Paula Corujo, who is still a non-elected councilor of the Cabildo de Lanzarote for Somos Lanzarote, and who holds areas such as Youth and Education, reveals that she made her position available to the president of the Cabildo, when the pact in Arrecife was broken. Corujo assures that she considered it "very complicated" to maintain the position of Somos Lanzarote, as she has stated on Radio Lanzarote - Onda Cero.
After the government agreement between PSOE and Podemos, and the entry of the two councilors of the purple formation, Jorge Peñas and Miryam Barros, as well as the non-elected councilor Elena Solís, Paula Corujo will leave the government group after two and a half years. However, Corujo acknowledges that the president told her "that she wanted to continue counting on her." "She wanted me to stay," she adds.
This situation is not unknown to Paula Corujo, as she acknowledges that from the first moment she has maintained a "constant dialogue" with the president of the Cabildo. "I have been told where things were going and I knew perfectly well that this was going to happen," she says.
Corujo adds that the president has asked her to continue working with the responsibilities she holds until the handover takes place, which will be imminent. In that sense, the councilor assures that she has held a meeting with the two Podemos councilors to carry out the transfer of powers "as orderly as possible."
Waiting for the Somos Lanzarote assembly
Paula Corujo assures that both the Somos Lanzarote councilor in the Arrecife City Council, Eli Merino, and herself, were sent a communication by the party explaining the current situation. In that statement, it specified the "little presence" that the party has had during the last two years, and that everything should be resolved "in an assembly." "Somos Lanzarote currently has a meager organic and social participation," adds Corujo.
"Until the decisions that the party has to make could be resolved in an assembly, the current situation required respecting the autonomy of both Eli Merino and myself," says Corujo, who adds that in that assembly it will have to be decided "what is going to happen with Somos Lanzarote and what happens in the represented institutions."
"Somos had a fairly active participation, not only through the representation we had in the different city councils and in the Cabildo, and due to internal circumstances and the result of the 2019 electoral dynamics, that situation has changed drastically," she says.
There is “no relationship” between Somos and NC
Paula Corujo assures that there is currently "no relationship" between Somos and NC, beyond sharing a mixed group in the Arrecife City Council. It should be remembered that both formations ran together in the 2019 elections, obtaining representation only in the capital Consistory, with the two current councilors, Armando Santana (NC) and Eli Merino (Somos).
The former councilor of the party in the Arrecife City Council, Borja Rubio, and who ran as a candidate for the Parliament of the Canary Islands, was appointed in October 2019 as advisor to the Vice-Presidency of the Government of the Canary Islands, which is held by the president of NC, Román Rodríguez. However, Paula Corujo assures that Rubio "no longer works with Nueva Canarias", and that Somos "has not had any contact with them again."
Despite this, Corujo does not close the door to possible new agreements with other formations, "if the conditions and circumstances change", which should be debated in the party's assembly.