The councilwoman for the Socialist Group in the Arrecife City Council, Cristina Duque, has denounced that Mayor Yonathan de León has allocated more than 630,000 euros solely to Christmas lighting, a figure that, she emphasizes, amounts to more than 9 euros per inhabitant. "To give you an idea, Las Palmas de Gran Canaria spends 0.6 euros per inhabitant. Arrecife invests seven times more than Madrid or Barcelona in lights per resident. And all this happens in the municipality with the lowest income on the island, and one of the poorest in the Canary Islands and in Spain," she stated.
Duque warned that this spending is "just the tip of the iceberg" of the disbursement planned for the Christmas holidays, which is expected to reach "hundreds of thousands of euros more in record time." He also recalled, "the more than 23 million euros spent by October this legislative term".
Meanwhile, he criticized, the city keeps its main beach closed due to fecal discharge, with "a missing mayor" and a water consortium unable to resolve the situation, in addition to persistent problems such as rat and cockroach infestations.
"The revitalization, a big lie"
For the socialist councilwoman, the spending on parties "cannot be justified as economic stimulus." "It is simply preposterous," she stated, citing INE data that places Arrecife as the municipality with the lowest incomes in Lanzarote and among the poorest in the Canary Islands and Spain. "No one here is benefiting except for companies close to the governing group," she accused
The PSOE demands "seriousness in the management of public resources" and recalls the need to invest in cleaning, education, infrastructure, and basic services.
"You cannot govern from the subculture of the *cubalibre* and the *tenderete* while fundamental needs remain unmet. The fact that Arrecife is the municipality that spends the most on Christmas lights in all of Spain may paradoxically mean that **there are not many lights in the governing group**," Duque concluded
