The Minister of the Environment of the Cabildo of Lanzarote, Elena Solís, appeared this Wednesday before the Plenary of the institution to give an account of what happened during the processing of the authorization of the “Isla de los Volcanes” Land Rally, which was scheduled to be held between April 28 and 30.
“The Environment area limited itself to complying with the law and administrative procedures”, she defended, insisting that the Ministry she directs “never prohibited” the holding of the test because, as it was processed, “it was not its responsibility”.
As she explained, the processing of the file was assumed by the Ministry of Classified Activities, which, on February 7 -three days after a representative of the Evesport club requested authorization-, “requested a sector report from the Environment area, as well as days later from the Island Plan Office”.
“According to the law of administrative procedure, the Ministry has a period of three months to report. Therefore, given that the authorization request for the rally was submitted on February 4, my Ministry had sufficient legal time until May 4”, Solís pointed out, regretting that the permit for the holding of the test was not requested “with sufficient anticipation”.
“I deeply regret it for the world and the fans of motorsport on the island, which I know is numerous and mostly responsible and aware, but I have to say that the organizers have lied publicly and openly on this point,” added the Minister. And the fact is that the Environment area informed them “in a timely manner, including the legally foreseen period”.
“We did not give false hopes”
In this regard, the Minister of the Environment of the institution has insisted that, since the month of February, “the organization was told several times that it was practically impossible” for the test to be held on the dates and in the areas in which it was planned, as it was the nesting season for endangered birds, as the Biodiversity Service of the Government of the Canary Islands concluded, which issued up to two reports against its celebration.
As Elena Solís has stated, the first report arrived at the Environment area on April 20 and, a day later, in a meeting, “the organizers were already warned that it would be impossible to authorize the rally given the determining conclusions of that report”.
“We were so clear and we did not want to leave any room for doubt because we knew the economic damage that it could cause to the organizer and at no time did we want that. Therefore, if even so the organizers decided to continue trying, it was not because we gave them any hope,” Solís defended.
However, from the Cabildo they point out that despite the warning, the organizers then decided to modify the sections that they considered most harmful to the environment and submit it to a new report from the Government of the Canary Islands. “But I insist, we did not give them false hopes, clearly stating that the authorization of the rally was not possible due to the serious impact on biodiversity in six of the eight sections as stated in the first report of the Ministry of José Antonio Valbuena,” added the Minister of the Environment of the Cabildo.
In fact, as expected, the second report issued by the Biodiversity Service of the regional Executive, dated April 25, “did not change in its essence the criterion of incompatibility of the test”. Thus, after it, the Environment area of the Cabildo issued a resolution in which it concluded that “given the manifest probability of significantly affecting the spaces that make up the Natura 2000 Network, the rally should be submitted to an environmental impact assessment procedure”. “Given the technical report of the Government of the Canary Islands, there was no other answer”, Elena Solís pointed out, insisting that it was issued “in a timely manner” and that, therefore, her Ministry only “limited itself to complying with the law and administrative procedures”.
A “hypocritical” and “perverse” response
Thus, for the Minister of the Environment “it is curious that the scrupulous respect for the rules of the game has caused a political earthquake on an island that boasts of being a Biosphere Reserve and a benchmark in the protection of the territory thanks to the legacy of César Manrique”. “If what you expect from me is that I skip the legality and put the biodiversity of the island at risk, I have to tell you that you can wait sitting down”, she added.
“The response that has been given to the world of rallying is perverse and hypocritical, because the Cabildo is not wrong when it complies with the law and acts under the principle of equality. It was wrong when it skipped the legality to favor activities that promote the culture of destroying the territory and the loss of biodiversity”, continued Elena Solís, who has made it clear that “approving laws to then violate them is pure and simple corruption”. “The same corruption that was rampant in the City Council of Yaiza and that of Teguise and the same corruption that, for denouncing it, cost César Manrique his confrontation with the local chiefs”, she pointed out.
Finally, Solís has denied the accusations launched at the time by CC and that were also one of the reasons why she was rebuked and threatened on social networks, being forced to file a complaint in the Courts.
“No person from the Podemos political group threatened to break the government pact if the authorization for the rally was granted. On the contrary, the intention has always been to build and work together despite the possible political differences, all legitimate and democratic”, pointed out the Minister of the Environment of the first island corporation, asking the opposition groups to “not try to dig a ditch between this government group”.
