The general secretary of the PSOE in Lanzarote, Loli Corujo, has accused the president of the Chamber of Commerce, José Torres Fuentes, of being "a mercenary" of CC and of placing the institution "at the service of his electoral interests". According to Corujo, Torres Fuentes, whom she referred to as a "supposed businessman turned political operator", has received "hundreds of thousands of euros" from both the Cabildo and the Government of the Canary Islands.
"And when I say that he is a supposed businessman, I mean that José Torres Fuentes does not assume the same risks as real businessmen, because part of his income is guaranteed at the expense of the administrations", said Corujo, stating that "this supposed businessman has received hundreds of thousands of euros in travel contracts paid for by the Cabildo of Lanzarote without any contracting procedure", since they were directly awarded to his travel agency and without competition, having to be "the payments validated systematically through extrajudicial recognitions".
"And this supposed businessman has enjoyed the payment of rents by the Government of the Canary Islands, which leases various offices of his property", said the general secretary of the PSOE, who has accused Torres Fuentes of having "placed the presidency of the Chamber of Commerce and the institution itself at the service of the electoral interests of the hand that feeds him, acting as a mercenary at the service of spurious interests".
"But it is not the first time that he dances to the tune of CC's barrel organ", added Loli Corujo, recalling "the repeated attempts" of the president of the Chamber of Commerce "to attribute all the evils of Arrecife to Eva de Anta". According to the socialist leader, those attempts began with "the brutal campaign against the pedestrianization of the avenue, after having given his consent to said pedestrianization officially and in writing and having made endearing public statements about recovering the space of the seafront".
"He knows that with the PSOE there will be no more shady deals for the usual suspects"
Thus, the general secretary of the PSOE has stated that they have been witnessing "with concern" "this unprecedented drift" of José Torres Fuentes. "But the interests at stake are many", warned Loli Corujo, who has gone back in time to explain the reason for her statement, stating that "as soon as Eva de Anta arrived at the Mayor's Office, a campaign began trying to pressure her to approve the General Plan", which "proposed a series of agreements with well-known businessmen" who "had sued the City Council for the classification of certain pieces of land".
"And thanks to the mayor's foresight, there was time for the courts to rule in favor of the City Council, so the need to formulate these agreements disappeared and the City Council gained a large amount of public land. And thanks to the mayor's foresight, there was also time for Costas to report that in the Islote del Francés there is practically no building land left due to its affectation by the Coasts Law, so the alleged compensation rights of its owners have nothing to do with the figure interestedly wielded previously", added Corujo.
"But since the judgments came out and Costas answered, nobody talks about the General Plan of Arrecife, to the point that Gesplan continues without sending the final document. Now it is not interesting to finish the Plan, it is interesting to finish it with a Government that accepts the agreements again and that considers the Costas report in order to put the urban planning of Arrecife at the service of the interests of the usual suspects", indicated the general secretary of the PSOE.
"But I can understand José Torres Fuentes, because he trembles at the thought that Arrecife will continue to have a socialist mayor, because he knows that with the PSOE and with Eva de Anta there will be no more shady deals for the usual suspects", she concluded.
