The Nationalist Youth of Lanzarote (JNL) have a new Executive Board led by Maciot Cabrera Cedrés as the new general secretary.
This was unanimously decided by the participants in the JNL island Congress held this Friday, October 1, at the municipal theater of the Villa de Teguise, which, among other organic and public positions of the nationalist formation, was attended by the general and organization secretaries of CC, Fernando Clavijo and David Toledo, respectively, the island secretary of CC Lanzarote, Migdalia Machín, and the island secretary of Organization, Echedey Eugenio, the secretary of the Nationalist Youth of the Canary Islands, Jesús Machín Tavío, the secretary of the Local Committee of CC in Teguise, Olivia Duque, and the former general secretary of the JNL, Sara Bermúdez.
For Cabrera, who is also a councilor of the Nationalist Group in the Arrecife City Council, "this organization has a lot to do to continue defending the interests of Lanzarote and La Graciosa. And those of us who are here now have to continue sowing to inspire the next batch of young people. They should take up our baton and continue with a work that will never end. But we have to reach all of them, expand the base of young people, so they know that we are here, that we can help."
Among the objectives of the newly elected general secretary of the JNL is the recovery of youth policies that have been paralyzed and forgotten. "We must continue to invest in training, but we cannot allow there to be 62% youth unemployment in Lanzarote, the highest in all of Europe. We have the same figures as Gaza," he recalled.
He also highlighted that among the main concerns of the youngest is the situation that has caused the disinterest of the Cabildo and the Government of the Canary Islands in solving the problems derived from irregular immigration, the primary sector, the environment, and that gender policies are not being carried out in the appropriate way, among other issues.
"We are not going to shut up because we never have. If we don't like something, we are not only going to say it, but we will also try to provide alternatives to provide a solution," he said.
For her part, the outgoing general secretary, Sara Bermúdez, presented her management report in which she highlighted that "from the beginning of this journey, we set ourselves the goal of reaching all social agents and I know that we have achieved it with flying colors, participating in charity events, campaigns, and demonstrations for the visibility of disability, equality, we organized events and conferences with LGBTI groups, collecting school supplies, food, and toys for Christmas, etc."
She also recalled the involvement of young people with everything that the Canarian identity means in the broadest sense of the word. "We developed and implemented the campaign `Confidence in Change' throughout the Canary Islands and reached many corners with awareness about the environment, beach cleaning, reforestation, and other actions, and to transfer our culture, traditions, and customs from north to south of the island."
The general secretary of the Nationalist Youth of the Canary Islands, Jesús Machín, also spoke, thanking Coalición Canaria for its trust. "Our organization is a benchmark throughout the Canary Islands in many aspects, and one of them is its commitment to youth. Thanks to that, young people have an important place in the Canarian Parliament from where we can work for our islands and from where I have the pride of representing Lanzarote and La Graciosa. We are young, yes, but we are committed to our land like no other."
In the same vein, the island secretary of CC in Lanzarote, Migdalia Machín, emphasized that "this party does count on young people and I am proud to belong to a formation and an island that has among its ranks young people with organic positions at the national level, such as David Toledo, national secretary of Organization, and Jesús Machín, general secretary of the JNC, in addition to being a parliamentarian. For us, it is vital that youth is present on all electoral lists."
Finally, the general secretary of Coalición Canaria, Fernando Clavijo, congratulated the new Executive Board of the JNL and its general secretary and recalled that "there is no party that counts so much on young people as CC, because they are vital for the future of our archipelago" and added that, "without a doubt, Lanzarote is a reference in its firm commitment to young people at the organic level."
The celebration of the JNL island Congress also included two presentations: the ideological one, by Cristina Calero and Eduardo Díaz, and the one on statutes, which was defended by Bruno Ramírez and Elías Rodríguez.
Two proposals for resolutions were also presented. One of them on Mental Health, defended by Isabel Sosa, who highlighted that "experts say that there has been an increase in young people who go to the health center to ask for help for psychological problems" and that "the ideal would be to have a specialist in clinical psychology in each health center of the Archipelago to be able to diagnose and treat patients who need it together, but this support is not available."
The second, entitled 'Immigration, a problem without a solution', was defended by Samuel Martín, who emphasized that Lanzarote, La Graciosa, and the Canary Islands, "cannot continue to assume a problem of the Spanish State, immigration is not going to stop, you cannot put borders on the unequal growth between territories, but we can raise our voice to be able to address the problem with the greatest involvement of all those responsible."
Brief sketch of Maciot Cabrera Cedrés
Román Maciot Cabrera Cedrés, a native of Arrecife, is a Telecommunications Engineer. "Passionate about new technologies, restless, entrepreneurial, and very linked to the island's youth collective," they say from the party.
"He is a person with experience in the management, organization, and optimization of resources; a fact that has led him from a very young age to successfully undertake numerous personal projects.
He considers that the Canary Islands, as a differentiated territory, need policies adapted to the uniqueness of our archipelago," they add.
He has been a councilor of the Nationalist Group in the Arrecife City Council since 2019.