The CC councilor in the Haría City Council, Soraya Brito, has sent a farewell letter to her party, confirming that she will not follow their mandate to leave the government group. "I am leaving with my head held high and without regrets," says the councilor who, although she has not submitted her resignation from CC, in an interview on Radio Lanzarote-Onda Cero has said she is aware that her decision will lead to her expulsion from the nationalist formation.
"I am not staying because I have changed parties, let no one be mistaken, I am staying because the City Council has to keep moving forward and, while they agree among themselves, the municipal day-to-day continues," she points out in the letter she has sent to CC, in which she explains why she has made this decision. In addition, she points out that her seat "is not necessary for any type of agreement" since CC and the PMH would already have a majority without her vote. "I am absolutely irrelevant to the future of CC and Haría and that is why I am going to continue working with our partners to improve the municipality until the last moment," she adds.
Specifically, Brito points out two fundamental reasons, one of them the agreement of the Cueva de los Verdes, which she acknowledges she would have supported. "I abstain, and not because I don't want to vote in favor, but because I don't want to harm the political strategy of my party," indicates the councilor. "However, in previous meetings and conversations to reach that agreement, we had also set the condition to do that: not to leave the government group," she assures.
Therefore, she points out that it was a "surprise" for her when "in the afternoon" they were forced to break the pact, after the addendum to the Cueva agreement was approved by the vote of her colleague Armando Bonilla, who "distanced himself from the party's demand" and voted in favor together with the PSOE. "Doing what probably more than one of us wanted to do, I know," adds Brito, who also states that "it is not correct" that Bonilla has stated that it was a mistake to vote in favor as CC stated in a statement.
In addition, in her interview on Radio Lanzarote, the councilor has shown her "anger" at what happened in the CC Committee that was held before the plenary session of the Cueva. And, according to her, "people who are not even in CC and who have even campaigned against it, with the PMH, in the last elections" were summoned. "That you arrive with the will to fight for something you are working on and that they try to bring in people who are not from CC, that made me very angry, and I was not precisely one of the angriest," she pointed out.
"I refuse to be part of a new pact with the PMH"
Precisely, the other reason she gives for not leaving the government group is the "proposed" pact if they broke with the PSOE. And it is that Soraya Brito affirms that she refuses "to be part of a new pact with the PMH". "I, with all my humility and respect, what I am never going to do is go against my principles, and that would be to agree with a party with which I share nothing, with a leader who we suffered for 16 years and with whom we had a total paralysis of the evolution and progress of the municipality for more than 8 years," she explains.
In this regard, she points out that although José Torres Stinga militated under the CC banner, he "never listened to the proposals of the rest nor worked as a team for and for the municipality". "The 'Renewed Canary Coalition' arrived in 2015 precisely with that objective, the change, and we achieved it. Now, that which was 'very, very bad' and which had to be 'removed', we are going to validate it by our side... I don't understand it and I don't share it, under any circumstance or justification," she states.
And it is that, Soraya Brito believes that "there are certain realities in which a 'clean slate' cannot be a premise, and in this case, politics is one of them". "The past is important and it is advisable not to forget it to avoid making the same mistakes," she adds.
Thus, she affirms that she has nothing to reflect on. "It is a very thoughtful and not at all hasty decision," says the councilor, who nevertheless has invited her colleagues, specifically Víctor Robayna, to do so. "Let them reflect, I know that three have reflected, but Víctor, with much affection, let him reflect, he has been one of the most sufferers with respect to the past, not the present," she pointed out.
"The addendum is not in any way a detriment"
With respect to the Cueva, Brito has explained that she, together with her colleague Víctor Robayna, were "mandated" for the negotiation between both parties. A process that she recognizes was "very complicated", but in which she affirms that "with dialogue" they managed to "advance in several issues, starting with details of great importance such as the modification of the name of the agreement and the object of the original proposal".
"It is important to clarify that here there are not two agreements and much less three, which is what I have even heard from some of my colleagues," the councilor has specified, who considers that "the only thing that such an affirmation demonstrates is that they have no knowledge of the subject".
In this sense, Soraya Brito has insisted on explaining that "the agreement is one, a single document", which was the one signed between Pedro San Ginés and the former mayor of Haría, Marci Acuña, which she believes "was done with the best of intentions". However, she also considers that this initial document "was not correct in some issues" and that, therefore, "it had to be amended". "And that is what we did during the negotiations," she points out.
Regarding "the main errors detected", she recalls that the initial agreement "is not approved" by the courts and points "to the concretion of the payment". "And this is, precisely, what is defined in the addendum approved on Saturday," adds Brito.
Thus, she points out that she believes "firmly" that the modification of the agreement "was the best". "The addendum is not in any way a detriment to the interests of my municipality, but on the contrary, it is a very favorable agreement," considers the councilor, who adds that the positive assessment she makes of it "is because, objectively, it is supported by data and technical reports from the Secretariat and Intervention".
For this reason, she has explained that she refused to vote against the agreement, as did three of her colleagues, also stating that they even made up to "seven technical consultations, distributed among the secretary, national officials and lawyers" in this regard. "And six told us that we should never vote against it if there was a favorable report, because that could be a detriment in the future, and we have the proof with the colleagues from Yaiza," she pointed out.
"I am sorry to those I have disappointed but I have always been myself, with my defects and my virtues, but always sincere, honest and loyal, with myself and with all those people who at some point have trusted me to represent them," she concludes in the letter sent to CC.