Carlos Gardel said in his memorable tango Volver that twenty years is nothing. You will allow me to disagree, twenty years, even more so twenty-five, are an eternity when we talk about the territory.
Twenty-five years have passed since that April 9, 1991, the date on which the Government of the Canary Islands, through Decree 63/1991 of the Ministry of Territorial Policy, definitively approved the Island Plan for Territorial Planning of Lanzarote (PIOL). The first Island Plan in the Canary Islands saw the light, after years of debate, disagreements and hopes. After the political agreement that allowed it, Lanzarote became an advanced student that marked the rest of the archipelago another way of organizing the best of its assets: the territory.
This historic event provoked the celebration of the Government of the Canary Islands itself and the island society, as the newspaper archive attests:
"The approval of the PIOT is a success for everyone and a great triumph for Lanzarote, which is at the forefront of planning the island territories," could be read in the announcements that the Ministry of Territorial Policy of the autonomous executive published in those days.
The protagonists of that moment in our territorial history maintain, some unfortunately deceased, that the task was not easy at all. The political agreement was presented as a chimera, a utopia in a Cabildo where mistrust was the norm. This is attested by headlines of the time, reflecting the prevailing skepticism: Planning Plan, and the consensus that does not arrive, could be read in an editorial in La Voz de Lanzarote in November 1989.
However, the force of reason, of necessity and the responsibility of twenty-one councilors illuminated the miracle. All the councilors of the Cabildo of Lanzarote voted unanimously in favor of the provisional approval of the PIOL in the so-called island phase on July 27, 1990, which led to editorials such as the one that under the title "1990" dedicated the weekly Lancelot in December of that year: "It is a commitment to the future of an island that must preserve its ecosystem not only for purely environmental but also economic, cultural and social reasons. The Island Plan is a unique opportunity for Lanzarote (...)".
Months later it was definitively approved by the Government of the Canary Islands on that April 9, 1991 that we celebrate today. Twenty-five years have passed, and time does pass, may Gardel forgive me. A Lanzarote of 64,911 residents in 1991 gives way to the more than 143,000 current inhabitants; an island with 4,860 people unemployed compared to more than 13,000; a Cabildo with only one councilor compared to a more equal composition of the current plenary, with 8 councilors; a society that had drugs as its main problem, when now the first place is occupied by unemployment; but an island, both yesterday and today, that maintains its enormous potential and attractiveness for the thousands of residents and tourists of this unique space to live and visit.
Twenty-five years. Too many for a PIOL that needs to be updated and face a reality and challenges different from those that motivated those twenty-one councilors. New times that require, despite the logical difficulties, generosity and a new agreement of all the political forces that make up the current plenary of the Cabildo. A more plural plenary than that of those years, when it was formed by only three political forces (CDS, PSOE and Agrupación Insular Lanzaroteña AIL), compared to the eight parties and twenty-three councilors that represent today a more diverse island society.
We cannot be less than those who created the current PIOL. Quite the opposite. Citizens, tired of partisanship, noise and constant campaigning to weaken the political rival, expect us to be much more. And in that sense, the PIOL revision process is an excellent opportunity for all of us to put, above our legitimate differences, the shared desire to progress as a society. Each party counts in this process that we will soon resume.
Twenty-five years ago, twenty-one councilors made it possible. Today, history presents us with the opportunity to "Return" to do it. I am sure that we will be up to the task.
By Marcos Bergaz, Councilor for Territorial Policy of the Cabildo of Lanzarote
