Open letter to Casimiro Curbelo

By María Dolores Corujo Compañero: Allow me to publicly respond to your statements from last weekend, in which you expressed your personal position on the opportunity to extract crude oil off the coasts of Lanzarote and ...

April 12 2013 (15:43 WEST)
By María Dolores Corujo
Compañero: Allow me to publicly respond to your statements from last weekend, in which you expressed your personal position on the opportunity to extract crude oil off the coasts of Lanzarote and ...

Companion:

Allow me to publicly respond to your statements from last weekend, in which you expressed your personal position on the opportunity to extract crude oil off the coasts of Lanzarote and Fuerteventura. It seems logical that if your statements have been public, my response should be public.

I want to start by pointing out that the opposition to the authorizations granted to Repsol is not my personal position, nor even that of the island organization of the PSOE, but a decision of the party in the Canary Islands, which found its maximum support in the suspension by José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero of the permits previously granted by the Popular Party.

I know that "personal positions" are always possible. And even more so in a party like ours, which makes respect for disagreement a sign of identity. However, I would like to point out that the enjoyment of that freedom, even more so when it is exercised publicly, must be limited to the extent that representative functions are exercised.

As you rightly recall in the interview, for a long time you have been or are everything or almost everything: island secretary of La Gomera, president of its Cabildo, mayor of its capital, regional parliamentarian and senator. You will then agree with me that such an accumulation of merits and services imposes as a counterpart the sacrifice of being exquisitely aware of the importance that your pronouncements acquire, since they find much greater echo than those of a grassroots member.

Therefore, while I respect, although I do not share, your personal position, I find your statements unfortunate. I have no objection to the debate on oil being taken up again in our governing bodies, but I believe that out of loyalty to our structure and our decisions, our leaders should leave their personal positions for personal spheres.

The current situation is confusing enough, with a widespread rejection of politicians and, what is more serious, of politics, as to contribute to generating feelings of misgovernment, of flags and taifas.

Our fellow citizens expect clear positions from us, without dogmatism and full of firmness in decision and execution. Even more so when they refer to matters such as this one, that of oil, which we have been discussing for more than a decade and which imply a change of model whose consequences will extend over a long period of time.

Finally, if what worries you is the situation of public coffers and unemployment, let me remind you that prospecting will not be the panacea: Repsol generates worldwide barely more than ten thousand jobs. And as for taxes, I have heard something about interposed signatures and tax havens.

Greetings

María Dolores Corujo

General Secretary of the Socialists of Lanzarote

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