The Yaiza government group led by Gladys Acuña withdrew the motion requesting the regularization of illegal hotels during the plenary session held on Thursday night at the southern town hall. A measure that has not prevented a storm from breaking out around illegal hotels. From the Cabildo, the president Manuela Armas has described the motion as "arbitrary and misleading", as well as a "blank check to the Government of the Canary Islands".
The motion, which advocated for the regularization of hotels in an illegal situation through the Law of Urgent Measures, was finally withdrawn, according to Gladys Acuña, "because this government group could not agree with the president on its content, as had been agreed in the meeting that the seven mayors of the island and the president held a few weeks ago, in which it was agreed to prepare a motion that would later be submitted to the Canary Islands government".
The writing has, in any case, given rise to a strong response from the president of the Cabildo, Manuela Armas, who has made public a manifesto in which she questions the motion presented by the government group, as she considers it "arbitrary and misleading". These considerations, on the other hand, highlight the differences that PIL and PSOE maintain regarding this issue, which both describe as very important for Lanzarote.
The president questions in her writing the intentions of that motion and even suggests that if it had been voted in favor, "they could incur in prevarication, because what was intended was that the sentences not be executed and illegality be enshrined". The text of the motion, says Armas, "is reprehensible because it is a blank check given to the government of the Canary Islands to find a way to violate the principle of equality and legality".
The mayor of Yaiza, for her part, is surprised by the criticisms of Manuela Armas and understands that confrontation is not the best way to fix these issues. "I don't like things being misrepresented, if they didn't agree, it was enough to say so and the text of the motion would have been changed," she says. In addition, she states that the Yaiza City Council did not act unilaterally since the motion responded to "an agreement with the rest of the corporations and the Cabildo", although she acknowledges that a consensus was not reached with the Cabildo, so the government group withdrew the plenary initiative.
The first mayor of Yaiza maintains that "if you don't agree with the content, it is changed or it is clearly stated that we don't want to make any motion in that sense". For her government group, "this is a inherited and very serious problem, and it is about fixing what can be fixed", according to Acuña. "I hope there are no confrontations, but it is true that there are behaviors that I don't understand".
Manuela Armas, for her part, agrees that she does not intend any conflict with the mayor of Yaiza, but assures that when she received the motion, "it was already done, it was not a consultation". And that is why she affirms that in a telephone conversation "I explained to the Councilor for Urban Planning of Yaiza, Leonardo Rodríguez, the different considerations that I have now made public and that criticize the contents of the motion, as I explained to the mayor before the plenary session".
Criticism of the Government
The president relates this motion to the recommendations that the Minister of the Government of the Canary Islands, Domingo Berriel, made to the mayors of Teguise and Yaiza, and in this sense assures that "it is irresponsible to put something in a law of urgent measures without knowing what you are talking about". And it is that Manuel Armas maintains that neither the president of the Government, Paulino Rivero, nor the head of Territorial Policy "have bothered to learn in depth about this issue that affects Lanzarote, despite the fact that the Cabildo has invited them to do so on several occasions".
The president of the Cabildo uses this argument to reject the criticisms that Paulino Rivero made on Thursday during his visit to Lanzarote. "It cannot be that the president comes here to say what he thinks, he cannot go so happily without knowing the reality of those files and despising the knowledge that the Cabildo does have. Paulino Rivero must apply that saying that we are slaves of our words and masters of our silence". And he points out that here, "there is no room for threats with the issue of workers or with the external image of the island, because I do not believe that an island that defends legality has to be looked down upon".
Work concluded
Manuela Armas has announced that the work of the legal and technical team of the Cabildo that works on the files of the hotels affected by the sentences is practically finished and will be collected on Monday, September 15. Armas assures that she intends to create an informative commission to report to all political groups and from there, "sit down with the owners and promoters of these hotels".
She also states that she intends that "they be public and transparent conversations so that there are no doubts and it is seen that there is nothing to hide". In this sense, she expressed her "hope" that "when we start working with each of the files, things will calm down and we will see what the will of the Cabildo de Lanzarote is to fix things, but also the will to comply with the law".