Nueva Canarias (NC)-Canarian Bloc in Lanzarote has celebrated this Saturday afternoon, with the support of dozens of supporters, affiliates and the general public, the official presentation of the different candidacies with which the formation is running for the seven city councils of the Island, the Cabildo of Lanzarote and La Graciosa and the Parliament of the Canary Islands in the upcoming elections on May 28.
The Canarian nationalist candidates from Lanzarote, together with Unidos Por Yaiza (UPY) and the Renovating Movement of Tinajo (MRT), formations with which they are running in political and electoral alliance, have brought together in the Plaza de La Alameda de Yaiza an expectant public that has supported the different heads of list and the candidates for the elections in the different institutions.
The event has served as a starting gun for the electoral campaign towards the elections of May 28 and has counted, among others, with the presence of the national president of NC-Canarian Bloc, Román Rodríguez, candidate for the Presidency of the Government of the Canary Islands, and Luis Campos, national spokesman of the organization.
"Consensus and management"
In his turn, the current vice-president of the Government of the Canary Islands, Román Rodríguez, thanked the massive attendance to the evening event held in Yaiza, recalled that in the last 30 days he has participated in about 45 party events that show that "people are tired of the same policies and want changes" and highlighted "the strength and enthusiasm" with which all the teams of the Canarian nationalist formation are presented to the next elections. Román Rodríguez congratulated each of the candidates "who have had the courage to take the step to representative politics", which means, he said, that "what we do is useful for something".
The Canarian nationalist candidate for the Presidency of the Government urged those present to "continue working to make this land a better place, a territory that already has the best climate and the best landscape in the world and to which many times it does not lack investment, but good management". "Lanzarote has optimal conditions to be a prosperous land, but it needs consensus, management and a plan to grow better," he said. In this sense, the national president of NC-Canarian Bloc also highlighted the transforming character of municipalism that characterizes the project of NC-Canarian Bloc and guaranteed that, "with enthusiasm and the effort of all, in these elections we will be able to change and improve the lives of those who live and fight to make the Canary Islands a land with a future".
The third way, the alternative
The intervention of the host mayor of the event, Óscar Noda, who is running as a candidate with Unidos por Yaiza for the Mayoralty of Yaiza and as a candidate of NC-Canarian Bloc for the Presidency of the Island Council of Lanzarote and La Graciosa, was highly anticipated and emotional. Just as he did at a press conference this week with the person he hopes will be the next Minister of Social Welfare of the Cabildo, Daisy Villalba, Noda insisted that "we will not renounce, if we have government options and we must agree with whoever we have to agree with, that Lanzarote has, like other islands, the Social Agreement".
The mayor of Yaiza, whose candidacy is already known as "the alternative way to the traditional parties", highlighted the efforts that are already being made from the municipal level to collect all the technical data "that allow us to put resources where the water problem is". The southern candidate had words of encouragement for the Canarian nationalist project and thanked Román Rodríguez and Nueva Canarias-Canarian Bloc for "the confidence and total support". Noda guaranteed the balance between the municipalities that make up Lanzarote, dismantled the hackneyed criticisms of some parties for his dual status as a candidate and assured that, if in the next term he has government responsibilities, "Yaiza will not be more than another municipality on the Island, but neither less".
Taking care of Lanzarote and La Graciosa
The intervention of Yoné Caraballo, candidate of NC-Canarian Bloc for Lanzarote and La Graciosa to the Parliament of the Canary Islands, was also highly applauded. Caraballo, an active nurse by profession, explained in detail the necessary foundations "to take care of an island". "You have to do the same as when you take care of a patient," he said; "you have to pay attention, desire, work, interest, affection, ...".
The candidate for the Parliament of the Canary Islands assured that if he is elected deputy he will not suffer "the post-binter amnesia that our parliamentarians suffer and that makes them forget, once they arrive in Tenerife or Gran Canaria, that they are there precisely to defend the interests of Lanzarote and La Graciosa". Yoné Caraballo reiterated his commitment to Health and Social Welfare for the citizens of the Island, advocated "really making Lanzarote a Home Island" and pledged to "transfer to Parliament once and for all the shortcomings of the primary sector; the serious problem that the citizens of Lanzarote and La Graciosa continue to suffer with water; or to intensify the debate on the demography that is straining basic public services such as health or housing".
1,500 candidates
The event has served to "make clear, among other things, that the progressivism of Canarian nationalism is, after 18 years, in the best conditions to face the next appointment with the polls, and also that it does so thanks to a structure and implementation that will allow Nueva Canarias-Canarian Bloc to present around 1,500 candidates and be present in most of the island councils, in no less than 50 municipalities, also opting for about 18 mayoralties and, with conditions to continue, also, in the Government of the Canary Islands".
Within the municipal scope of Lanzarote, the candidate of NC-Canarian Bloc for the Mayoralty of Arrecife, Armando Santana, highlighted the role that his team has played in recent years to make governance and stability possible in the case of Arrecife and the Cabildo of Lanzarote itself. "After breaking both pacts, we are still there, working and supporting the best decisions for the municipality and our citizens," he said. Santana has thanked the support and work of each and every one of the members of the Local Committee of Arrecife, the oldest of the Canarian nationalists in Lanzarote and the one with the largest representation. "More and more voices, more desire, more enthusiasm have been joining the project, and we and I, personally, continue to bet on values such as closeness and knowing how to listen to the citizen," he explained. Santana praised, among others, the members of Unidos por Yaiza "for enduring the criticisms and knowing how to be there in difficult times" and congratulated Óscar Noda's team for making decisions such as finally running hand in hand with the Canarian nationalists for the Presidency of the Cabildo of Lanzarote.
In the case of the north of the Island, the Canarian nationalist candidate for the Mayoralty of Haría, Marcos Lemes, and his entire team intend to implement the municipal representation of NC-Canarian Bloc. Lemes has thanked the women and men who have wanted to take "this brave step, who have made a decision with honesty and enthusiasm with the sole intention of committing themselves to society, to our neighbors only to try to improve the living conditions of those of us who live in Lanzarote, in La Graciosa and in all the Canary Islands". Lemes has thanked the effort of his colleagues in the Local Committee of Haría and has congratulated them "for always showing their faces".
Nueva Canarias-Canarian Bloc approved its lists for May 28 with the aim of consolidating itself in the Government and growing in the municipalities. Precisely the Canarian nationalist candidate for the Mayoralty of Tías, Arminda Barreto, is one of the best examples of that intention that the progressivism of Canarian nationalism is implemented in all the municipalities of Lanzarote. With a great Canarian nationalist family imprint on the part of her grandfather and father, and the support of a long formation and experience, Barreto explained that her candidacy is born from the conviction that education is the fundamental pillar to have a critical and prepared society. "It only takes one vote, only one person, only one decision, to be able to change things because in this project each and every one of us counts," explained the candidate from Tías, who used a popular fable to illustrate her words. Barreto, a teacher by profession where she works at the Mάcher-La Asomada School, stated that "the bipartisanship of PSOE and PP has been anchoring the municipality of Tías in the past for years" and warned that "it is time for a change".
For his part, the candidate of NC-Canarian Bloc for the Mayoralty of Teguise, Fernando Jiménez, recalled that his profession is family doctor in La Villa and pointed precisely to the need to "take care of Teguise, Costa Teguise, Famara, all the towns and, of course, our beloved island of La Graciosa". Dr. Jiménez advocated providing "differentiated solutions" to each of the territories that make up his municipality, the largest in Lanzarote, and demanded equal conditions in Health and Social Welfare between Lanzarote and the rest of the islands. "We are the only island without a medicalized or rescue helicopter," he said, after advocating an "assertive policy in which union and consensus are possible and where it matters more than who said something good for Lanzarote, that something good is said about Lanzarote".
Fernando Jiménez called for a policy "away from confrontation" and in this sense recalled that "Lanzarote is the only island where it is still discussed whether our patron saint is the Virgen de Las Nieves or the Virgen de Los Dolores, and whether our patron saint is San Ginés or San Marcial".
In his turn, the candidate of the Renovating Movement of Tinajo and Nueva Canarias-Canarian Bloc for the Mayoralty of Tinajo, Antonio Morales, expressed the desire of a large part of the population for "things to improve in the municipality and, in general, throughout Lanzarote".
Morales was convinced that with the appointment with the polls in 42 days "a change of course for Tinajo and Lanzarote is possible". The president of the MRT stressed that this week marks 4 years since "a group of people, who were called crazy, decided to create this party and take part and involvement in the lives of our neighbors". In this sense, Morales highlighted the "propositive and constructive" work that his political formation has been developing in Tinajo since the beginning of the present term, "with more than 80 proposals transferred to the mayor and his government group and always telling the truth, no matter how much it hurts some to hear them". The Canarian nationalist candidate in Tinajo warned that "in this legislature we have shown that it is also possible to govern and do a lot from the opposition".
For his part, the candidate of NC-Canarian Bloc for the Mayoralty of San Bartolomé, Pablo Yebra, linked for years to one of the associations of the Third Sector with more support and renown on the Island and throughout the Canary Islands, highlighted Health, Education, the Primary Sector, Security and Citizen Participation as the main lines of his electoral program. Yebra, who recalled that his Local Committee, that of San Bartolomé, was one of the first that the Canarian nationalists created in Lanzarote, has stressed the need for public administrations to apply the Social Agreement approved by the Government of the Canary Islands a year ago, a regulation that allows NGOs to continue to provide their services with the same quality and professionalism as they have done so far. "We need to revitalize a town hall and a municipality that are stagnant due to the weight of the years and the same rulers," he said. The Canarian nationalist candidate in San Bartolomé stated that he assumes the challenge of his candidacy "with all the enthusiasm in the world" and thanked the members of his Local Committee and the entire Canarian nationalist project for their support in "this adventure".
