The PSOE of Lanzarote has denounced the "absolute lack of transparency with which Oswaldo Betancort is handling the modification of the Island Plan of Ordering of Lanzarote" (PIOL), after learning that the president of the Cabildo has decided to present it first to the businessmen before the citizens and political groups know it. The meeting took place in the Parliament of the Canary Islands, where Oswaldo Betancort took a large group of businessmen behind closed doors.
The spokesperson for the Socialist Group in the Cabildo, Ariagona González, has described this maneuver as a scandal and a clear example of who the president of the Cabildo is really accountable to. “He hasn't even had the decency to present the PIOL to the councilors of the Cabildo in conditions, but he moves to Tenerife to show it to the businessmen. Does he need their approval before making it known to the citizens?”, he has declared.
From the PSOE they warn that this strategy shows a government model that responds only to private interests. “Lanzarote is not a business to be distributed among a few. The ordering of the territory cannot be decided in private meetings with those who have more economic power. The future of the island must be discussed with rigor, with transparency and with the participation of the entire society, not in private rooms behind closed doors”, González denounced.
In addition, the PSOE wonders why those businessmen and not others were selected for this private meeting. “With what criteria has it been decided who had access to this presentation? Why this preferential treatment to a specific group and not to all the sectors involved?”, they have pointed out from the socialist formation.
For the PSOE, it is especially serious that Betancort talks about urbanism with those who have direct interests in the tourist expansion and the real estate business, without counting on the citizens, the experts in territorial planning or the political groups. “It is something unprecedented and unacceptable in a democratic system. The future of Lanzarote cannot be subject to the interests of those who seek to maximize profits at the expense of the territory and the quality of life of the people. Enough of governing for a few”, concluded the spokesperson for the PSOE in the Cabildo.
