Speech by the President of the Cabildo de Lanzarote, María Dolores Corujo

"Councilors, distinguished authorities, ladies and gentlemen.

My first words must be of gratitude to the people who have given me their trust and their vote, thus allowing my proclamation as president of the Cabildo de Lanzarote.

A gratitude that becomes especially emotional when it refers to the people of my party, who bet that I would lead this project and who have supported me in an intense campaign - very hard in many moments - that has allowed the Socialist Party to once again become the leading political force in the island.

I cannot fail to thank, either, the support of other political forces that did not present a candidacy to the Cabildo de Lanzarote and that of different groups that joined forces, their ideas and their enthusiasm to make possible the change that formally begins today. .

Finally, I sincerely thank the words of the spokespersons of the different groups and I commit to strive to live up to their expectations.

Ladies and gentlemen, I am convinced that it is not appropriate today to enter into criticism of the previous stage, as it has been sufficiently discussed throughout that campaign that I previously recognized as intense.

However, the refusal to enter at this time into this critical review of what happened during the last few years does not mean that a line is drawn after which there may be shadow zones, areas of impunity or unexplained matters. It is simply that today is not the time.

Over the next few days, during the next plenary sessions and whenever it is appropriate and necessary, those who make up this corporation and the citizens of Lanzarote will receive timely and sufficient information to clarify those shadow zones to which I referred earlier and to know in depth how this institution has been managed during these last few years.

In this sense, I commit to you and to the citizens to bring to this Plenary the agreement to review the awarding of the integral water cycle. Something I intend to do as soon as possible.

We are going to submit the awarding process to the exhaustive scrutiny not only of this Plenary, but also of the Canary Islands Advisory Council to guarantee that the awarding is in accordance with the law and satisfactory for the public interest.

If this is not the case, the necessary measures will be taken for its reversal with the corresponding demand for responsibilities.

Ladies and gentlemen, when throughout the campaign that has brought us here I committed myself to dignifying the Cabildo, I said it with a conviction and sincerity that I maintain today and that I intend to maintain during the next four years.

Within this commitment to dignification, I believe it is essential to make a firm and decisive commitment to transparency, as it is an essential and fundamental element of public management in a democratic society.

Therefore, my first commitment is to transparency, to the most absolute and radical transparency.

I commit to applying the rules that regulate it, always making a broad reading of them.

I commit to ensuring that the final decision in the interpretation of the rule does not remain exclusively in my hands, and to this end I will propose to this Plenary the creation of a collegiate body to resolve requests for information, thus guaranteeing that information is never hidden from anyone for interests that have nothing to do with the correct management of public affairs.

Transparency cannot remain a mere slogan designed to arouse the sympathy of the voter or the friendly treatment of the media and those who generate opinion.

Transparency is a fundamental pillar of democracy and a duty of institutions and those of us who are in them. If we have been elected to debate and manage public affairs, our actions and our debates must necessarily be public.

 

Hiding behind bureaucratic excuses is depriving citizens of their right to be informed about public affairs. A right, I remind you, enshrined in the Spanish Constitution.

 

Citizens must be able to know how and on what public resources are used and how and where they are acquired.

But transparency not only benefits citizens. Transparency implies for those who govern an additional degree of demand and vigilance, a preventive element that makes us make better decisions. For what one does not want to explain, can hardly be justified.

Within my commitment to dignify the Cabildo, I include recovering the appropriate relationship with other administrations.

The Cabildo must cooperate with all the municipalities, regardless of their political color, and must use its resources and capacity for support with exquisite neutrality, placing the well-being of its population as the ultimate goal. For, let us remember, it is to them that we owe ourselves.

But it must also do so from a position of respect. Arrogance is absolutely unacceptable. It is not acceptable to present the intervention of the Cabildo as a favor granted by the grace of its presidency. Even less acceptable is to threaten to cease cooperation or to make it conditional on the submission of the municipalities and those who legitimately govern them to the latest whim of those who confuse their institutional position with their own person.

Dignifying the Cabildo also means restoring the normality that should preside over the institution's relations with civil society and its organizations.

Relations that, as I have pointed out before, must be based on mutual respect for the role that each of us plays, recognizing their capacity to speak on an equal footing. Without impositions. Without pressure. Without blackmail.

Therefore, and because of the enormous symbolic value it represents, one of my first acts will be to officially visit, as president of the Cabildo de Lanzarote, the César Manrique Foundation to request, on behalf of the institution, the appropriate apologies for the inappropriate treatment given to it on the occasion, precisely and sadly, of the centenary of our most universal artist.

These essential apologies will be accompanied by a sincere offer of total collaboration in the celebration of an event that should never have been tarnished for reasons that have nothing to do with the interests of this island.

I intend only to become the bearer of the desire shared by the vast majority of the people of this land that César's Centenary should be an opportunity to meet with the institutions that, at times and with a hardly explicable pettiness, turned their backs on our Favorite Son.

We are going to turn César's Centenary into an opportunity to rediscover his memory, to commit ourselves to his values, to recognize ourselves as the place where his work reached its fullest meaning and to recognize ourselves, also, as the society in which he chose to live, after his years in Madrid or New York.

Lanzarote and its Centers cannot be understood without César, but it should not be forgotten that our most recognized artist enjoyed the most absolute complicity of the person who was not only his friend, but also president of this Institution.

Therefore, I would like to especially remember that this centenary coincides with that of José Ramírez Cerdá. José Ramírez Cerdá, Pepín Ramírez, has been unjustly forgotten by the institutions despite the fundamental role he played in the modernization of Lanzarote. I share with you my determination to repair this unjust oblivion, as I am convinced that the acts in memory of César will not suffer any detriment, on the contrary, they will be enhanced, insofar as they are accompanied by events aimed at rescuing from this unbearable oblivion the figure of José Ramírez Cerdá.

Dignifying the institution also means restoring normality to relations with the staff of this house. Those of us who sit in this plenary session exercise our responsibility on a temporary basis, depending on the support obtained from the citizens of Lanzarote in the corresponding electoral processes.

The staff of the institution forms, however, the permanent structure of the Cabildo de Lanzarote, regardless of changes in political sign, the capacities of those who manage it, their likes and dislikes and even their attitudes, which are hardly compatible not only with the correct exercise of power, but also with the minimum education required of a public official.

The persecutions and threats are over. The only demand we will allow ourselves will be that of responsible work, subject to the rules and executed in favor of the citizenry.

We need to recover the essential staffing levels to guarantee the adequate level of services of this institution and approve, after years of neglect, the Job Description.

With this document we intend to eliminate arbitrariness from this house and explain, in black and white, who is responsible for what, how workloads are assigned and establish clear, fair and transparent rules on how the different remuneration concepts are perceived or not in the payroll of the Cabildo's workers.

When talking about the staff of the institution, I cannot fail to make a special mention of the staff of the Cabildo de Lanzarote's Art, Culture and Tourism Centers, which some insist on calling EPEL-CACT, perhaps as a way of hiding behind cold acronyms the exceptional relationship that exists between Lanzarote, its Centers and the living memory of Manrique.

These public employees have been used as a throwing weapon in a self-serving and fictitious political debate. They have been blamed for everything bad that happens in the Centers. They have been criminalized for simply earning a decent salary that, in many cases and for the lower categories, barely compensates for their dedication and effort.

We are going to restore social peace in the Centers. We are going to remove them from the petty debate about the salaries of workers who, in general, earn barely a fraction of what any of the managers with whom the Centers' staff has been artificially increased earn.

I cannot fail to mention at this point another of the challenges that I consider essential: we will redouble our efforts in the maintenance of the Centers, guaranteeing that the indelible mark left by César on them is not distorted in the slightest. We will put an end to the trivialization involved in holding certain types of events and we will focus on enriching the cultural mission associated with them.

 

Finally, I commit to ensuring that the Art, Culture and Tourism Centers that make up the original network maintain a corporate image totally differentiated from the rest of the facilities that have been included in it.

 

The historic centers, in which the mark of César and his collaborators is a fundamental element, cannot be confused with other facilities that trivialize a unique and exemplary network, the astonishment of our visitors, envied by the rest of the destinations.

Councilors, ladies and gentlemen, it is going to cost us to recover the image of a Cabildo dragged through the courts, due to an interminable succession of capricious, if not directly illegal, decisions, as too many sentences have already pointed out.

It is going to take us a long time to recover the dignity of the institution, but I solemnly pledge that our behavior will be dignified from the very first moment.

These years, unfortunately, have not only meant the breakdown of the public image and dignity of the institution.

 

These years have been lost years. Years in which the degree of execution of the budgets radically belies the image of great managers that some have assigned themselves and that they have tried to convey to the public through institutional propaganda paid for with public money.

These years have been lost years in the planning of our territory and our most valuable natural spaces. They have been lost years in planning, financing and executing essential infrastructures for the well-being of our people.

But the worst thing is that they have been pitifully and unbearably lost years in caring for the most disadvantaged, in responding to those who most need the help and accompaniment of the institutions.

The Cabildo, this Cabildo, has looked the other way while the municipalities are unable to cope with the very important task of caring for our elderly and dependent people.

We are going to reverse this situation. We are going to accompany the municipalities in this task by setting up an island-wide body to manage home care.

Likewise, we will create an island network of family respite centers; we will promote active leisure and we will cover the deficit of residential places for those cases that require hospitalization.

This Cabildo has remained inactive in the face of the serious housing problem. While rents soar due to the impact of vacation rentals on the residential sector, wages plummet.

This is a lethal combination that drives countless families out of the homes, and even the neighborhoods, in which their lives were developing.

Housing policy will be a fundamental axis during this term of office.

We will promote, in partnership with the state, the autonomous community and the municipalities, the provision of public housing to those who need it most.

We will launch a rent subsidy plan, in coordination with the Canary Islands Government, aimed at young people, the unemployed and, in general, people in vulnerable situations.

Finally, we will promote sensible regulation of vacation rentals, reconciling the legitimate interests of owners with the social function that the Constitution recognizes for housing.

 

This Cabildo has refused to get involved in promoting a great agreement for stable and quality employment.

We are going to remedy this unbearable neglect. We are going to link public spending and investment to measurable and verifiable social clauses that imply increased and improved employment.

All public works contracts will include social clauses in their specifications.

All subsidies to companies or employers' associations will include clauses in their calls for proposals that oblige them to create and maintain decent and stable jobs, in a clear, measurable and verifiable manner.

We are going to give a better score to the bids of contractors and suppliers who can provide certifications accrediting compliance with labor conditions, such as the SA 8000 Management of Responsibility.

We will link joint tourism promotion to agreements on workforce stability. The Cabildo will collaborate with those who also collaborate in building a more just society.

The fight against poverty, especially that affecting our elderly and our youngest, will be a priority objective during this term of office.

We are going to have an exceptional ally in the Canary Islands Government, as the progress pact signed to govern the Canary Islands establishes as one of its main axes, precisely, the fight against poverty.

 

We will increase collaboration with NGOs and municipalities to diagnose and correct situations of poverty and social exclusion that today are merely a statistic and a kind of nebulous zone that the administration does not reach.

As mayor, I have suffered the unbearable experience of seeing how the lack of protocols makes it extremely difficult for the administration to intervene in some cases of extremely urgent gender-based violence in which the response depends, ultimately, on the goodwill of the technician in charge or the public official.

I commit to the creation of an urgent response service to gender-based violence, covered 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, which will allow the police, the courts and NGOs to have the participation and accompaniment of the Cabildo in those urgent cases that cannot depend on office hours or on the situation fitting perfectly into some of the typical cases.

I sincerely believe that there is no more beautiful aspiration in politics than to make those who are different equal in rights and opportunities.

Neither gender, nor sexual orientation, nor functional diversity or place of birth can be a barrier that prevents full access to the rights enjoyed by the rest of the citizenry.

I am committed to the creation of an area for the promotion of equality, associated with the Presidency, which will promote equality policies in all areas.

Thus, this area will be responsible, among others, for the Equality Plan for Men and Women that affects the institution's staff, or for the Accessibility Plan for all public facilities that depend on the Cabildo or for compliance with the percentage reserved in the staff of this house for people with functional or psychic diversity.

 

This Cabildo has lived with its back to reality, immersed in a permanent exercise of self-promotion, lost in legal conflicts that it systematically loses and entangled in artificial institutional conflicts that in no way contribute to the well-being of Lanzarote and its people.

We are going to respond to this situation of real paralysis with measurable and demonstrable management through the dissemination of the official settlement of the different budgets and not through fanciful PowerPoints that are sadly far from the harsh reality.

Lost in the management of routine, the Cabildo de Lanzarote has been unable even to barely look to the future, renouncing to prepare Lanzarote for the new scenarios that can be glimpsed on the immediate horizon.

Climate Change is today the greatest threat facing humanity. Therefore, I commit to urgently bringing to this Plenary a proposal to declare a State of Climate Emergency.

Every day more and more institutions are adopting this decision, which in our case will mean a clear and express mandate from this Plenary for the fight against Climate Change to be a cross-cutting part of all the institution's government action.

I commit to negotiating with the Canary Islands Government the fulfillment of the promise, so far sadly unfulfilled, that Lanzarote will host the still unborn Canary Islands Climate Change Observatory. In any case, if this does not happen, Lanzarote will have its own observatory, on a scale appropriate to its needs and capacities.

Likewise, I commit to creating a Climate Change Agency capable of coordinating the cross-cutting action I referred to earlier.

The Agency's main objective will be to prepare Lanzarote to face changes that today appear inevitable due to the unstoppable rise in temperature and our inability to reverse the increases already produced, at least in the short and medium term.

We cannot continue to ignore the public health consequences of the arrival of insect species, thanks precisely to rising temperatures, which can act as vectors of various diseases.

Lanzarote lacks any predictive analysis of how rising temperatures will affect our crops, especially the vines in La Geria, and possible adaptation strategies to these changes.

We must invest in knowledge. We must be able to foresee the new scenarios derived from climate change. We must anticipate the risks and implement strategies that allow us to anticipate them.

Councilors, ladies and gentlemen, I am determined that the island's capital should become a priority objective during this term of office. As general secretary of my party, I have made a commitment to Arrecife, the result of both our electoral program and the pact signed with the Popular Party, Nueva Canarias and Somos Lanzarote for the governability of this Cabildo and the aforementioned municipality.

Arrecife has been ignored for too many years by the Canary Islands Government and the Cabildo de Lanzarote itself, and the time has come to make up for lost time and do justice to Arrecife and its people.

The City Council and the Cabildo are opening a new stage that will be characterized by maximum collaboration in the common objective of effectively building the capital of Arrecife, providing it with the infrastructure and services required by its status as the third capital of the Canary Islands.

Both administrations are going to do so on an equal footing, without any attempt by this institution to tutor or supplant the work of the City Council, its mayoress and her government team.

Cooperation with loyalty will be the concept that best reflects the relationship we will maintain between the two institutions, and this commitment will materialize almost immediately in the technical assistance we will provide at the request of its mayoress in a whole battery of matters stuck in the drawers of the City Council due to the lack of collaboration of the Cabildo de Lanzarote in the previous stage.

Councilors, I am aware that in this, my first speech, there are important omissions.

Believe me when I tell you that I have not forgotten the task that awaits us derived from our border condition with misery, hunger and suffering.

Or that I am not unaware of the challenge of demanding from the Canary Islands Government the equipment and services essential to enjoy the modern and efficient healthcare we deserve, nor have I forgotten the shortcomings to which that same government has subjected us in the field of education.

I have chosen only some of the main lines of action that we are barely outlining to define our route in the coming years through this territory of uncertainties into which the future has become in an era dominated by global changes that affect every corner of our planet.

I believe that to conclude, however, I have one last chapter of thanks that I want to express to you expressly.

I want to sincerely thank the Popular Party councilors for their committed support. To them, and also to you as witnesses to this commitment, I want to say that I will try with all my might to be worthy of their support. That I will be loyal to the pact signed.

That there will be no disagreement for which we are not able to find an answer.

I extend my thanks to the councilors of my group. If I take possession of the Presidency of the Cabildo de Lanzarote today, it is largely thanks to their efforts. I am sure that they will give their best during this term of office to achieve the objectives we have set ourselves.

Finally, I cannot fail to make a public offer to those whom the citizens' vote and our management of the pacts have placed in the opposition.

 

I sincerely offer them the opportunity to co-lead the change that Lanzarote demands. You will find in me, and of course in the Government Group, an outstretched hand to reach agreements that are beneficial for the citizens of the island. You will find in me the ability to listen to suggestions, the determination to understand criticism and the will to improve in response to those suggestions and criticisms that I dare to ask of you.

I recognize that you have as much legitimacy as I do to speak on behalf of the demands of our people, and I will consider it almost a personal failure every time we are unable to reach a sincere consensus.

Democracy is the management of differences and the purpose of parliaments, assemblies and plenary sessions is to dialogue and reach agreements, not to impose wills by steamrolling. I offer you debate, I offer you the capacity to reach agreements, I offer you dialogue and not monologue. And I encourage you to do so guided by the criterion of serving the interests of the citizens and not personal or partisan interests, which end up isolating us from reality and whose short-sightedness serves no one.

A witty reply, an ephemeral headline or the desire to get a retweet may satisfy our egos, but they do not solve the problems we have committed ourselves to solving.

Councilors, ladies and gentlemen, I would not be sincere if I did not acknowledge before you the certain vertigo I feel at the magnitude and importance of the challenges that await us.

This vertigo is accompanied, however, by the legitimate satisfaction and excusable pride of having reached the Presidency of the Cabildo.

This is not a personal success, it is the result of a collective project and work that crystallizes in this case in my person, thanks to the privilege that the trust of my party and the support of the citizens has meant for me.

That satisfaction, that pride, are not gratuitous, as in my opinion they have a price that I believe I must pay: to be aware that my greatest and first obligation is service.

I am convinced that to govern is to serve. To command, to order, to request, to ask...there are countless verbs to define specific actions and moments in the relationship with others that can be used to define the relationship of those who govern with their team, with those who make up the corporation and with the citizens themselves.

Thus, sometimes it will be appropriate to order a certain action, request understanding for a certain measure or apologize for a mistake, depending on the moment and the action in question.

However, the verb that I commit to always keep in mind, and I repeat it again, is to serve.

To serve the institution, to serve Lanzarote and its people. I sincerely believe that there can be no more beautiful mission and that is the commitment I make.

Councilors, distinguished authorities, ladies and gentlemen, I conclude my speech by pointing out something that ten years later it is worth highlighting:

 

This Cabildo has changed its president.

 

Thank you very much. The session is adjourned.

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