The number of judicial files in Lanzarote continues to increase without parallel. One of the most serious cases is the situation of the Canary Islands Mediation and Arbitration Service (SEMAC).
As Andrés Barreto, councilor of Alternativa Ciudadana 25 de Mayo (AC-25M) and spokesman for Intersindical Canaria (IC), confessed yesterday in statements to Radio Lanzarote, "as of today (for yesterday) 994 lawsuits have entered the SEMAC so far this year, so we will certainly exceed one thousand lawsuits at the end of the year". It must also be taken into account that the SEMAC lawsuits are reproduced in the Social Court, which substantially aggravates the reality.
"This situation is unsustainable and I fear that the Ministry of Justice will have no option but to take the resolution at the request of the Government of the Canary Islands, at the request of the Chamber or at the request of the councilors."
A Social Court in Lanzarote
However, the Superior Court of Justice of the Canary Islands (TSJC) has recently denied the establishment of a Social Court in Lanzarote. This decision was analyzed by Barreto, who was sure that the Court will finally "have no choice but to accept it, because the working capacity to resolve files of the incumbent judge will not be able to continue at the same rate as it is doing, despite the effort being made by the Court officials."
Politics can also play a bad trick on the interests of Lanzarote. It has only been a very short time since the College of Social Graduates of Lanzarote became independent from that of Las Palmas. And so, "to prevent the same thing from happening in Fuerteventura", the president of the Bar Association of the provincial capital asked last week that the second social court be urgently placed on the neighboring island.
However, "Fuerteventura barely has 500 cases a year", according to Barreto, who stated that "the pita is being tangled with the aim that two islands litigate so that effectively neither of the two solves their problem."
The needs of Lanzarote are infinitely greater than those of Fuerteventura. "Lanzarote has about 1,800 cases and also, at the moment we are taking about six months for dismissals and we have views for salaries for April and May 2006."
Lack of officials
It is also necessary to have more personnel and material for the normal functioning of Justice on the Island. But as Barreto explained, one of the great problems not only in Lanzarote, but throughout the Canary Islands, is the lack of Canarian officials and judges who want to carry out their work here on a permanent basis.
"At the moment, the Social Court has four workers who have come compulsorily from outside. They are officials who, once they get their places in their respective areas, will leave the Island's places free again."
The problem could be the lack of Canarian students for the civil service, but it is not. "There are people who have more economic means that allow them to permanently take courses and prepare for competitive examinations", which ultimately causes few Canarians to access civil service jobs to stay permanently with the places.
The massification of tourism
On the other hand, Barreto expressed the patent concern of many about the massification of tourism on the Island, which means that many visitors who arrive in Lanzarote do not repeat, and that, taking into account that more than 40 percent of foreigners who disembark on the Island return, is serious. "Tourism flees because it comes from big cities and does not like to return to big cities. And the tourist centers of Lanzarote have become big cities."
Barreto also referred to the recent clarification by the Government of the Canary Islands on the powers relating to the precautionary closures of hotels without a opening license. It turns out that the Cabildo has long hidden behind the inspection and sanction powers in tourism matters of the regional Executive to justify the operation of illegal hotel complexes on the Island.
However, the Minister of Tourism, Manuel Fajardo Feo, assured on his last visit to Lanzarote that the First Institution has the power to proceed with the precautionary closure of these complexes while the file is resolved in the scope of the Community. In this sense, Barreto pointed out that "the Government group of the Cabildo is nervous, because the Government of the Canary Islands has passed him the hot potato. They no longer have to ask the Pope Government for permission, they already have the powers and can make the decisions."
Intersinidical Canaria and Alternativa Ciudadana demand that the Cabildo take the necessary resolutions to preserve the legality of the territorial planning of the Island. "There must be measures starting with those who have broken the territory", Barreto pointed out.
