Laura Fuentes, newly elected as the General Coordinator of Podemos Canarias, established this Saturday in Arrecife and urged the new members of the Autonomous Citizen Council of the purple formation to "roll up our sleeves" to "make the necessary reconsiderations to improve this tool of social transformation that is Podemos".
The new top leader, who highlighted the fact that "in our short but intense history as a party, it is the first time that an Autonomous Citizen Council is held outside of a capital island", insisted that "we have before us a moment where we must look forward to continue growing as an organization".
After thanking "the many people who have voted for us and have decided that we should be the ones to set the path for this collective project" and remembering that "this primary process has been difficult", she emphasized the idea that "today a turning point is written and a window opens, a new opportunity for Podemos Canarias".
"We have before us a moment where we must look forward to continue growing as an organization. To rebuild ourselves and roll up our sleeves and work on our foundations", Fuentes reminded the 24 representatives of the new leadership of the purple formation.
An action to which Podemos Canarias is obliged as it has been supported at the polls "to have spaces not only in the institutions, but also in the governments", which means that "we no longer have to limit ourselves to pointing out injustices and demanding social demands, but we have the responsibility to do politics, to produce changes, with its limitations and countless contradictions"
"Now we are much more than the voice of the people and their needs. Now we must do what we were born to do as a party: be useful to the social majority by making policies that improve their living conditions", she insisted.
Especially in a context as complex as the current one, in which the pandemic not only brings health consequences but "translates into a very high economic danger for too many families who see their work falter, who have difficulties making ends meet".
Therefore, and as "thirty years of nationalist governments have not contributed even a little to this necessary change in our development as a community", she believes that the purple formation should focus on the ecological transition, on investment in renewable energies from a public company that manages them, on increasing investment in health and public education.
"Investing in social issues is more vital than ever so that this crisis is not paid for by the usual people", she concluded.
She recalled that "thanks to the progressive positions that Podemos has promoted" both in the State and in the Canary Islands and in councils and municipalities "where we are in the Government" a "social shield" has been implemented, "which, of course, is not as extensive as we would like and, of course, is more than improvable".
"Our intention is that this autonomous council focuses on the fundamental: we are going to debate politics, as we have not done until now. After years of primaries and chained electoral campaigns, we have to be self-critical, which is the only way to continue offering people alternatives. Being up to the task is no longer an option, it is an obligation. Much is expected of us, there are more expectations placed than in other previous governments", the new General Coordinator recalled.
Fuentes, who thanked Noemí Santana "for her fight for years in Parliament, in the previous Citizen Council and now her work, leaving her skin as Minister of Social Rights, Equality, Diversity and Youth", has created a new team to "weave our structure in non-capital islands and in the most rural areas of our archipelago"
To "kick around the Canary Islands and listen to our militancy, civil society and experts" and "create spaces for debate and political alliances, strengthen the confluences from below", the new Citizen Council is composed of César Merino as Secretary of Organization replacing Francisco López, who will now be in charge of Civil Society, Popular Movement and Finance.
Gemma Martínez will be the Secretary of Public Policy Action, Sara Ramírez will be in charge of Feminisms and Diversity; Yurena Corujo is the new head of Communication and Discourse, replacing Fuentes herself; the Secretariat of Circles, Participation and Training will be led by Manuel Mauricio; the Ecological Transition, rural world, sustainability by Belén Hidalgo and Cristo González will be responsible for Executive Coordination and Institutional Relations.
"Podemos has clear positions and which side it is on: that of the people. And we cannot fail, in this change of decade, of political paradigm, and nothing more and nothing less than with a pandemic that has disrupted history", concluded Laura Fuentes.
