A real embarrassment. That's what the plenary sessions of the Arrecife City Council have become, where the level of debate has sunk to the lowest depths, mixing disqualifications and gestures more typical of a schoolyard or a ...
A real embarrassment. That's what the plenary sessions of the Arrecife City Council have become, where the level of debate has sunk to the lowest depths, mixing disqualifications and gestures more typical of a schoolyard or a hooligan bar than a plenary hall, and where it is no longer even known where the will expressed by the citizens was left, when they went to the polls more than three years ago.
The terrible spectacle of seeing the Consistory sealed off by UCO agents, with politicians and technicians being arrested, and the devastating summary of Operation "Unión", with confessions of corruption included, have not restored sanity to the institution, far from it. And that is seen in the regrettable spectacles of the plenary sessions, and of course in the situation of a government group marked by shadows.
First, it was formed with the support of two councilors who admitted to having received bribes, and we still don't know how they were "convinced" to support that motion of censure and then submit their resignation. Once that "obstacle" was overcome, it suffered a new blow with the arrest in Operation "Jable" of two other PIL councilors, which left them in a minority for several months, so they decided not to convene ordinary plenary sessions. Without a doubt, a lesson in how to cling to power at all costs.
Now, finally, they have managed to regain the majority, after Luisa Blanco and Antonio Machín presented mysterious resignations, after spending weeks and weeks clinging to their minutes. After refusing to do what has not been demanded of other PIL members in similar circumstances.
However, also without us knowing how or why, these two councilors changed their minds. At least, according to the writings that were registered in the City Council. Probably a divine inspiration took hold of the two on the same day, or they were imbued with a deep sense of responsibility, and decided to stamp their signature on a letter of resignation, although afterwards they did not even go to ratify their resignation before the secretary of the City Council. Perhaps the celestial effluvium had passed, or it was not strong enough to get them to also formalize their decision in the Consistory.
The concrete thing is that this fact has multiplied the grotesque situation that is being experienced in the plenary sessions of Arrecife. It took up to two sessions for those resignations to be acknowledged, since it seems that neither the released councilors nor the 27 advisors who are paid from public funds are enough to know the basic procedures for the operation of the Consistory. Not even to know how to convene a plenary session in a timely manner. And to top it off, the daughter of Dimas Martín, Elena Martín, also arrested and charged in Operation "Unión", was acting as accidental secretary in those days.
In addition, Alternativa Ciudadana maintains that the resignations of Antonio Machín and Luisa Blanco have not even been valid as they have not been ratified, and has announced that it will also challenge the session held last Monday, in which the two new PIL councilors were incorporated. Those who occupied the eleventh and twelfth positions on the list of Independientes de Lanzarote, and did not even imagine that this would mean that they would have to sit in the plenary session of the City Council.
And the capital Consistory has come to be composed of a significant number of substitutes. Especially on the PIL bench, but also in other formations, since so far this legislature, 11 of the 25 councilors who were elected have resigned from their seats. To that, we must add that the Mayor's Office is not in the hands of the first most voted force or the second, but of the third, which only has four councilors, and that who supports the PP in power is what remains of the PIL in Arrecife and the PNL, with Pedro de Armas at the head, who with his fifth place in the polls and the same councilors as Alternativa Ciudadana (two), has become the second strong man of the capital, having in his hands the urban issues. Without a doubt, the favorites for their political formation. Perhaps that is why the great obsession for this peculiar government group is to move forward the famous icon of the Islote del Francés. Or what is the same, to resolve the situation of the plot of the businessman Jaime Cortezo.
In more than half a year they have not been able, for example, to move forward a report to rehabilitate the houses of Titerroy, risking losing the funds that the State and the Government of the Canary Islands could contribute to it, but they are willing to resolve, in the few months that remain, the future of the Francés. And that commitment is inevitable that many find disturbing. Because one thing is the need to clean up that area once and for all, and another very different thing is that this government group, marked by the "Unión" case, intends to close quickly, before its time in power ends, an urban agreement that should have the maximum possible support and, above all, be free of any shadow of doubt.
The legislature that has been lived in Arrecife is already an "icon", but of the darkest stage in the history of the capital. And that is the icon that neither politicians nor citizens should lose sight of, so that Operation "Unión" not only cleans up the past, but also the future. And until the people of Arrecife can pronounce themselves at the polls, the current government group should concentrate on finishing this legislature with the greatest dignity they can, worrying about the real urgencies of the citizens in the midst of a crisis, and leaving the megalomania for better times.
