"If I had a world of my own, everything would be nonsense. Nothing would be what it is, because everything would be what it isn't. And contrary wise, what is, it wouldn't be. And what it wouldn't be, it would." (Alice in Wonderland)
In the disorder called 'derealization' the person who suffers from it experiences the world or the environment as if it were strange and unreal, as if they were inside a dream. They may perceive alterations in the shape and size of objects, and people may seem strange or unfamiliar. There may also be an alteration in the subjective sensation of the passage of time.
Fernando Clavijo and his government seem to be affected by this and other disorders. We are invaded by the feeling, on too many occasions, that our president has problems with location, space, time and, in general, with the perception of reality.
Firstly, when we see how he completely ignores the real problems suffered by a large majority of people in the Canary Islands. Almost a year ago we learned the data of shame: the Arope rate that indicated that 44.6 percent of the Canarian population lives at risk of poverty and social exclusion. The response of our president in a monographic plenary session on the subject was surprising: to discuss the data, not the problem.
The same thing happened when we asked him in parliamentary headquarters (where, by the way, he spends less and less time, barely an hour every 15 days) about the fact that the Canary Islands was one of the regions in Europe where there was greater concern about cases of corruption and cronyism. His answer was along the same lines: to discuss the study on which the information was based.
But, without a doubt, the most hilarious thing about these last months of the legislature was when we asked him about corruption and he answered with the now famous "corruption in the Canary Islands is non-existent". That said, the problem in the perception of reality is more than worrying.
The misplacement is manifested in surprising facts, such as our president sometimes acting as Minister of Defense (visiting Spanish troops abroad) or as a courtier (accompanying the Kings on their trips through the United States), or even as a commercial agent of large hotel companies, visiting every tourism fair there is.
It seems that he does not understand that his fundamental functions are not the representative ones (which they also are), but the executive ones.
The Spanish Constitution says that the King has only representative functions, that "he reigns, but does not govern". It seems that in the Canary Islands, more than a president we have another King: he pretends, but does not govern. His latest function this summer is one of the most worrying: acting as a lobbyist for large video game multinationals. His exacerbated defense of e-sports gives a lot to think about. And for bad.
The dereality disorder is also serious when our ruler's mind imagines that he does things that he doesn't really do. This happens above all with investment in research and development, which falls in the budgets and rises in his imagination. Or also with the commitment to renewable energies: in reality, we are committed to gas, in his mind we are committed to clean energies. Serious, very serious.
In short, and there is a clear fact above all that demonstrates the reality of the Government of the Canary Islands: they have been in power for more than 3 years and have only passed one major law: the land law. The rest: smoke, meetings and photos.
Faced with this, there is no better shock therapy for the dereality of a ruler than the polls.
2019 is a key year for the Canary Islands. We are gambling on continuing in paralysis or moving somewhere. Or staying the same or changing. Following the path of other places, such as Castilla-La Mancha (where, with a PSOE-Podemos government, it has been possible to pass a Guaranteed Minimum Income) or like the Balearic Islands (where a very successful ecotax was approved, which has allowed the benefit of tourism to be passed on to the population).
But all improvement depends on a key point: Coalición Canaria cannot continue governing this land. They have been a spoke in the wheel that has not allowed the Canary Islands to move forward.
They have had too many opportunities and the result has been disastrous. They have to leave the government.
And for that to happen, we have said it and we will say it actively and passively: a strong Podemos Canarias is needed. Because we are the only guarantee that there will be a coalition government without Coalición.
Other parties seem to suffer from another type of disorder: 'Stockholm syndrome'. Despite how badly they have done, they insist on wanting to continue governing with Coalición.
We hope that the polls make it clear to them that change in the Canary Islands is not only necessary: it is unstoppable.
*Noemí Santana Perera, general secretary of Podemos Canarias
