The "obsessions" of Pedro San Ginés

The fight to contain tourism growth on the island painted a divided scenario between those who were betting on curbing the number of tourist beds and those who, in the service of major economic interests, were obligated, lacking arguments to defend a development model repudiated by the majority of Lanzarote citizens, to invent urban legends to try to justify their positions.

In the Plenary session held last Saturday, October 31st, at the Cabildo of Lanzarote to debate, at the request of the opposition, the controversial seizure of the Montaña Roja desalination plant, we witnessed an excellent example of some of the "obsessions" of the institution's president, Pedro San Ginés, who once again constructed a narrative closer to science fiction imposed by the desires of his entrepreneurs than to reality.

At one point in the Plenary, I asked Pedro San Ginés what the payment of compensation to Club Lanzarote consisted of for a lawsuit lost by the Cabildo. The president explained that "Montaña Roja had to be paid because, curiously and coincidentally, it was the only one of the thirty lawsuits that this institution has had with developers that has been lost, and for which the court condemned the Government of the Canary Islands and the Cabildo to the joint payment of seven million euros due to the modification of the 1991 Island Plan." Later, in another intervention, San Ginés played a guessing game by saying to me: "Guess who was the lawyer who handled the Montaña Roja Plan lawsuit that cost this institution 7 million euros."

The urban legend is surely known: the attempt to curb tourism growth on the island was a Judeo-Masonic conspiracy hatched by the PSOE, a law firm, the César Manrique Foundation, and, depending on the version of the legend, some outdated environmentalists who played into the hands of the other instigators of the plot to strike gold with judicial resources. Quentin Tarantino would be a third-rate screenwriter next to them.

Pedro San Ginés, without mentioning him, was referring to the lawyer Agustín Domingo Acosta, who directed the 30 contentious-administrative appeals filed by the Cabildo between 2000 and 2008 against the tourist licenses granted by the municipalities of Teguise and Yaiza outside the scope of the Lanzarote Island Territorial Planning Plan. Said lawyer was appointed, despite the mantra repeated time and again by Coalición Canaria, by all those who were presidents of the Cabildo in that period, belonging to parties as diverse as CC, PIL, PSOE, and PP. Only Dimas Martín filed 21 appeals. The 30 lawsuits were won by the Cabildo against the municipalities and holders of the illegally granted licenses, and the judgments in favor of the Cabildo declared the prevalence of the Island Plan over general plans and established the principle that licenses could not be granted against island planning.

However, contrary to what was insinuated by Pedro San Ginés, Agustín Domingo Acosta did not direct the legal defense of the Cabildo in the appeals filed in 1991 by various developers against the approval of the PIOT approved that year. For such lawsuits, the then acting president of the Cabildo, Juan Ramírez (the presidency was held by Pedro de Armas, of the PIL), appointed a lawyer from the Bar Association of Las Palmas at the end of 1996. Again, San Ginés's "obsessions" take precedence over the slightest contrast with the truth.

But let's continue with the president's statements in the Plenary. In reference to the judgment that obliged the payment (jointly between the Government of the Canary Islands and the Cabildo) of 7 million euros to Club Lanzarote, and addressing me, San Ginés pointed out that "some technicians of this institution, whose uniform you have taken off, publicly declared that it was a great victory that we had to pay that amount," in a clear allusion to the former director of the Island Plan Office, Leopoldo Díaz, dismissed by the president himself on June 26th due to "loss of confidence."

But was the Montaña Roja judgment a success or not? As is logical, it depends on the interests being defended, but let's go to the facts. November 2007. Some media sowed panic by speculating about the possible compensations that the Cabildo would have to pay for the declassification of more than 30,000 tourist places that the 91 PIOT meant for that urbanization. The developer, Club Lanzarote, relying on a report commissioned to the expert Agustín Díaz de Aguilar, requested compensation of 214 million euros, while the expert appointed by the Superior Court of Justice of the Canary Islands put it at one hundred million euros. The Canarias7 newspaper headlined on November 6th of that year: "The compensation to Montaña Roja rises to 100 million," and the Lancelot weekly of November 9th included a three-page report whose headlines were: "The threat of Montaña Roja. The possibility that the First Corporation has to pay one hundred million euros in compensation makes the Cabildo's coffers tremble." That report echoed the words of Pedro San Ginés, then a CC councilor in the Cabildo: "At the time, an important opportunity to reach an agreement was lost; it only makes sense to negotiate when there is not yet a judgment to execute."

A year later, the order of October 24, 2008, of the Contentious-Administrative Chamber of the Superior Court of Justice of the Canary Islands (TSJC) shattered the catastrophic theses by setting at 6.7 million euros the compensation amount corresponding to Montaña Roja for the declassification of 31,145 beds, just half of the total places planned in Montaña Roja. At a rate of 216 euros (108 for the Cabildo's coffers) per declassified bed. Neither more nor less.

It may not be easy at first glance to weigh what 30,000 fewer tourist beds mean on the island, but perhaps it is enough to remember two facts: One, according to data from September 2015, the number of official tourist places in Lanzarote is around 72,000. Two, the annual budget of the Cabildo revolves around 117 million euros. Or, in other words, we managed to save ourselves the construction of 40% of the current tourist beds (with what this entails in terms of pressure on the territory and on public services) in exchange for 3% of the budget of one year of the Cabildo. You have to have many "obsessions" in your head (or have too intense ties with some urban developers) to say that this judgment was not a conquest for all the citizens of this island.

Carlos Meca, Councilor of Podemos in the Cabildo of Lanzarote.