Like every night, I suppose a good part of Spaniards do it when we finish our daily chores, I surrender to social networks to find out what is cooking beyond my small everyday universe.
Today, Monday, March 22, Instagram surprises me with a snapshot of a certain socialist from La Laguna, with already somewhat gray hair, where in the caption he claims to have everything ready for an intense week.
That reminded me that these days Teobaldo Power Street in Santa Cruz de Tenerife will be dressed up to receive, after two years, the Debate on the Nationality of the Canary Islands. It is not a competition to determine who is more Canarian, because we know that some Majorero sitting in a red armchair and wearing thick glasses would win at this, (or so those who represent that nationalist party think); it is a debate about the state of the Autonomous Community of the Canary Islands.
This is the biannual exam in which the 70 representatives of the Canary Islands will rate the management of poppies, roses, carnations and fans. They start with some negative subjects such as fires, COVID, aid to the self-employed, oppositions, the tourism crisis or immigration.
The first thing we think is that the issues debated last time would be overcome, well no; remember that fierce debate between Antona and Valido regarding the Dependency Law, well it remains the same, aggravated by the delay in agreements between the GOBCAN and the Cabildos. In that last debate, they even told us that to improve the situation of the roads in the Canary Islands we had to look at the landscape or turn on the radio; the reality today is that our beloved Chano tries, but Manolo Domínguez continues to get up at dawn to avoid the queues on the highway and arrive on time to a plenary session in Santa Cruz, or whenever I go to La Palma I don't know if I see the Fuencaliente road or the work of the Sagrada Familia. Well, and if we talk about the distribution of money being equitable between the islands, we are still the same, all looking disconsolately at La Gomera. When I grow up in politics I want to be the one who almost saw the perfect political strategy. Of course, we are also still without a new Youth Law and without a new Electoral Law, this last one 'for real' and not a patch with 10 more seats.
Now they will talk a lot about the pandemic, and the boy from Arucas will tell Navarro that everything is solved with the Reactiva Canarias Plan, although as we have seen a year later, it has not managed to reactivate even the members of the Government, taking the positions of Health and Education.
The proclaimed best defender of equality in the Canary Islands confined herself so well that she disappeared, and was not even able to achieve her own real family reconciliation. Immigration overwhelms us and Julio only comes up with calling Astrid a liar for taking the issue to the Chamber and saying that we are experiencing a situation of insecurity while Ángel Víctor exercises the complicit silence of the socialism of Moncloa. Meanwhile, the budget for Youth does not even increase by 1% and we have the worst youth unemployment figure in Spain; someone will have to tell them that young people are the present and the future of these islands.
Well yes Gustavo, it will not be an easy week. But a few years ago, a not so old Gabriel Mato, recognized that being President of Parliament had been one of the most difficult jobs of his career, the most complicated game to arbitrate.
I don't know if the day Pedro Guerra inaugurated the headquarters of sovereignty in the Canary Islands he knew that the same things would be debated so many times. As a Canarian I never imagined seeing so many empty hotels and so many neighbors not knowing what will become of them tomorrow. I know the importance of parliamentary politics, but let's make it effective and efficient. Debate, but reach agreements that improve the lives of the Canarians.
Nieves Arrocha, councilor of the Popular Party in Teguise and vice-secretary of NNGG of the Canary Islands.
