The president of the Popular Party of the Canary Islands and candidate of this political formation for the Presidency of the Regional Government, José Manuel Soria, assured this Monday that he "would think about forming a Government with the PSOE if that changes things in the Canary Islands."
In statements to the Canary Islands News Agency, ACN Press, the leader of the populars in the Archipelago pointed out that, "despite the ideological and programmatic differences", understanding between the main political forces "must be a priority" for the next four years, because "when there are no absolute majorities, citizens demand that we parties agree" to get out of the economic crisis as soon as possible and solve the "serious political, economic and social problems" that the Canary Islands are currently suffering.
Soria's statements come just after it became known that the national president of the Popular Party, Mariano Rajoy, has given "absolute freedom" to the leadership of his party in the Canary Islands to study an agreement with the socialists "similar to the one that already works in the Basque Country." Rajoy himself admitted in a meeting with journalists held in Tenerife during Holy Week that a PP-PSOE pact "may be good" for the Canary Islands, where "some", in clear reference to CC, "have been in the Government for a long time."
According to José Manuel Soria, for an agreement between populars and socialists to be possible in the Canary Islands, it is essential that the PSOE is not the third political force, because in that case he considers it "very likely" that the general secretary of the Socialist Party, José Miguel Pérez, will be inclined to support the candidate of the Canarian Coalition (CC), Paulino Rivero, to repeat as regional president. José Miguel Pérez himself "has acknowledged that he would not mind being vice president" in a Canarian Coalition Government, Soria recalled, for whom the socialist candidate "does not seem to mind losing the elections if that serves as an excuse before his militancy to give Paulino Rivero the Presidency."
The president of the Canarian PP acknowledges that the margin for a PP-PSOE agreement in the Canary Islands is very narrow, because "the socialists have already committed to supporting Paulino Rivero in exchange for the support of the two CC deputies in Congress" to the Executive of José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero. Soria assures that this is what explains the "low profile" campaign of the socialist candidate, José Miguel Pérez, of whom he says that "he enters the political arena with the intention of being the last and thus ensuring the Vice Presidency of a Government presided over by Rivero."
Does not rule out a pact with CC
Although he does not rule out a new pact with CC "for a Government presided over by the PP", Soria considers, however, that "an important part of the Canarian electorate would be in favor of an agreement between socialists and populars", which would aim to send the Canarian Coalition to the opposition for the first time in its twenty years of existence. For the popular candidate, a PP-PSOE Government in the Canary Islands is what "increasingly insistent" voices of Canarian society are demanding, given the "weariness produced by a political project that does not stop going backwards in the latest electoral appointments", in reference to CC.
Asked about the stability of a hypothetical PP-PSOE Government in the Canary Islands in a climate of constant criticism from the populars of Zapatero's work and the Socialist Party at the head of the central Government, Soria pointed out that "problems may arise, but it will be something very specific" because the foreseeable thing is "a change of political cycle in Spain from the general elections", which will normalize relations between both parties. In any case, according to Soria, the agreement could be facilitated by the fact that "some sectors of the PSOE in the Canary Islands have been less submissive to Zapatero than Paulino Rivero himself."
For José Manuel Soria, a possible agreement between the Popular Party and the Socialist Party in the Canary Islands could go even further than the one that both political forces maintain in the Basque Country, limited to parliamentary support, because "there would be no inconvenience" to form a joint Executive in which the two parties shared government tasks. Among the main conditions that the PP will set to agree after the elections, the popular candidate points out "the simplification of the public administration, which reduces superfluous spending, reduces the size of the Government and public companies and does not raise taxes."
ACN Press
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