The evolution of Lanzarote in the last 20 years can be summarized in the current state of the island: economic stagnation, brutal loss of competitiveness compared to neighboring islands and other tourist destinations, hotel overcapacity ...
The evolution of Lanzarote in the last 20 years can be summarized in the current state of the island: economic stagnation, brutal loss of competitiveness compared to neighboring islands and other tourist destinations, hotel and urban overcapacity, ultra-weakness of the economic fabric, widespread corruption and absence of collective values and ambitions.
But what is even more overwhelming is the feeling of dejection experienced by citizens. A dejection resulting from present hopelessness and lack of confidence in the future. A feeling that the political class has plunged the island into the worst of nightmares and that, despite this, it remains autistic, abstracted in parlor battles, in short-range and long-lasting policies, when not immersed in darker endeavors. The feeling that a business oligarchy controls the political class has gone from urban legend to the most ingrained belief, even being denounced by historical political leaders.
But among the latest events on the island, intense green shoots are beginning to emerge in the citizen's feeling: the traditional apathy is giving way to a deaf cry of weariness, a kind of collective catharsis in which people lose their fear of speaking, of expressing themselves clearly, and begin to show signs that this dark stage is ending, or at least living its last gasps.
This collective catharsis lives its clearest exponent in the feverish activity experienced by judicial institutions. The long period of serene complacency in certain judicial powers has given way to a state of intensity that is making the foundations of Lanzarote society hatch. Many citizens now place their hopes on the judicial powers doing the work that politics is not capable of doing.
The events of recent months show that nothing will ever be the same on the island. The escapes forward of a few cannot stop a feeling that underlies ever stronger in society. But for this catharsis, purge and purification, to really occur, the true key is held by the people of Lanzarote.
Apart from fixed ideologies and unbreakable loyalties characteristic of the past, the recovery of a collective spirit and values, based on honest work, effort for the sake of the general interest and public service are the new foundations on which to build the future of the island.
Those who advocate the convenience of blank votes, apparent rebellion without any practical consequence, are very wrong. What is really necessary is the critical, conscious and responsible vote, in whatever sense, but determined to contribute to ensuring that Lanzarote never returns to what it has been.