For the nationalists of the Canarian Coalition, this pre-campaign has revealed their deepest secrets. They have not taken well to the formatting that needs to be done before the May elections, and the "brain drain" that is hitting them is a symptom of disorder within the party, popular discontent, and insular differences.
The Canarian Coalition has new faces in its leadership, new members after that election where Fernando Clavijo overthrew the quintessential "pillar A" and ran for the presidency of the Government of the Canary Islands. After that, nothing will ever be the same.
Paulino Rivero's legacy, based on cohesion between the islands, on dividing the pie among his insular vassals, keeping everyone happy, presents candidate Clavijo with an arduous and complicated task to manage. The "Paulinistas" cannot imagine day one after May 24th. Without Rivero's welcoming arm, political flotation is complicated; there is no horizon where a welcoming seat can be glimpsed to spend the four long years. Clavijo does not ensure that stability, and in no way ensures the priorities in each of the islands. The shadow of the Tenerife Group of Independents (ATI) looms over the candidate, and even in San Borondón they know it.
In Gran Canaria, Pedro Rodríguez has orphaned the Canarian Coalition. The only stronghold of the nationalists on the island has slipped from their hands in the blink of an eye. The mayor of Guía assures that the party is taking dictatorial paths, with submission and obedience to the chicharrera leadership. This abandonment leaves Fernando Bañolas - the island secretary in Gran Canaria - alone and defenseless against ATI and unable to stop the rumor that Tenerife is stealing from us. By the way, a rumor created by the transhumant president Bravo de Laguna in his new post-popular stage.
Not only is Gran Canaria a hotbed of unrest. Fuerteventura is the center of concerns for the presidential candidate. The possible resignations of Morales and Cabrera do not bode well for electoral expectations. The current Canarian Electoral Law favors small constituencies, that is, the islands with smaller populations and where nationalists clearly have greater strength. The resignations of two greats in Maxorata mean that the Canarian Coalition is very electorally affected, since everyone knows that no one in Fuerteventura will vote for a Coalition without its two great strongholds. Clavijo has already sent Ruano to negotiate solutions and make peace on the ground, but we all know what they say, "the rabbit has already cornered the dog for me!".
Finally, our island, Lanzarote, the eternally forgotten, and not only for the current Government of the Canary Islands - which allocates more budget to Canarian Radio and Television than to the third most populous and economically important island - but also for candidate Clavijo. On the island, we have been observing the duels, excesses, rags, and shames of a formation that is maintained thanks to personalism. I think Fernando Clavijo does not come to Lanzarote because he knows it is a lost cause, an island where old political practices are already a tradition. Furthermore, what are Pedro San Ginés and David de la Hoz going to be told, if they were some of those who bet on the current Lagunero candidate. On the other hand, the duel between the mayor of Haría, Torres Stinga, and the president of the Cabildo, Pedro San Ginés, has been presented as the greatest shame of the Canarian Coalition in Lanzarote territory - along with being the largest lobby for the interests of some businessmen. The fires from one side and the other have generated a millionaire sentence for the conejeros, who have seen how a problem of political manhood unleashed greater debts for the citizens. And not only do we have the problem between these two gentlemen, but the decisions in different areas - such as the Tías committee, the candidacy in Haría, the arrogance of the president of the Cabildo, the flight of affiliates, or the opposition to the CACT - make the Canarian Coalition a lost party, without direction and with possible existential problems.
This is the panorama that the Canarian Coalition and specifically, Fernando Clavijo, are experiencing. The candidate must act quickly and conscientiously on a map that is not easy to appease. Going from a medium-low profile to being the visible head and responsible for a party of such magnitude - with so many interests scattered across the different islands, with so many gentlemen asking "what about mine?" and with Nueva Canarias sweeping up the crumbs that are falling - makes the candidate disoriented and dislocated. What is observed is that everything is crumbling under his feet, but of course, here everyone knows that Minister Soria's head is peeking out to catapult him to the residences of Vistabella and Ciudad Jardín.
By Ayoze Corujo Hernández, student of Political Science and Public Administration at the Autonomous University of Madrid
