The Socialist Group of San Bartolomé urges the president of the Cabildo of Lanzarote and regional deputy, Oswaldo Betancort, to “stand up to his party, Coalición Canaria, and defend in Parliament the interests of the island he represents.”
The secretary of the Local Group of the PSOE, Raúl de León, maintains that Betancort “has demonstrated the rejection of CC” to the Playa Honda health center project after the “regrettable intervention” carried out this week in the Plenary Session of the Parliament of the Canary Islands by the president of the Cabildo, where he stated that 7 million euros for this infrastructure is “too much” for Lanzarote and, therefore, for San Bartolomé.
“It is truly astonishing the ridiculousness starred by Oswaldo Betancort this week in Parliament, pulling out crazy ideas such as the possible ‘urban macro-project’ to try to make the complicated situation in which his party, Coalición Canaria, has placed him go unnoticed, by forcing him to defend the ‘no’ to the Playa Honda health center.”
The PSOE demands that CC, from its responsibility at the head of Canarian healthcare, inform citizens of what is really happening with the project. “The chain of excuses that the Government of Fernando Clavijo has been arguing since 2023 in order not to undertake the project is inadmissible, but what is truly intolerable is that a president of the Cabildo and regional deputy gives in to his party and allows himself to be used as a puppet of his political formation to cover up the rejection of the Ministry of Health to a project that benefits the island he represents.”
Manipulation of parliamentary dynamics
Raúl de León explains that this “manipulation” that CC exerts on parliamentary dynamics is not “new.” “What is happening is the following: a ministry of Coalición Canaria has no interest or willingness to execute a project. Then, it uses a deputy from its formation, on this occasion Betancort, to bring this uncomfortable matter to Parliament, where they stage a theatrical approach adapted to the position of the Ministry.”
He adds that this parliamentary intervention “occurs, precisely, in the form of a question, in such a way that there is no debate, but only the intervention of the minister and that deputy, both from CC.” De León continues, stressing that, obviously, before that plenary session is held, the deputy and the minister “will have agreed on the content of their interventions, so the result is none other than this grotesque situation that we have witnessed this week in the plenary session of the Regional Chamber.”
Clear Background
The PSOE of San Bartolomé maintains that the current Government of the Canary Islands CC-PP “has never had the intention” of executing the Playa Honda health center. “Let us not forget that Betancort himself, in 2024 and also in the Parliament of the Canary Islands, referred to the project as ‘a very important health infrastructure whose construction is a priority’ for the Government presided over by Fernando Clavijo, so from the PSOE we insist that someone from CC should explain the reason for this change of criteria.”
He recalls that with the PSOE at the head of the Government of the Canary Islands and Ángel Víctor Torres in its Presidency (2019-2023), the transfer of the plots for the Playa Honda health center was formally requested (March 2021), in August of that same year it was approved in the municipal plenary session, in March 2023 the basic project and the request for urban conformity were registered in the City Council and in September the execution of the work was authorized. To this was added the incorporation into the regional budgets of 2023 of an item of 3.5 million euros for the project thanks to an amendment from the PSOE.
