In his office at the Town Hall, surrounded by hundreds of sheets of paper that make his work table narrow, the southern mayor spoke for an hour with LA VOZ about everything and everyone, raising his tone and the criticisms as the conversation progressed. When entering political matters, he was no longer so sure. He is not convinced that he will be able to retain an absolute majority and admits that the PNL will pay the cost of having left CC. Now, he looks towards the PIL with hopes of an alliance, because "ApL is already with CC". Reyes fuels his own fire of controversy once again.
Are you concerned about the new ruling against a tourist construction license granted by your Town Hall, which is also the first ruling known about the appeals filed by the Cabildo regarding the Las Coloradas plan?
Not at all. I'm as calm as before. This is just an administrative procedure. It's for a trifle. Until 1997, the ordinances of the partial plans were not published, because the Town Halls understood that it was the Department of Territorial Policy that approved the partial plans in the last instance, and therefore, until a ruling that came out in '97, the ordinances of the partial plans were not published. Now it is rectified and remedied. I wish all appeals were ruled on like that. The Cabildo will see if there is a missing stamp to appeal it. And since those who appeal it get paid well, they are interested in appealing, whether it is right or wrong.
Do you really believe that this is the fundamental reason why these appeals are filed for alleged urban planning violations?
There is no other. If all the licenses in Playa Blanca have been appealed, what was the intention? To paralyze Playa Blanca? To leave Playa Blanca upside down, with four things there, that are neither finished nor done?. That is, they seek to stop the growth of Lanzarote at the expense of Yaiza.
And why do you think the Cabildo has targeted Yaiza as you claim?
I know why, and it was clearly stated: it is to support Arrecife, the great capital. Until a few years ago, it was unthinkable that an institute could be built outside of Arrecife, because everything was concentrated in the capital, and thus, what they have done is to overcrowd Arrecife. Whoever listens to the Cabildo and reads the newspapers, it seems that nothing has been built anywhere in Lanzarote other than Yaiza, and it turns out that only in Arrecife has more been built than in the municipality of Yaiza, which is the one being persecuted. Any building in Arrecife carries more people than any town in this municipality. Let's take a "radiograph" to see where there is more construction and which municipality has more free space.
In any case, it seems that a good part of society believes that a lot is being built in Yaiza and almost without limit. Don't you notice that a good part of society has you...
[Interrupts] As the bad guy in the movie? I don't think that's the case, and especially in this municipality. It's clear that they want to crush Yaiza. Here they didn't want a marina, here the port is not expanded... Here nothing is done. It seems that this is not Lanzarote. Let them say what good those gentlemen have brought to Yaiza, except to crush it, criticize it and try to paralyze it at all costs. Now all the political parties will come to sell... But let's see what they are going to sell, when in a municipality with 12,500 inhabitants for more than fifteen years, the Health Center appears in the budgets of the Autonomous Community, and they still haven't done it. What are they coming to sell here? And so other political parties. Let the PSOE say what it has achieved. I have not had any help. For example, the children have not been left on the street without a school because this Town Hall has faced it.
The Cabildo has negotiated in a judicial process that it had open against a hotel complex in Playa Blanca a reduction of beds and a commitment not to continue building until 2011 in exchange for withdrawing the appeal against it. What do you think about this unprecedented decision that could set a trend?
I think that negotiation is not entirely good. You cannot negotiate in a partial plan without negotiating the partial plan as a whole. Let's see what those who have small plots, people from the island who I know have plots in that plan, say now. I think that negotiation has to go with the whole of the partial plan. I will not be able to understand that if it has been negotiated in this case, it cannot be negotiated in the others. I think an agreement should be reached with the whole of the partial plan, because otherwise there may be those who feel aggrieved.
But in this specific case, don't you think it is better that the Cabildo has reached this agreement instead of continuing judicially to the bitter end?
I think the promoters should not have negotiated anything, because they were going to win the lawsuit. The Cabildo had requested the paralysis of this hotel and the Court did not accept it at the time, because it said that there was no evidence of anything, and the Cabildo appealed it. At this time, if the promoters had wanted to, they would have the hotel open and running. I insist: all negotiations are good, but you must negotiate with the whole of the partial plan.
Do you think the Cabildo is going to end up negotiating in all cases?
I don't know, because the line to follow of these people... One day they say one thing and tomorrow they say another; they function according to what is said in the corners.
Are you referring to the Government Group of the Cabildo in general or to the Department of Territorial Policy in particular?
The one who is carrying this issue the most is the Minister of Territorial Policy (Carlos Espino). He seems to be very enlightened... I trust that the president will moderate things both with the territorial plan and everything else. Some are going too fast and think they are going to eat the world.
Are you convinced therefore that not everyone has the same vision on this issue in the Government Group of the Cabildo?
No, not everyone has the same vision. In the Government Group there are some more sane than others. The Cabildo has been a real disaster in this Legislature, with the ups and downs it has suffered, and I don't think it is working as it should now either. The councilors dedicate themselves a lot to taking care of each other. They go through the corridors looking at who enters an office, who enters another. I think they dedicate themselves a lot to being aware of each other.
How many urban planning licenses does the Cabildo currently have appealed against Yaiza?
All of them. Unless some cases have been withdrawn, as in the case of Puerto Calero and it seems that they are going to be withdrawn from that one they have negotiated... But the rest, all of them. If a prosecutor calls me one day, I will tell him to investigate what was intended to be done with this municipality, because everything has been appealed.
There are those who wonder why, if the Cabildo believes that Yaiza granted so many licenses irregularly, it does not file an appeal with the Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office...
Let them do it. Let them take me to Anti-Corruption. I sleep peacefully every night. That doesn't take away my sleep. What takes away my sleep is seeing so much mediocrity, so much falsehood, and that they take advantage of this as a political banner. It seems that Lanzarote has not grown except in Yaiza. As if nothing had been done in the rest of the island.
Do you regret anything you haven't done in your twelve years at the head of Yaiza?
I think I should have shouted more.
What does Yaiza lack and what does it have too much of?
It needs to consolidate, create those infrastructures that are still needed to consolidate the area, such as a large sports center aimed at the population that lives here and tourists, it needs two golf courses as a minimum, to have a complete tourist package, it lacks a Congress Palace or at least an auditorium for 1,500 people. We have already offered land for that auditorium, and nothing, while in Arrecife the problem is that they do not offer land. And what Yaiza has too much of is detractors. I invite those detractors to tour the entire municipality, to see what has been built and where it has not been built, to see the spaces that Yaiza has left free. This is the only municipality in the Canary Islands, and I don't know if there will be another in the Peninsula, that has left its beaches for the benefit of everyone, because in other places the hotels are built in front of the beaches.
Well, the Papagayo Arena...
It is not within the natural space, no matter how much you want to say it. It is on the beachfront, but not within the protected space. I was with César Manrique and he wanted to build hotels there. He thought it was fine, and he said it in front of me.
Do you not regret any license that you have granted?
None. What I disagree with is that they have caused a 'boom'. They caused a 'boom' in 91 with the Piot, they caused another in 98 with the moratorium. The fault of having triggered all this growth is the fear that they put in the body of businessmen, investors, landowners. This process should have been carried out in another way, without scaring people. The sad thing about all this is that so much talk about having a PIOT since 91... But that PIOT doesn't say anything, but there are ten beds less, twenty less, 1,000 less... This is not a PIOT, this is a real garbage. The PIOT has not solved anything. A PIOT is needed that says how many marinas Lanzarote needs and where, how many golf courses and where, how many theme parks, and where. That is a PIOT, the rest is garbage. What they have done is a patch to take a lot of money, money that has been taken by this gentleman who is making the PIOT and that they continue to maintain there. They tell us that we are making a parallel tourist territorial plan, but we know in advance the plan that the Cabildo is going to make, because it is going to dedicate it again to that: that one more bed...., because now they want more beds. I am going to make a territorial plan for my municipality, to walk towards the future, walk on a project.
"With the PIL we can reach an electoral agreement"
Next year you will complete 12 uninterrupted years of mandate in Yaiza, but it has been commented in recent weeks that some surveys indicate that you would lose the majority in Yaiza in the next elections. Do you know?
I don't have any surveys, and I'm not worried either. If I will run for re-election, it will depend on what the Committee says. There is a lot of time ahead and we will have to see what the party says and especially the Yaiza Committee.
After the departure of the PNL from CC. How are the conversations going about possible alliances for the 2007 elections?
Almost certainly it will be with Nueva Canaria. What do we want more for? To enter Parliament, the polls give Nueva Canarias only in Las Palmas, three or four deputies.
And in the area of Lanzarote?
Alone...
And are you not worried about going alone in Lanzarote in the face of the possibility of strong alliances such as CC - ApL?
We are not afraid of them. For a bad company, it is better to go alone.
There has been talk of some approaches of the PNL with some parties, such as the PP. Is it not true then?
With the PP I don't think an agreement is possible. There were conversations some time ago, but that was ruled out.
But when almost all parties try to seek an alliance, is the PNL so bad with the other parties or do they think so differently as not to try an electoral alliance with any?
No, but ApL already has its agreement with CC very closed. And who do you have left? The PIL. With the PIL it can be. The PIL I don't know what decision it is going to take at the last minute, if it is going to go with someone or it is going to risk going alone, thinking that it is going to be the most voted party, because if there is no modification of the electoral law, it does not enter the parliament. So, it will have to go with someone. We are open to any negotiation that adds up, not with the national parties, because that is ruled out, but with a party like the PIL, it can be.
And are there already contacts with the PIL?
Not yet, but as the time gets closer, there will be.
Do you see the PIL fallen after the split it suffered?
Well, according to the polls, it is still maintained.
And with the CCN are you not going to seek an agreement?
The CCN is not useful to you, because it does not enter Parliament. And in the insular area, the CCN is very bad. Once the PIL already went with them, and they did not arrive.
Will having left CC have a harvest for you in the next elections? Did being in CC add or subtract votes from the PNL?
We made CC among all, we sold the CC acronyms a lot, and surely all that and not being more will have a cost. There is a confusion, many people still think that I am in CC. There is a lot of confusion; you go down the street and they tell you, they don't know if you are in CC or where. And that is a political cost.
And will this translate into an electoral setback for the PNL?
It could be. Separations always subtract.
The instability that there was in the Cabildo until the current government group was formed and the one that persists in San Bartolomé, will it take its toll on some parties more than others?
I think it benefits the national parties, but above all I think the electoral system has to be changed. In Yaiza there will be at least seven parties. That is madness, a nonsense. This leads to the fact that one day the system will have to change, because it is becoming a tremendous division, fewer and fewer majorities are achieved, and it is seen that the municipalities that do not achieve a majority, that are a long time with pacts, do not stabilize, have many ups and downs and a lot of time is lost.
Do you think then that a system like that of other countries should be implemented, such as with a second electoral round between the two most voted parties if none obtained a majority in the first?
Yes, some system that ends all this division. There may be town halls like that of San Bartolomé that even with two groups cannot make a government group, and that is degenerating more and more, because there is no one to agglutinate that majority, and that is very bad for a municipality, because it creates tremendous instability and everything is paralyzed.
