A.A./A.C.
- This week you were meeting with senior leaders of the PSOE such as Alfredo Pérez Rubalcaba and practically reached agreements on almost everything. Who deceived whom?
- (Laughs) We have an interesting agreement in principle with the central government that does not satisfy us one hundred percent and I suppose them either. There is a point of understanding between the two parties, within a good agreement for the Canary Islands. We have achieved our first objective of achieving a reduction in the cost of transport, in such a way that from the first of January we will have a new discount for Canarian residents of up to 45 percent; our goods will also see their price reduced thanks to this subsidy; the issue of health care maintains a significant amount to compensate for the increase in population, with an approximate amount of 80 million euros; we are advancing in measures that we are going to correct through a series of amendments so that Canarian artists and creators have the same opportunities as those on the peninsula. I believe that it is a satisfactory agreement in principle that, if fulfilled in all its steps, including the amendments to the parliamentary process, has the vocation to fulfill in the years that end the legislature.
- We have learned that the PNL, former members of CC, are working like the rest of the formations to seek their alliances, with contacts so far only denied by the PIL of Dimas Martín. Ignacio González has said that you are on the road to definitive disappearance. Do you have the feeling that CC is going to end?
- I have the feeling, I have the intuition and I have the certainty that the nationalist project embodied by CC is stronger than ever, cleaner than ever and without the ballast that we have been shedding in recent months along the way. At this moment we are those who wanted to be, those who understand the Canary Islands from a nationalist conviction with a different conception of the Canary Islands, leaving behind those pearls that shone while they were in some of the positions in which we had placed them. The contacts that some say they are maintaining to make a nationalist alliance in most cases are reduced to greetings in the airport terminals.
- Of course, if you are referring to the alleged contact between Dimas Martín and Juan Carlos Becerra, the former has already denied it several times.
- I know the political capacity of this man you are talking about, a flexible, negotiating, agglutinating, fighting and active man, which is why I am sure that he will achieve his objectives. That is why I am going to wish him the best of luck because it is good that there is a strong alternative nationalist option.
- Don't you really think that your adversaries are confusing their strategy, don't you think that they are turning you into a victim by all going against you?
- What I believe is that there are more important things to talk about: we have to talk about the statutory reforms, we have to talk about the role that the Canary Islands has to play in the new model of State, we have to be concerned with everything that is happening in Ceuta and Melilla, we have to be attentive to what derives from the contacts with Morocco, we have to fight for the waters to be delimited once and for all, we have to be attentive and aware of things like the PP and the PSOE not trampling on us... I understand that you are talking to me about things that may seem very interesting, but they don't take a second of my time.
- This weekend the island congress of CC will be held. What feeling do you have?
- I have the feeling that the island congress of CC in Lanzarote will mark a new stage, different and distinct with people eager to work and with a project for the Island and for the Canary Islands. I am very excited and I expect the best from the team we have here. I believe that we are taking the right steps to have a great political force that asserts the weight that the island of Lanzarote has to have in the rest of the Archipelago.
- Your colleagues on the Island have said that what it is about above all is to find a consensus candidacy, someone who embodies that new path that your party wants to take. Do you think it is good that this consensus candidate is found and that other options are not considered?
- I am convinced that the political intelligence and common sense of the people of CC in Lanzarote will serve to elect the person who will preside over the party in the coming years. I believe that there is a person who is going to leave the position and who has done a very important, very positive and very generous job, which is Juan Santana, and on Saturday (today) we will have a congress in which the election of the new CC leadership will be unanimous.
- What degree of autonomy has the organization had when designating Mario Pérez as a candidate for the presidency? And we say Mario Pérez because there has been no talk of another person.
- Absolutely all the autonomy in the world. Our organization, for better or for worse, believes in the island and revolves around the island. The election of the governing bodies of CC in Lanzarote has only corresponded to Lanzarote; they have worked and sought, reaching agreements on the island without more, without any type of external advice or guidelines, because among other things they do not need it. They are people with a great political level, and whether his name is Mario, Pepe Torres or Juan Santana, to name the best known, all can very worthily represent the island of Lanzarote in CC. They have shown that they are loyal to the organization, to the project, absolutely involved in the nationalist project and they are very clear from which platform the interests of Lanzarote are best defended. With any of them the organization feels very comfortable.