On his way to turning 35 as mayor of the municipality, José Miguel Rodríguez Fraga (Vilaflor, April 29, 1947) is part of the brand of this world-class tourist destination. Today he chairs the associations of Spain and the Canary Islands that bring together the most important municipalities of the sector.
At the same time, it maintains the claims to correct the deficit suffered by the region and the Island.
He chairs the Spanish and Canarian associations of tourist municipalities. Two groups with common goals?
In the case of the national one, it adds 10% of foreign tourism, 20% of overnight stays, 15% of hotel rooms in the country, 5% of tourism employment and 13% of GDP; in the case of the Canary Islands, it represents 80% of tourists staying, 80% of lodging places and 91% of overnight stays. We are talking about an important specific weight. They arise almost simultaneously and from the need of the sector and the municipalities to participate in decision-making and policies that underpin Spain and the Canary Islands as tourism leaders. The fundamental objectives are to resolve the definition of what is a holiday tourist municipality and to articulate mechanisms for its financing.
Costa Adeje is a model, a benchmark. What is missing?
Don’t die of success. We have a good product, the result of entrepreneurs who take risks, workers who respond and a rich complementary offer. We must continue to respond to a very dynamic sector and remain competitive. I don’t want to be the cheapest destination, no; I want to be the best, that people want to come here because we are the best, not the cheapest. That objective is environmental, social and economic.
Adeje is much more than tourism. Following the previous line, what is missing?
Many things. The highway marks the two realities, the tourist and the social. With this scenario, we try to permeate both spaces, maintaining the model so that wealth flows in the territory. We are improving the first-rate equipment that we have – we are building a theater, we plan to build a large stadium and other things – to incorporate it into the tourist offer as an added value, because it will allow us to reinforce and improve our cultural, gastronomic and commercial offer. In this work, we have to recover natural and cultural spaces, to continue modernizing Costa Adeje in line with the digital and green transition and make tourism turn towards our own.
Listening to him, it can be concluded that he will repeat as mayoral candidate.
If I had to decide now, I will tell you yes. Life will tell, but, in any case, we have to project. Beyond people, the commitment is to leave outreach projects, agreed upon and very well worked with society.
You preside over the PSOE of the Canary Islands. What remains of the political mandate is interesting and it seems that in 2023 the extreme right will break into the Canarian institutions.
There is an advance of ideologies due, also, to the clumsiness of the conventional parties, which has entered a populist dynamic that generates boredom in the citizen. We produce more and more tension and less identification with the democratic system. Respect for citizenship involves stopping nonsense and focusing on working from plurality. But we did not evolve into emotionally intelligent positions, which fosters this radical populism on both sides.
In the mandate, does the PSOE lose an opportunity on the Island?
He is gaining an opportunity on the Island and in the Archipelago. We have to take the setting into account. Pedro Martín has had no truce; the regional government, nor do I tell you. They have both managed it well. In situations like this, I wonder what would have happened with the governments of the Canary Islands Coalition or the PP. More than solving the problems, we would be blaming Madrid. However, the Parliament of the Canary Islands has been exemplary in the country, in the Chamber all have been at the height in the management of the pandemic.
Do you still think that Arona’s is a failed government and that the situation has a difficult solution?
It’s a no-brainer. The majority is lost and the government is broken in half. It is a tough situation and I do not see an easy solution.
What role did it play?
Offer myself for whatever was needed and resolve the issue from an equidistant position. I intervene at the beginning as a mediator, then things have evolved in such a way that a problem that is political has been legally resolved. The solution has to be political, the legal one does not work because, in the end, you have to vote, solve problems and manage. It has not had it nor do I see it on the horizon. The estrangement of the parties is increasing, as far as I perceive. Personally, I have a good relationship with both parties. I make a political assessment: the majority that the town of Arona gave to the PSOE to solve very serious structural problems that the City Council has had for a long time has been lost. After a year, we find that the government is broken. I tried, with passion, for there to be understanding and agreement, but it was not possible. But for the record: I want Arona to work. We are neither a bubble nor competitors of Arona.
Speaking of functioning, the South has big entrenched issues, a hospital case …
We continue to have major dysfunctions, but we cannot ask this Government of the Canary Islands and this Cabildo that in two years, with what has rained, resolve what has become entrenched during the 25 years that we have been fighting for the hospital. Progress has only been made when the PSOE has intervened. Now, there is will and it will come out, but it is funny that those who paralyzed it for years now want to solve it in a month.
However, on roads there have been advances …
I tell you one thing: I am going to Gran Canarias, yesterday (on Thursday) I was in Lanzarote … I wonder what happened to Tenerife in all this time. Surely there are mobility problems on those islands, but we are 50 years away from them. What I want is to be like them. What has happened during all that time, that we continue with the same infrastructures that were when I was studying, practically? For us, the party that has ruled us for so long has been a kind of curse.
The Island agrees that the Tenerife South Airport requires urgent improvement …
Many things had to be done long before. And the South has not been silent. The president of the Cabildo has been, from the Mayor’s Office, and is a great defender of the airport not of the South, of the Tenerife Airport. The point where tourists enter and we Canaries move cannot be a botch and a fix. There must be a project that is at the level of the tourism offer and leadership that we want for the Island. It is not. Pedro Martín has suggested, with good sense, that we make a plan and not spend another 20 years crying. That has to have an answer. As required by mobility.
And the train?
I do not see it. A rigid system, unique for the coastline, does not solve the island’s mobility problem. A more permeable, more networked system must be applied. That requires a change of mind. The way of thinking of the canaries is to put public transport for you so that I can go in my car.
Within this framework are the ports of Fonsalía, Los Cristianos, Granadilla and the maritime connections with the Green Islands.
We lack serious and clear planning. There has to be a plan. Fonsalía, at the time, was the great solution and, over the years, we question the model again, to talk about recovering Los Cristianos as a more touristy port and Granadilla, a project conceived 30 years ago, is unfinished and does not respond to current needs. It is necessary to advance, other Islands advance; I don’t know why we don’t.
Does the Monkey Beach Club case, a work in court, keep you awake?
No. I don’t like it, but it complies with the PMM, the Canarian Government says it is viable and I cannot be playing with the legal security of those who invest.
