ACN
The president of the Socialist Group in the Cabildo of Tenerife, Antonio Martinón, yesterday accused the Minister of Economy and Finance of the Government of the Canary Islands, José Carlos Mauricio, of "getting many favors to benefit his business friends from Gran Canaria" at the expense of his influence, both in his time as a national deputy, and from his current position. "Not all of them -he specified- because the cake is not big enough for everyone, but a few, those who are friends of the Canarian Coalition (CC)".
Martinón lashed out in this way against the nationalist politician, in the course of a press conference in which he demanded that the regional Executive correct the investment imbalance to the detriment of Tenerife, while criticizing those who have rekindled the flame of the island dispute.
About Mauricio, he said that he is "the great leader of the business owners from Gran Canaria" and not José Manuel Soria, president of the regional PP and of the Cabildo of the eastern Island, and based his accusations on the tribute they paid him a few years ago. "I believe that he is the only politician from Gran Canaria, who has been paid tribute by the business class and it is a fact that they have also done him favors, such as giving him a plot of land and clearing it to build his chalet, as a journalist has publicly denounced," he asserted, when asked about the evidence he has for such statements. In this way, he implied that it is Mauricio and not Soria who has "that front relatively controlled", in reference to the ability of the PP leader to mobilize the business community in his favor, as not all business owners are linked to the same political party.
Connivance in Tenerife
The socialist counselor was especially critical in his presentation, since, as he progressed, he expanded the scope of his accusations to the leadership of CC, starting with the president of the regional Government, Adán Martín, of whom he said that "he may also favor his friends" and insinuated that the reason why Gran Canaria has been receiving higher investments than Tenerife for years is that he needed Soria's votes to govern on that Island.
Likewise, he resumed his accusations of "connivance" between private medicine and the political power of Tenerife, represented by CC, based on the lack of interest in developing public health equipment on the Island, and added his suspicions that this also exists in the construction sector.
In this sense, he referred, on the one hand, to the statements of a head of service at the Nuestra Señora de la Candelaria University Hospital in which he denounced the performance of certain diagnostic tests in private centers, when there were means to do so from that center, where, in addition, there is no waiting list. He also alluded to the news collected today by the newspaper El Día, in which it is stated that the Gynecology waiting lists in Tenerife are closed until 2006.
Regarding the alleged favoritism towards certain construction companies "from outside", he assured that he did not have precise data, but announced that "we are working to see if our suspicions are true or unfounded". Thus, he sowed suspicion about a construction company that "financed a large part of the CC campaign in 2003", that they take many works "will it be by chance?" and the Cabildo "gives so few to the companies here".