We are about to close, from a judicial point of view, one of the emblematic parts of the Unión Case. There are still some days left in which the participation and, if applicable, the guilt of the accused who have not reached agreements with the Prosecutor's Office will be elucidated, but the story has been established in black and white by the actors themselves.
I reiterate: it closes from a judicial point of view, but there are other open fronts, there are consequences pending repair.
Firstly, the recovery of the amounts looted from the town hall. Money that should have been used to improve the quality of life of the people of Arrecife and that went into private pockets.
But, important as this aspect is, there are still more far-reaching consequences from which the island's capital has not yet recovered.
During the investigation of the procedure, the necessary pressure from the judicial bodies on many of the public employees has been very high. For several months, the requests for information, copies of files, were constant and, in addition and as it should be, with peremptory deadlines to meet them.
It is not just about the delay that attending to such requests from the courts can cause for daily work. The consequences go further. There are many people who work in the town hall who over the years have told me about their feeling of vertigo about what was happening, a certain insecurity, a fear of inadvertently participating in some procedure that was flawed from the beginning or that would be completed in an anomalous way.
It is naive to think that a town hall that sees its secretary, its auditor and the head of its technical office judicially removed can continue working with complete normality. Not to mention the councilors who came out handcuffed as soon as the operation broke out.
Due to my position as general secretary of my party, both during the last legislature, with Manuel Fajardo Feo as mayor, and with this one with José Montelongo and, above all, with Eva de Anta, I have had to follow the activity of the town hall very closely. I have been aware first-hand of their difficulties in managing that infamous legacy that splashed not only the activity of the institution, but the morale, security and confidence of its staff.
Getting out of that quagmire is not being easy and, therefore, those who have been in front of the Arrecife City Council have enjoyed my respect and my support, because the task they have had to face has been very hard.
Today, we are no longer facing facts to be proven in a trial, we are facing confessions that paint a chilling account of the looting of public funds and that, to some extent, allow us to shed light on what will happen in other pieces referring to certain public works and service contracts.
Today, in the face of these confirmed certainties, it is time to remember that corruption not only takes away public money but also destroys the life of institutions and, most seriously, the trust of citizens.
María Dolores Corujo Berriel
General Secretary of the PSOE of Lanzarote
