Socialist councilor Ariagona González denounced in the extraordinary plenary session held this Tuesday that the Economic-Financial Plan (PEF) 2025-2026 approved by the government group of Oswaldo Betancort “is the clearest proof of the disastrous economic management that is leading the Cabildo of Lanzarote to the loss of credibility and political capacity to make decisions”.
According to González, the origin of this adjustment plan lies in the deliberate non-compliance with the spending rule and budget stability, the result of the “obsession of the president and his partners to replace management with headlines and good governance with waste”.
“We are here today because you have spent without rhyme or reason, you have watered all kinds of activities with public money and you have emptied the coffers of all citizens without improving their quality of life in the slightest,” reproached the socialist councilor.
González described it as “shameful” that a public transparency law of Andalusia is mistakenly cited in a document as important as the PEF, which demonstrates, in her words, “the absolute lack of rigor with which this government addresses issues as serious as the institution's accounts”.
“Those who make fun of others for preparing their speeches have been caught in a sad exercise of copying and pasting with something as sensitive as island finances,” she added.
The socialist representative listed some of the episodes that, in her opinion, exemplify the drift of this government: the meteoric salary increase of the president as soon as he arrived, the exorbitant expenses on parties and concerts, the international trips of dubious utility such as Texas, New York or Iceland, or the consulting contract of more than three million euros that “has served to shield Betancort and veto the questions of the opposition”.
“The most serious thing”, added González, “is that this plan in practice implies a technical intervention: the Treasury and Intervention must supervise the budget modifications because this government is not worthy of trust to manage public money”.
The socialist councilor recalled that "there are no structural causes that explain this deterioration of the accounts", but that everything responds to the "imprudent and contrary to regulations" management carried out by Oswaldo Betancort and his government partners.
“Those who dedicate themselves to ridiculing the interventions of the opposition, even questioning the authorship of our speeches, have today been caught in a regrettable exercise of improvisation and botch. This is not an anecdote: it is proof of the absolute lack of rigor with which Oswaldo Betancort governs”, González pointed out.
In her speech, González was blunt: “You received an institution with healthy accounts, with money in the bank. Today you have emptied it without improving the lives of citizens in the slightest. You have confused governing with wasting”. “If you had a minimum of dignity, today you would have started this plenary session by apologizing to the citizens”, she concluded.