The situation that Arrecife is experiencing is not at all what we would all like. Despite being the third capital of the Canary Islands, neglect and apathy have taken over a government team led by a mayor who does not believe in her city, who does not know how to manage, who does not listen to her neighbors, who does not give answers because she does not even know what the real problems are... And, what is worse, a mayor who does not admit the solutions proposed by others, I do not know if due to a lack of stature and political training or due to an excessive desire to be the protagonist in everything.
From Coalición Canaria we have done nothing but provide solutions to the problems of this municipality while sticks were put in our wheels. And we left the government team. Yes, we left when we had left everything on track to not create more problems for the citizens.
We did not take the step before, as proposed by the popular clamor and our local committee, out of responsibility to the citizens. The decision was not easy, but we could not continue with a Mayor's Office that constantly hindered the solutions we proposed; a Mayor's Office more concerned that the management of CC-PNC did not stand out than in solving the problems.
We understood that, perhaps from the opposition, we could do that work that the mayor of Arrecife and her team had not allowed us to do... And we left.
With Coalición Canaria in the opposition, having to assume our areas, with a minority government and an absolute disinterest and inability to carry out the important issues that Arrecife requires, the mayor only came up with the brilliant idea of starting to kick the ball out.
Now it turns out that she is the mayor, she gets paid to be the mayor, she gives the orders, she decides what is important and what is not... She is the ultimate responsible for the City Council but, yes, Coalición Canaria in general and its spokesperson in the capital Consistory in particular are to blame for everything.
And it is a shame, because all we have done is, as I said, provide solutions:
We gave them in terms of personnel, she does not do them.
We gave them in the General Plan, they kidnap it.
We gave them in waste management, she ignores it.
We gave them in the electricity contract, she rejects them.
We gave them for the cemetery, total disinterest.
We gave them in Culture, contempt for an answer.
We gave them in Education, she disengages.
We gave them in Sports, discarded.
We gave them in Infrastructure, no attention.
We gave them in mobility, they ignore them.
We gave them for the Senior Center, nothing at all.
We gave it to her in the Heritage commission so that Arrecife does not look like a ghost town with abandoned houses... but she does not care about anything.
I could go on much longer pointing out everything that we have proposed both while co-governing and now in the opposition, but then I would never finish.
And it is that this mayor of the PSOE, for not doing, does not even do what she herself promises. She does not do the famous consultation on the Avenue, she does not convene the plenary sessions that the law requires... We asked her for the transfer of land for the Argana Health Center and for the construction of Protected Housing, but we will see how long it takes to do so and who she blames for the delay. Everything that has to do with her mandate is a real nonsense.
A few days ago, the Cabildo of Lanzarote sent the Arrecife City Council for its approval the collaboration agreement that will allow us to start the 'Arrecife, Capital of the Biosphere' project. Three million euros to intervene in degraded neighborhoods and areas and enable the change that the city needs. How long will the capital government team now take to sign this agreement? Will it go ahead?
We are giving thousands of solutions from Coalición Canaria, but we cannot do the work for her; a job that corresponds to her as the highest authority in Arrecife, although doña "I insist on the same" (tagline that she repeats over and over again), does not have the slightest knowledge of what holding a Mayor's Office means. We are even going to have to offer to make the budget for her so that she does not paralyze, even more if possible, the management of investments and some subsidies.
While we are witnessing this shameful drama that we are suffering together with the population, we, Coalición Canaria-Partido Nacionalista Canario, will continue working, trying to show that we are different in management and in the seriousness of managing public affairs.
By Orlando Umpiérrez García, Local Secretary of Coalición Canaria in Arrecife
