The eternal cross of Lanzarote

He barely had any cards, but he made the most of them. With an almost impeccable strategy, Cándido Reguera put an end to the agony that began on Wednesday, February 22, when Pedro San Ginés terminated the pact...

March 2 2012 (14:52 WET)

He barely had any cards, but he made the most of them. With an almost impeccable strategy, Cándido Reguera put an end to the agony that began on Wednesday, February 22, when Pedro San Ginés terminated the pact...

He barely had any cards, but he made the most of them. With an almost impeccable strategy, Cándido Reguera put an end to the agony that began on Wednesday, February 22, when Pedro San Ginés terminated the pact with the PP in the Cabildo. Since then, and especially after the dismissal of the PP councilors in Teguise, Reguera knew that a motion of censure against him was looming. In fact, to add insult to injury, Alternativa Ciudadana was even publicly talking about the offer that CC and PSOE had made to him to form a new government in the capital.

However, Cándido Reguera decided to get ahead, putting an end to a grotesque situation, in which he continued to govern together with the socialists, while the whole island knew that his days were numbered in the Mayor's office, and that a new government group was being orchestrated with the nationalist Manuel Fajardo Feo as mayor. And Reguera did not do it by dismissing the PSOE councilors, which would have been the most comfortable for them, but by taking a step back himself. Yes, a step of those that are taken to gain momentum... or to wait for better times.

On the one hand, Reguera has managed to put the socialists in an uncomfortable situation, publicly making them an offer that they have had to reject: none other than the Mayor's office of Arrecife. On the other hand, he has managed to abort the imminent motion of censure, leaving that door open for the future. And if the pact that was signed after the last elections has not lasted even eight months... why should the new alliance that is sealed last more than three years?

That said, as a political strategy, it is certainly almost impeccable, within the limited room for maneuver he had. However, this move may seem masterful, as even some of his political adversaries recognize, but it is also a further reflection of the political nonsense in which the island has been installed for more than two decades.

Once again, Lanzarote becomes a laboratory. In a scenario of experiments, maneuvers and intrigues, where all parties seem to play an eternal game, using the island's institutions as a board. Unfortunately, what has happened in the last two weeks shows that nothing has changed. That we are still exactly the same, despite the fact that the citizens of this island have been paying the consequences of that instability for too long.

In June 2011, when just over eight months ago the agreements were closed after the elections, this same editorial warned of that danger. The regional leaderships of CC and PSOE then requested a cascading pact, but in Lanzarote it was not fulfilled, and up to five different alliances were sealed in the island's institutions. Therefore, if we also add the personal disagreements, such as those maintained by Pedro San Ginés and Ástrid Pérez in the Cabildo, what has happened was almost a chronicle foretold.

Now, within the ceremony of confusion that surrounds any self-respecting institutional crisis, some and others will be able to give a thousand and one arguments and explanations. They may even try to get citizens to swallow the unbelievable. But the background is much simpler. Some had to be kicked out so that others could enter. The same thing that some and others have done a thousand times in recent years. With one exception, however: Alternativa Ciudadana.

Their case is the great novelty in this new soap opera of Lanzarote politics, since for the first time they have decided to enter a government group. They had a clear option after their first elections, when the same parties with which they now intend to agree offered them a three-way alliance for several institutions on the island. They also had it in 2006, when the then councilor of Alternativa Ciudadana in San Bartolomé, José Antonio González, was determined to present a motion of censure against Miguel Martín, together with the PSOE and two councilors from the CCN and the PNL.

At that time, the Alternativa assembly opposed it, and in fact that ended up leading to the departure of José Antonio González from AC. Five years later, at the beginning of the current legislature, Alternativa Ciudadana once again had an offer on the table, to do exactly the same thing that it is willing to do now: govern together with CC and the PSOE in Arrecife.

According to them, they have "matured" as a party and believe that they can contribute their seal to the institution. In any case, if that pact is really consummated, it is clear that it will be a trial by fire for them, which may be definitive for better or for worse. For the moment, with this step they have already become a little more similar to the rest of the parties, but now is their time to show if they really apply "another way of governing".

What seems evident is that they will not be an easy partner. They themselves warn that they are willing to abandon the ship if their partners disappoint them. They even celebrate not having had to present a motion of censure, because the future mayor has not been "blinded", and they will be able to censure him later if they consider it appropriate. At least, they say it clearly, but, of course, it is not a very encouraging way to start.

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