Legend has it that when you vote for a candidate or a list, those elected go out of their way to improve the lives of citizens in the exercise of their office, and that they are only there for the pleasure and interest of fulfilling a laudable and valuable function, representation. That's what the legend says.
When you vote for the city council lists, you vote for those who are running. This is also the case with the island councilors, parliamentarians or senators. Therefore, when you see that certain people access certain positions without having participated in the corresponding electoral process, you get a bitter taste in your mouth. Perhaps, they do a splendid job and are the right person for the position to be filled. They could also simply be looking for a position to live on with the hope of not leaving the political scene and disappearing in the process. But what is relevant here is that they do not have the legitimacy that comes from being voted by the citizens. Because that is also what occupying a position is about, democratic legitimacy.
Legitimacy is given to you by the people when they vote for the list where you are. Your party does not give it to you when it finds you a place after an overwhelming defeat at a lower level or as a way to send you to an obscure position overloaded with work and with little political visibility to get rid of you. Nor do you have legitimacy if the position is the product of a commercial transaction carried out through an agreement from which you want to obtain personal or political benefit. Legitimacy gives the right to be part of political institutions and, even if necessary, to govern according to the existing political model. Therefore, one of the minimum qualities that every political figure should reflect is that of respect. Respect for the institutions, for the political arena, but, above all, for the citizens who have not elected you to occupy that position. They already have enough to see how their participation becomes the key to governments that are far from their preferences and current ideological logic. Although these governments are entirely respectable.
With this I want to make it clear that all those positions of "non-elected" councilors to which the Cabildo of Lanzarote is opened are not justified and, even less, democratically legitimized. Which is another mockery by a tiny group of island politicians who, as I warned before, respect neither the institutions nor the voter. Why pay for these positions with public money if the voter has not elected their occupants? Thus, introducing a non-elected position for Paula Corujo when she has not been voted to the Cabildo (and her party does not reach the stipulated electoral barrier), is a clear sign of the mercantilism derived from political pacts that end up taking on an opportunistic rather than democratic nature. The most laudable and morally correct thing would be to reject this position and act from the street, overseeing everything that is done.
But who says no to a salary of 45,000? gross? No one. Not even the former mayor of Tías, Pancho Hernández, who, despite not being able to renew the mayor's office or obtain a position as a Canarian parliamentarian, will get a salary in the most relevant institution on the island. A consolation prize that takes away time as a councilor in the opposition (he is the second councilor of the PP of Tías who occupies a position as councilor at present). Jacobo Medina, the Vice President of the Cabildo, said that the Cabildo manages to bring the good management of Tías. I highly doubt that Pancho has managed anything with a minimum of capacity, but time will show us the truth. Here there are no more "councilors" to blame for the errors, it's just him and his area.
It is sad that the regulation itself allows this type of appointments. Exactly, article 60.2, of Law 8/2015, of April 1, of Island Councils, says: "The organic regulation of the island council may provide for the designation as members of the island government council of persons who do not have the status of elected island councilors, up to a limit not exceeding one third of its members". Therefore, we can say that the "pactista" and "placement" machinery is already prepared for this type of political transactions and situations, and we can do nothing against it other than punish with time those decisions that are inconsistent with the political discourse defended. Yes, I'm talking about the vote. Unique and genuine democratic mechanism to decide in a democracy like ours.
Somos-NC is responsible for Loli Corujo and Astrid Pérez governing in the Cabildo and in Arrecife, respectively. Pancho Hernández was the only one who kept the PP in some relevant position during the last years, but he failed to renew his mandate or jump very high in the political arena. For this reason, the prize is a position in the Cabildo for both. A prize lacking democratic legitimacy but loaded with legal and normative legitimacy. A prize that allows to save the political image of Paula Corujo and Pancho Hernández for four years, while they analyze with tranquility how to continue in this placement system.
Alejandro Pérez O'pray, Political Science and Administration from the UNED.
