The representatives of Podemos in the Cabildo of Lanzarote, Myriam Barros and Jorge Peñas, and the non-elected councilor Elena Solís Yáñez have appeared this Monday at a press conference to detail what will be their main lines of action before the "new direction" that they claim is beginning for Lanzarote and La Graciosa, after the governance agreement signed with the PSOE. Despite having already passed the halfway point of this legislature, the new councilors of the government group of the first island corporation say that they face this "new path" with "optimism and with the aim of implementing a new model that is more friendly to the environment, more feminist and more diverse, in which both real and effective access to housing and decent and quality employment are promoted".
"We are very aware that time is what it is and with that limitation we assume the responsibility of charting this new course, with determination, with all the strength that gives us having the best militancy in the Canary Islands and with the absolute conviction that Lanzarote and La Graciosa can be a better place," said Myriam Barros, the new Councilor for Equality, Youth and Education of the Cabildo of Lanzarote.
In terms of Equality, Barros says that her first task will be to "sit down with the island's feminist movement to chart a new direction that will allow to move towards a more egalitarian and safer island for all people and, of course, for women".
"Equality is an area that in local institutions usually lacks technical and specialized personnel, a specific budget and even brave policies," said Barros, who wants this to change in the Cabildo and, therefore, her goal will be to provide means and resources for the active fight against sexist violence. "Street harassment of women, sexual harassment and also labor harassment will from today have a strong opposition in the first island institution," added the Councilor for Equality, Youth and Education.
Promoting the participation of young people in public life is another of the objectives of Myriam Barros who, and for this, will convene for the first time the Consulting Body for Children and will refocus the well-known Youth Table. "We want young people to become once and for all a public actor of the present and not only talk about them in terms of the future," she said.
As for Education, the greatest commitment of the new head of this area will be "to implement all possible tools to compensate for the inequalities that hinder educational continuity within families with economic and social problems." "For this we will have to give a new approach to university and postgraduate scholarships, whose regulations have not been updated for almost a decade," said Myriam Barros, who considers it essential that the bases of these grants to students are adapted to the new post-covid socio-economic reality.
"Abandon years of interested environmental neglect"
For her part, the great challenge of Elena Solís, the new non-elected councilor of the Cabildo and head of the areas of Environment, Biosphere Reserve, Food Sovereignty, Landscape and Animal Welfare, will be to improve environmental policies, a task for which she considers it crucial to have the participation of conservationist, environmental and also animal welfare groups, with whom "from minute zero" she says she has already started conversations in order to know what are the most pressing needs of the island.
"We know that they have interest and that they also have ample capacity and commitment to work together for a better island. Now it is up to us to put the necessary tools so that this joint work bears fruit and we will work on that. For this, the Council of the Biosphere Reserve will be essential," said Solís.
To stop the processing of marine cages along the east coast of Lanzarote, to finish defining the permitted uses in the protected natural areas of the island and to establish a close collaboration with the Department of Territorial Planning to advance in an adequate planning of these spaces, as well as to provide human and material resources to the new environmental agents are some of the main objectives that the new non-elected councilor of the Cabildo has set.
"There are many challenges that Lanzarote and La Graciosa have to consolidate themselves as a reference in the fight against climate change and the protection of their territory and natural resources. In this sense, we must begin to understand that Lanzarote, as an island with a unique but fragile territory, has geophysical limits. If we do not put a stop to excessive growth, even from a utilitarian point of view, we risk killing the goose that lays the golden eggs," said Elena Solís.
"The great problem of the tourist load on the island in general and in natural areas in particular, the impact of activities in the unique area of El Jable such as illegal extractions that endanger the survival of threatened species such as the hubara and also our beaches, the poor planning and management of protected areas, the low investment in the eco-sustainable primary sector, the areas converted into illegal dumps and attacks on the landscape are some of the main challenges that Lanzarote and the new councilor have ahead," say from the party.
"We have to sit down with the groups and the economic sectors concerned, listen to them instead of commissioning so many reports issued from the offices and start finding solutions. It is time for the Cabildo to recover, for example, the courage it had with the historic PIOT, three decades ago. That is the spirit that we must rescue to abandon years and years of interested environmental neglect," insisted Elena Solís.
Likewise, the new non-elected councilor has invited the representatives of Podemos in the Cabildo and the rest of the members of the government group of the first island institution to develop transversally projects that deepen the environmental protection so that "the green floods the policies of their areas".
In this sense, Elena Solís has announced that, in collaboration with Jorge Peñas and the responsibilities that he has assumed in citizen participation through Open Government, an area of Environment will be made more transparent and accessible, with the creation of a new website that facilitates access to information on available services, collaboration for groups and the rationalization of applications for environmental permits. In addition, a citizen mailbox will be promoted, through which citizens will be able to report environmental incidents.
"The current system feeds on the indiscriminate destruction of nature and the exploitation of natural and human resources. In short, it goes against life. My colleague Myriam is sensitive to the role of women as a transforming actor that puts life at the center and ecofeminism reminds us of what is almost forgotten in the collective imagination: the fact that we are eco-dependent on nature and interdependent. Our work together will go in this direction, in empowering women as the center of life and not as a satellite of a system that rejects and uses them," added the Councilor for the Environment of the Cabildo.
Likewise, Elena Solís has thanked Podemos, and specifically the Cabildo team, for having thought of her to assume the responsibility of improving environmental policies. "It is very brave on their part and demonstrates a real concern for the territory of Lanzarote that they have opted for an independent profile, which does not have the Podemos card, to occupy a political position that other parties use to place their people," she concluded.
Decent employment, housing and an open and participatory government
Finally, Jorge Peñas will be in charge of Employment, Housing and Open Government, three "fundamental areas that determine both the quality of our democratic system and the welfare of citizens." "We will put all our employment in implementing measures that allow people to access decent and quality employment, opening new niches in the new technology sector and focusing employment plans towards green reconversion, care and landscape protection," said Peñas, who also indicated that from the Cabildo will implement a training offer oriented "to a real job placement".
In terms of housing, despite the fact that the competence lies with the Government of the Canary Islands, the new councilor of the government group of the Cabildo has committed to implement measures to exercise Article 47 of the Spanish Constitution, fighting against evictions without housing alternatives.
"We are not unaware that we are facing a tense rental market, with a high incidence of vacation rentals. And remember that the State Government extended until February 28 the social shield in housing, extending the suspension of evictions and evictions of habitual housing of economically and socially vulnerable households, but we must decisively address this problem, which is already a priority as it can not be otherwise," said Peñas. "The neighborhoods of Arrecife need the Cabildo to take the reins to try to solve the multiple housing problems that the city has, but I think I can say that there are reasons for optimism in this area and that we will soon be able to give more details," he added.
Likewise, in the roadmap of this "new direction" that the Cabildo of Lanzarote is taking is the Open Government, "a culture of governance that promotes the principles of transparency, integrity, accountability and participation." "We want citizens and their interests to be the center of political action and for this we will implement measures such as improving the transparency portal, increasing the importance of civil society through sectoral tables and creating the anonymous mailbox for reporting corruption," said Jorge Peñas, who will also be in charge of this area in the island institution.
With all these objectives, the representatives of Podemos have assumed their government responsibilities, arguing that the agreement with the PSOE has been based "not so much on negotiating areas or exchanging chairs, but on unblocking the situation of misgovernment caused by the right, marking policies that point to this new direction" for Lanzarote and La Graciosa.
