Not even the proximity to the bar where the alleged corruption plot was uncovered made them tremble. Last Friday, councilors Ubaldo Becerra and José Miguel Rodríguez returned to the scene to attend a ...
Not even the proximity to the bar where the alleged corruption plot was uncovered made them tremble. Last Friday, councilors Ubaldo Becerra and José Miguel Rodríguez returned to the scene to attend a notary's office in Arrecife, located next to the café "La Unión", to sign a motion of censure endorsed by PIL, PNL and PP. They have not been to the City Council since they were released from provisional prison, and theoretically they are suspended from membership by their party, but that did not prevent the censoring parties from counting on their support to overthrow the socialist Enrique Pérez Parrilla.
Thus, six months after the Arrecife City Council was turned upside down with the arrival of the UCO and the court of César Romero Pamparacuatro, these three political parties act as if nothing had happened here. They return the PIL to power, with the support of two of the main defendants in the case, appealing to the presumption of innocence, and clarifying that neither Becerra nor Rodríguez will occupy areas of responsibility in the new government. At their own request, they say. And if they had asked, would they have been given them? And more importantly: do they give that support in exchange for nothing? How has the party that suspended them from membership convinced them to finally sign a motion of censure that they themselves have delayed for weeks? And what guarantees that in each plenary session, they will support the initiatives of the new government of Cándido Reguera, who needs them to maintain the majority?
Obviously, and despite all the presumptions that are put forward, not even the PP trusts these two councilors, or otherwise they would not be in charge of emphasizing that they are not going to have areas of government. But even so, depending on them for vital decisions for the capital of the island is still worrying. Among other things, because of the message that is sent to society.
And it is that if it is true that the presumption of innocence must be respected, an unprecedented judicial and police intervention on the island should also be respected, which was reached after more than a year of investigation, which included telephone tapping and ended up catching "in flagrante delicto" even an exchange of an alleged illegal commission.
In the PIL they have been in charge of repeating in recent months that they are not a group of criminals, and of course it is true that the judicial scandals have only reached some of its members, but what they are is a party that for too long has tolerated crime in its ranks, and has even enshrined and maintained a criminal as a guide. And if they really wanted to break with that, this is certainly not a good example of it, because they are sending a message that is more than contradictory with the new defendants of their party.
But what is really surprising is not the attitude of the PIL, but that of those who sign this motion of censure together with them. Not only of the PNL, which has not even spoken out after the arrest and imprisonment of one of its main representatives, the former mayor of Yaiza, José Francisco Reyes, but also of the Popular Party, which had remained on the sidelines of the judicial scandals of the island.
The justification now is to affirm that the PSOE also has accused positions, including Enrique Pérez Parrilla himself, and that the socialists have also agreed with Dimas Martín for years or even have just returned the mayoralty of Teguise to someone whom they themselves denounced in the Courts: Juan Pedro Hernández.
However, and beyond the fact that the situation of José Miguel Rodríguez and Ubaldo Becerra is not comparable, neither by the seriousness of the crimes they are accused of nor by the forcefulness of the evidence found by the Justice to have them several months in provisional prison, what the signatories of the motion of censure lose sight of is that who they have to answer to is not the PSOE, but the citizens.
This is not about "you more". Obviously, Lanzarote's politics has been going down the wrong path for years, as judicial interventions have shown. Therefore, what it was about now is to demonstrate whether the lesson has been learned. If they are going to set limits that cannot be crossed. If everything is still going to be worth it.
But instead of that, it is going to be allowed that the government decisions of Arrecife depend on two people accused of very serious crimes of corruption, collection of commissions and even, one of them, of being part of an organized association to commit crimes. And also, and although there is no judicial intervention, the Department of Social Affairs is going to be returned to a councilor, Emilia Perdomo, who still has to explain where the 3,500 kilos donated by citizens for the "Solidarity Kilo" campaign went, and it is intended to leave the area of Urbanism in the hands of the PNL and, specifically, of Pedro de Armas, who has been the great defender of Reyes and the illegal licenses of Playa Blanca.
The City Council of Arrecife writes this week a sad chapter, which shows that at least the majority of the politicians represented in the Consistory, do not give enough importance to what happened a little more than six months ago, on a May 25 that seemed that could change the political course of the island. Now, it will be the Justice and the citizens in the next elections who give their verdict.
