalities and the Island, the highest body between congresses of the island of Lanzarote.
- Entering the strictly political terrain, we would like to start the interview by asking you about the difficult role you must play from this moment on, after having apparently overcome the crisis caused by the departure of the Canarian Nationalist Center (CCN) and the Nationalist Party of Lanzarote (PNL). Are you really motivated and convinced of your mission, do you think you will be able to convince the people?
- The difficult and complicated thing for CC is that in politics you climb with many difficulties but you go down at a dizzying speed. The most important challenge we have is to recover all that load of enthusiasm and hope that CC poured out. We must not forget that we are talking about the first political formation in the Canary Islands, the only one that has representation in all the institutions of the Island, with the important number of public positions. The most important challenge is to restore the illusion, and we intend to do so without resting on our laurels. If we were to ask the guests, the delegates, or the media who were witnesses of the congress, they would surely highlight that atmosphere of illusion, of desire, of hope, of courage to do the things we must do. We must not rest on our laurels, because the objectives we have are fundamentally that what has happened in the Arrecife Gran Hotel happens in the seven municipalities, that we open this political formation of doors and windows so that society penetrates CC. We must do everything with generosity, knowing how to take a step back those of us who have to, that we incorporate new people, young people, that people who make up the most prepared generation in our history; we want to do it in each and every one of the municipalities. But it must be done with coherence, as we are doing in all the institutions, not only in the defense of the public and general interest, but knowing how to place the island of Lanzarote in the context and in the place that corresponds to it. It is not about going against anyone, it is about strengthening Lanzarote and making an alliance with Fuerteventura to walk in the same direction, because we know each other, because we have the same problems and because we need the same solutions, and because by making Lanzarote and Fuerteventura stronger we will make the Canary Islands stronger. And all that combination of illusions, of hopes, of municipal strategies and of work in all the institutions, of strategic alliances like this one of the Eastern Axis with Fuerteventura, will place CC in the return of what we have borrowed from the population of Lanzarote and from its electorate.
- Several curious things happened at the congress, but one caught our attention: Paulino Rivero named the mayor of San Bartolomé, Miguel Martín, as one more of the coalition's public officials on the Island; then the president of the table, Luis Morales, "forgot" to say that the CCN was also represented through Miguel Martín. In the end, you had to arrive to try to correct what seemed like a collective "lapse". What does this mean, that they take it for granted that the mayor of San Bartolomé is and will continue to be in CC?
- Until proven otherwise, Miguel Martín is a member of the CCN, and CC lends its support to him in the San Bartolomé City Council. We appreciated his presence at the congress, that of the PP and that of Asamblea por Lanzarote (APL) and that of the large number of social groups from the social, trade union and business fields. We thank them all for joining us.
- Yes, but Paulino Rivero, we insist that it could have been a lapse, named him as a public official of CC.
- Yes, well, it could have been a lapse. Anyway, I am sure that in this new CC, which has no brands or domain records, which has no ownership and does not belong to anyone because it belongs to all the nationalists who support its project, changes will occur. We are convinced that a political form like CC that has a vocation for government needs to add; although dividing is an easier task, we are going to leave that role to others to play it as they please.
- By the way, there were some significant absences as far as political parties are concerned, because neither the PSOE nor the PIL were present. Were you bothered that your government partners in the Cabildo and in the Arrecife City Council did not attend?
- We had important support from all our people from all the islands, from El Hierro, from Tenerife, from La Palma, from Fuerteventura..., a large representation that has its merit knowing how much it costs us to travel to attend the congresses and also knowing that they were there from Friday afternoon to attend the Permanent, that they spent the night here and that they spent the next day here. We have to thank them because they are a multitude of obligations not only public, but the ones that hurt the most, which are the family ones, and that are left clear during the weekend. Not only do we thank them, but we will try to reward them as much as we can.
- Sorry to insist. Weren't you surprised by the absence of the PSOE considering that they are your government partners and that even the PP was represented at the congress?
- I received three or four calls from the PSOE and its general secretary, Manuel Fajardo, throughout the congress to congratulate me. In the afternoon we managed to talk and he conveyed a cordial congratulations and his wish that the voyage of CC would have a positive impact on the general interests of Lanzarote. It was a sincere congratulations from the highest representative of the socialists. I also received a congratulatory call from another representative of the PSOE, the mayor of Tías, José Juan Cruz Saavedra.
- When you say that everyone wants your appointment to translate into good things for Lanzarote, we imagine you are referring to the Government of the Canary Islands. Of course, you cannot complain about the maximum governmental representation that attended your election. From the president, Adán Martín, to councilors such as Manuel Fajardo Feo, José Miguel Ruano, Antonio Castro Cordobez to deputy councilors, general directors...
- The truth is that I was very supported, but not only in presences in the congress. The challenge that we put on the table in the closing speech was an absolutely direct challenge to the president of the Government and the members of the Executive. We told them that on our part we have done our homework...
- And now it's their turn to do it, right?
- Exactly; now it is up to the Government of the Canary Islands to correspond with the work we have done so that investments arrive. It is true that we are seen from the outside as a powerful island from the point of view of employment, among other things because we currently have more than fifty thousand jobs, we receive more than two million visitors, we have the most prepared generation of young people in history, we have a high potential from the point of view of landscape and nature and a tremendously dynamizing human, social and economic power, but that does not mean that they have to give us what is rightfully ours. Lanzarote has problems, and those problems have to do with the structuring of our coexistence, with the fact that our basic infrastructures linked to the lives of citizens such as health or education are quite improvable and need reinforcement. Perhaps this reinforcement is not in the large infrastructures, perhaps it is not in the roads, because we do not need more, but we do need to improve the ones we have and we have to have an island in the context it deserves, being a pole of economic generation in the Canary Islands. We ask the president of the Government and the councilors to be in solidarity with the island of Lanzarote, to realize that if they do so they will be benefiting the entire Canary Islands by consolidating the creation and stability of the employment that has already been generated.
- One thing that caught the attention of many, including us, is that there were many women on the table of the presidency of the congress and very few in the representation of public positions and organic positions of importance. Aren't you a bit macho in CC?
- (Laughs) No, not at all. In the Political Council we have fifty percent men and fifty percent women and in the Executive Committee the same...
- Yes, but how many of them will be heads of list in some town hall, in the Cabildo or in the Parliament of the Canary Islands?
- Well, we will try to make it so. This issue is already clearly reflected in the society of Lanzarote today. We have a very important challenge around equality; when the world of the public has been more protagonized by men, we see that the trend is changing, and we must promote that the change continues to occur. Lanzarote has a matriarchal society that occurs mainly in rural environments but has been repeated in all places of the island's geography throughout its history. We are talking about a private matriarchy that must take a step forward towards the public. If we see the figures of university students, of professionals that we have prepared, we will realize that the balance is tilted towards women because there are more, and we have to correspond to what is happening in the society of Lanzarote with what happens in CC. Fortunately, we already have around fifty percent of public and organic positions of CC represented by women, and I hope they take another step forward to transfer the traditional matriarchy of Lanzarote to politics.
- What reading have you given to the relevant presence of all the representatives of Asamblea por Lanzarote, from María Isabel Déniz to Inés Rojas passing through Sergio Machín or Celso Betancort, are they closer to unity?
- We have to thank their presence, that they have accepted the invitation that we have extended to them in all their representations, including the management. We put on the table that we firmly believe in unity, in integration and in nationalist collaboration. We must not forget that Lanzarote is the island that has the most nationalist vocation, and we must seek unity. It must be remembered that eighty percent of the electorate in 2003 was with parties of Canarian obedience, a vocation of non-support for centralist parties; in the case of Lanzarote, only the municipality of Tías is legitimately governed by the PSOE, in the rest of the municipalities and institutions of the Island, nationalism is mostly defended in dizzying percentages. We are very clear that we have to go that way, and that if we have a vocation for government in town halls, Cabildo and Government of the Canary Islands, which we have, we must favor the sum. On our part it will not remain, and what we put on the table is collaboration, unity and if possible integration.
- We assume that in the course of the congress something would move you, some message, some congratulations moved you more than others. Was it like that?
- Well, perhaps what fills you the most and you appreciate is not only the hugs and congratulations; what makes you happiest is when you see young and veteran people who have been in CC who approach you to tell you in the eyes and squeezing your shoulders count on me. We are living the aura of the moment, the spectacular and hopeful success of the III Island Congress. However, things are hard, but when one assumes a position like this one has to do it with all the consequences. As my grandmother used to say, whoever seeks evils on their own account goes to hell to complain. We have a challenge of responsibility, which is going to be bitter and hard. We want to rely on the team and the people who are in CC. For us, the most important thing in this new journey is not going to be the galactic leaders.