All the opposition groups in the Cabildo have sent a joint statement to announce that they will not attend the appearance of Senator Joel Delgado, to which they had been summoned this Friday in the plenary hall, since they affirm that it contravenes the regulations of the institution. In addition, they consider that it is "a propaganda act" and a "face-lift" for the PP senator, after the scandal in which he was immersed last March and which jumped to the national media.
"Joel Delgado can and should give explanations, not only about his activity in these two years in the Senate, but also provide information on controversial issues such as the course of the investigation that is being carried out in the Upper House regarding his incompatibility to collect from the Cabildo when he was already a senator," they point out in the press release signed by PSOE, Podemos, Somos Lanzarote and Ciudadanos, in reference to the bill that Delgado charged to the institution for organizing a humorous show, despite the fact that the law prevents deputies and senators from contracting with another public administration.
The senator for the island, who is scheduled to speak to explain his management during the last two years, has been accused by the opposition in the Cabildo of wanting to execute a "face-lift" with this "supposed appearance, after the hard media blow suffered in March, when the state press echoed the different scandals that have splashed Delgado's political career". And, in addition to information about his possible incompatibility, for which he ended up returning the money he had collected from the Cabildo, national media also echoed the telephone conversations intercepted in the Unión case, in which he was heard trying to get his mother hired in the Arrecife City Council, despite the fact that the position required some knowledge of English that she did not have.
"The best thing he can do is keep his word and retire from politics"
According to the opposition groups, that was what "led the senator to announce his retirement from the political scene", when he stated that at the end of this term he would not run for elections again, citing the illness of a family member as the reason. "The best thing the senator can do is keep his word and retire from politics definitively as soon as possible", they point out in their statement, in which they affirm that "Joel Delgado's controversial actions have contributed to increasing the discredit of island politics before the citizens of the island".
For that reason, they point out that they are not going to be "participants in a charade designed only to whitewash the senator's image, in a supposed appearance that not even his own colleagues from the Popular Party in the Cabildo wanted", who apparently had opposed Delgado appearing during the course of a Plenary Session, as he had initially requested.
In addition, they point out that if Delgado wants to give explanations, he must do so "in the appropriate forum, before the citizens of the island, through formulas such as calling a press conference, and not making use of the plenary hall of the Cabildo, announcing a supposed appearance that contravenes the regulations of the institution".
"A serious precedent of partisan use of the plenary hall"
In this regard, the opposition groups point out that the organic regulations of the Cabildo "do not allow public officials outside the institution, and without a formal request, to make appearances before the Plenary". Therefore, they affirm that "they will not lend themselves to attending the act organized by Pedro San Ginés (Coalición Canaria), in which the senator for Lanzarote, Joel Delgado (PP), intended to give an account of the two years of his management in the Senate and the analysis of the degree of compliance of the government of Mariano Rajoy with Lanzarote, according to the call sent by the Presidency via email to the different groups last Monday, July 30".
In addition, they insist that "a regulatory figure such as the appearance before the Plenary must be respected in accordance with the norm" and consider that San Ginés would be setting "a serious precedent of partisan use of the plenary hall of the Cabildo, according to which appearances by any political official could be improvised at the convenience of whoever holds the power".
