Every time we finish a year, it's time to reset in a way and consider new challenges based on what we have experienced in the last 365 days. If the end of the year also coincides, as is the case, with a pre-election year, it is also time to take stock and close a political cycle, one of the most intense we have experienced in our recent history, which has allowed us to become aware of our fragility and the great difference between what is important and what is urgent, recomposing, or confirming, our priorities.
And with all the experience of what we have lived, we face the new year and the new political cycle that will open after the elections in May 2023, which I am convinced will be marked in blue, as is now the majority desire of Spaniards.
In the Popular Party, we have been working for this for four years; working with and for the people, whether from the government or from the opposition, as we have done in the Island Council itself; where, frankly, we are happy with our work, because if we have demonstrated anything, it is that we have a clear project for the progress of Lanzarote and La Graciosa.
During the almost two and a half years that we have been in the Government of the Island Council, the citizens have been able to verify with facts the seriousness of our management, the involvement of each and every one of the councilors in areas as important as Tourism, Employment, Transportation, Public Works, or Security and Emergencies, among others. It was the activity of the Popular Party in these councilorships that starred in and led the management of the Island Council during the first stage of this mandate and, perhaps also, why not say it, what provoked the suspicion of our government partner and subsequent dismissal.
And yes, we are not going to deny that the speed imposed by the PP on the engine of the Island Council was much higher than that of the socialist councilorships and that this was not liked.
Time has shown that they prefer obedient, subordinate, and, to a certain extent, sheepish partners. Partners who are capable of throwing their own principles overboard in order to stay in government, partners willing to accept anything in the name of the so-called progressive left-wing government, as if that offered a blank check to commit or justify any excess or outrage, such as establishing salaries of 87,000 euros for island directors when they are still "positions of trust and free designation" or the incoherence of allocating 85,000 euros to a show of just ten minutes when they have been criticizing expenses of other corporations that were justified. Yes. Definitely, they needed a submissive and comfortable partner, and they found it in Podemos.
The result is what we are seeing: an Island Council without a budget, totally paralyzed, and a government that lives on empty speeches and propaganda to hide its zero management. And, no! That is not how the Popular Party understands public management, that is not our way of governing because it is not in our nature to stand idly by and watch them pass. That is why we did not understand and do not understand the lack of political will to carry out the main demand that the island has, the planning and organization of our territory. And while some, those who have the responsibility, continue to postpone the new PIOL, the really significant projects will be mere castles in the air, a simple entertainment, because without a plan there is no future for Lanzarote and La Graciosa.
In the Popular Party, we have an island project and a plan to govern from 2023 if the citizens so wish. Our commitment to the citizens is not to undo what has been done and entertain ourselves in politics with lowercase letters. We are not going to dedicate time to destroying when there is so much to build and so much to do. Change is possible and necessary. Welcome 2023!.
Jacobo Medina, former vice president and candidate of the Popular Party to the Island Council of Lanzarote and La Graciosa.
