At noon this Monday, José Miguel Pérez (PSC) was appointed president of the Island Council of Gran Canaria, after the motion of censure he had presented together with the councilors of Nueva Canarias (NC) prospered. The four votes of this formation plus the 12 of the PSC added sufficient majority to cause the change in the presidency, against the twelve against of the Popular Party (PP) and the abstention of Manuel Lobo (CC).
Pérez received the baton of command from Demetrio Suárez, the oldest councilor, and the first congratulations were offered by the censored president, José Manuel Soria (PP). With the acceptance of the baton of command, the socialists return to govern in the Cabildo after sixteen years.
The new president pledged during his speech to lead a "future project for Gran Canaria" that "places it in the place that corresponds to it, defining with precision the great objectives of the island, those that will be able to unite the island society and place the whole of social energies behind them".
This action "will be led by the Cabildo" although always "with a hand extended for the task that awaits us". A "hard but exciting" task, since Pérez insisted that "we embody the will of the majority of voters expressed on May 27 in the elections, who chose a political change and we consider ourselves called to put that resounding decision into practice".
As concrete actions to be executed in the next four years, he announced that "we will begin by setting up a new government structure in the Cabildo" that will enable, among other things, "the opening of its Commissions to citizen participation". They will also create a "broad staff" of Island Councils that will promote "the meeting between the institution and society in its multiple variants" which will be added to the implementation of "an Island Council of Municipalities" that will provoke greater participation of local corporations.
In general policy, the three great vectors that will articulate his program will be "society, the economy and the territory", he advanced. The socialists intend to give "an essential turn to social policies" with the establishment of an Island Plan for Minors and the Family and another to reduce educational failure. And in the tourist field "we will contribute to the renovation of the obsolete plant and create the Gran Canaria Sostenible brand".
These are, broadly speaking, the lines on which a government program will be focused that the new president advanced "will be presented in detail shortly, possibly in a plenary session that will be held as soon as possible.
UNJUSTIFIED MOTION
The censored president, José Manuel Soria, emphasized during his speech that the members of the new island government "intend to achieve by other means what they did not achieve at the polls", in reference to his opposition to the presentation of the motion of censure. In this sense, Soria, who never discussed its legitimacy, did ask aloud "how to justify a motion to a government action that has not started? Or do they intend to censor a government that has the majority support of the polls?".
For the socialist leader "the really democratic thing" would have been to wait for the government to start in the Cabildo and then raise it. Soria regretted that they had not given him time or possibilities to "establish a government agreement with some other formation" since "the announcement made by NC and PSC on the same election night cut off any other option of agreement".
Soria reproached the censors for "not having kept the forms of unwritten politics" about the fact that whoever has won an election should have the initiative to form a government. At this moment he gave as an example the strategy deployed by Juan Fernando López Aguilar to reach a government pact for the Canary Islands "simultaneously seeking support with some and others and defending his options to form a government for being the most voted party", explained Soria.
However, he ended by assuring that "I will not hold a grudge against them and I wish them all the luck in the management". The popular spokesman Larry Álvarez expressed himself in the same terms, who also announced that "we will grant them 130 days of grace, the traditional hundred and 30 for the August holidays".
Very critical was also the intervention of Manuel Lobo Cabrera representing the Canarian Coalition (CC) and the only councilor who abstained in the vote on the motion "although I have a thousand reasons not to support you, Mr. Pérez". However, he based his vote on "a prudent wait" to the management that he carries out in "the next months", interpreting "well my role and as a secondary actor of this comedy", he added.
And it is that for Lobo the act of today was not about the discussion of a motion of censure properly said, "but the debate of a motion to form a government", which he defined as "a comedy of figure, of those that back in the 17th century were starred by ridiculous characters". The nationalist councilor defended the same popular theses when considering that "although it is legitimate, a motion to a government that has not begun to manage is not sustained". And he added that what the socialists consider pertinent for Gran Canaria "they qualify as incongruous for the Canary Islands" in reference to the CC-PP pact.
Finally, Lobo asked Pérez for "a greater effort to systematize his proposals".
THE SUPPORT OF NUEVA CANARIAS
Román Rodríguez, spokesman for Nueva Canarias, defended the affirmative vote of his political formation to the motion of censure, for "the necessary defense of the interests of Gran Canaria" and for the interest "in having a majority of change and transformation in this Island".
"We voted yes to end an era of sectarianism and open a new period of hope," he concluded.
During his speech before the plenary of the Cabildo, Román Rodríguez reviewed the economic and social figures of Gran Canaria and summarized them in that "you, Mr. Soria, have placed us at the head of the negative data" in the Islands, "with poor management in certain areas such as employment, housing, social policies or livestock".
"They said nothing when the Government of the Canary Islands, not respecting the Law of Headquarters, took organizations such as Saturno to Tenerife nor when they skipped the Transportation Law to pay for the tram of Tenerife", he added as examples of "the lack of defense of their interests that this Island has suffered in the last four years". Something that he assured "will not happen in the future".
The nationalist leader attributed "the bad management" to the fact that "the shell of arrogance and sectarianism did not let them listen to others" and defended the socialist thesis that "the participation of all sectors will be one of the fundamental areas to promote from this new Cabildo".
CITIZENS AT THE GATES
About 300 people, including supporters and elected officials from Nueva Canarias and the Socialist Party, stayed at the gates of the Alfredo Kraus Auditorium in the capital of Gran Canaria, due to the impossibility of accessing the Atlantic Hall because its capacity was fully occupied.
Among those who endured the entire session at the gates of the Auditorium could be seen Silverio Matos, mayor of Santa Lucía de Tirajana or Pedro Quevedo, member of NC. At the beginning of the session, these same people staged a protest asking for the doors to be opened, which ended without incident. Among the members of the parties who were able to enter were Emilio Mayoral, president of the Port Authority, José Alcaraz, national deputy for the PSC, the parliamentarians Carolina Darias and Francisca Luengo, Arcadio Díaz Tejera, socialist senator or the mayors Tomás Pérez de La Aldea de San Nicolás or Guacimara Medina, from Artenara.
At the end of the investiture plenary, José Miguel Pérez and Román Rodríguez, accompanied by the rest of the socialist and nationalist councilors, went to the gates of the Auditorium to celebrate the new appointment with their supporters and colleagues.
ACN Press
