"López Aguilar's haste to invite reflection on the advisability of reaching agreements with the Canarian socialists or, otherwise, encouraging the idea that the Statute of the Canary Islands might not prosper has extreme gravity. He is wrong if he intends to pressure Coalición Canaria, who he really harms with his threats is the entire citizenry that lives in this Archipelago. He also hinted at it last week, despite denying it, and today he could not restrain himself and has used the barter formula again. If you want a Statute, make me president," says Barragán.
Likewise, the nationalist Secretary of Organization reminds López Aguilar that "do not try to divert attention from the essential. His party, the PSOE, supported a text in the Parliament of the Canary Islands and the only thing that is demanded is that the will of the institution that represents all Canarians be respected".
"Furthermore," indicates Barragán, "the PSOE insists on manipulating the truth, since the extension of the deadline requested by Coalición Canaria, as the PSOE also did, to the Bureau of the Chamber was due in our case to the need to avoid that after two days of the elections, in the midst of the process of analyzing the results, the deadline would be closed without knowing what position to take on the amendments: whether to harden our position to positions prior to the consensus with the PSOE or to abide by it. After that week of analysis, there is no excuse to continue extending the approval of the Statute but to, as it is doing, condition the Statute to being in the next government. That is, it puts its own interests above the general interests of the Canarians." According to the nationalist Secretary of Organization, "this statement is confirmed by the fact that in the electoral campaign the PSOE has systematically refused to specify which aspects of the Statute supported by the Canarian socialists are not liked by the federal leadership".
In any case, Barragán insists that "we are going to tomorrow's meeting" (in reference to the meeting scheduled for this Wednesday between the negotiating committees of both parties) "with all the good will in the world. We want to speak from serenity, for the benefit of understanding. It is true that these episodes do not favor negotiation, but we are going to abstract ourselves and try to find common ground. We respect the will of the polls and on that premise we sit down to talk, always seeking the benefit of the citizens.".
