The Cabildo of Lanzarote commemorated this Wednesday the first hundred years of the foundational norm (Law of July 11, 1912) and constitution of the Island Councils, in an official act that took place in the dependencies of the first Corporation, with the presence of former presidents, mayors, the councilors of the first Island Institution and civil and military authorities of the island.
On a day like today, but in 1912, "the vision of the Canary Islands was expanded beyond the islands of Gran Canaria and Tenerife", according to the president, who indicated that the centenary of this law will be celebrated until March 16, 2013.
For the president, it is almost obligatory that this year of celebration of this anniversary "should serve, obviously, to remember the path traveled to this day; and to praise the effort of the fathers of the plebiscite and of all those who contributed to it crystallizing in the Law that allowed structuring the Canary Islands, from the administrative point of view, and gestating the island councils that, at that time, opened the door to the defense of the citizens of the less populated islands in their fight against abandonment and distance due to the insular dispute."
The president of the Lanzarote corporation has defended the Institution and the role that the island councils represent in society and in the history of the Canary Islands, against "a few voices, 100 years later, that try to stop the natural development of the Canary Islands." This has been described as a "sterile debate" by San Ginés, who has recognized "the role of the island councils in the history of the Canary Islands".
He has also defended "the current need" for there to be island councils in each of the islands "to safeguard the interests of citizens". The opposite, according to San Ginés, would be "to close our eyes to an evident reality recognized by the great living forces not only of the Canary Islands but of the rest of the Spanish State, both now and in the past".
In the same way, the president of the Cabildo of Lanzarote has recalled the history and the journey traveled until the constitution of the Cabildo of Lanzarote, on March 16, 1913. "On this date, the citizens of the island had for the first time an institution that allowed to collect and expand the feeling of the same to project it towards the autonomous scope", he has valued. That first corporation was chaired by Domingo Armas Martinón and had 19 councilors.
The president has also recalled the protagonists who made possible and fought for this great achievement of the Canary Islands, such as the Majorero Velázquez Cabrera or the Palmero Pedro Pérez Díaz. In addition, he has vindicated the figure of the illustrious citizen of Lanzarote Benito Pérez Armas, whose political action "was considered indispensable for the plebiscite to go ahead".
The commemorative act was also attended by three other former presidents of the Cabildo, Antonio Lorenzo, Chana Perera and María José Docal, as well as various civil and military authorities of the island of Lanzarote.
The first president of the Cabildo of Lanzarote of the democratic stage, Antonio Lorenzo, has officiated the speech of the act, in representation of the former presidents of the Institution, extolling the figure of the Island Councils and making a tour and analysis of the history and prologue of the edition of the book "Minutes of Constitution of the Island Council of Lanzarote", written by the distinguished jurist and historian Marcos Guimera Peraza, recently deceased.
Finally, the act has put its final touch with a toast and prior delivery to the mayors and representatives of the local corporations of a flag of Lanzarote.
ACN Press
