The non-socialist municipalities of the island, a total of 20, have rebelled against the direct aid of the Tenerife Council to the municipalities in the 2022 budget. They were announced yesterday by the island president, Pedro Martin, at the annual meeting of the Insular Council of Territorial Administration (CIAT). There will be 15.9 million destined to 14 of the 31 city councils of the Island. The rejection has been led by Santa Cruz, El Rosario and Arico but, according to the information accessed by this newspaper, the other non-socialist city councils subsequently joined. There are two issues underlying this rebellion. On the one hand, “the lack of transparency, competition or any objective explanation regarding the criteria used in the distribution.” But above all they criticize that “88% of this game is directed to consistories governed by the PSOE.” This, they value, “divides the Island into two blocks.”
The session of the Insular Council, held telematically, was tense and at some point, even, anger due to the distribution of nominative subsidies. Thus, the mayors of Santa Cruz, José Manuel Bermúdez (CC); Arico, Sebastián Martín (First Arico); and El Rosario, Escolástico Gil (IR Verdes), were the main ones who raised their voices in the face of the “imbalance” generated by the insular accounts. The discrepancies were supported by the rest of municipal representatives, except the Socialists, who came out in defense of the president of the Cabildo. The rebels revealed that “of the 15.9 million euros that Martín hands out, 88% is distributed to the Socialist mayors.” That, they emphasize, “creates an imbalance in the rest of the Island’s municipalities.”
The ‘rebellious’ mayors oppose what they value as “the division of the Island into two blocks.”
At one point, especially at the insistence of Escolástica Gil, Pedro Martín acknowledged that “he did not know the amount of the nominative subsidies.” Some sources indicate that the debate ended abruptly when the president withdrew the floor from the mayor of Arico. This did not confirm it although he spoke of “brawl”. The truth is that he has shown his disagreements with the island president on numerous occasions for what he understands as “lack of support” from the Cabildo to his municipality.
“A scandal”.
CC-PNC at the island level considers “a scandal” that Pedro Martín “grants 14 million euros to the finger to the socialist municipalities.” The nationalist formation denounces “an increase of 6,200% in the nominative subsidies of the Cabildo in 2022”. They insist that “the municipalities of La Matanza (2.8 million euros), Vilaflor (1.6 million), La Laguna (1.5 million) and El Tanque (1.3 million) are the most benefited.” For the nationalist formation, “We are facing an unprecedented event because from 225,000 euros last year they go to 14 million”. And they emphasize: “They are funds that are granted directly, without competition and are not justified because in most cases they are for ordinary works.” The nationalists warn that «the PSOE doubles the nominal subsidies globally with respect to last year, reaching 25.4 million euros. It is the highest figure in the recent history of the Cabildo and does not respond to any need but to a political criterion. Summary: «They give millions of euros to the municipalities in which they are governing, they forget the rest and generate an investment imbalance in Tenerife». They conclude: “The distribution is made based on a subjective criterion because they are grants awarded by hand.”
«I ask for respect and not to be fooled; two hours later they tell me they haven’t looked at it »
The cast.
The City Council of La Matanza will receive a total of 2,835,000 euros, that of Vilaflor 1,650,000 and that of El Tanque 1,356,000. In addition, that of La Victoria will directly obtain 1.3 million euros and that of Guía de Isora about 731,000 euros. The Cabildo also gives a nominative subsidy to the City Council of La Laguna for an amount of 1.5 million euros, while that of San Juan de la Rambla will receive 1.3 million. Other municipalities that benefit directly are Fasnia (1,048,379 euros) and Tegueste (812,813 euros). In addition, Güímar will receive 1.3 million euros and Arafo about 200,000. The only ones not governed by the PSOE that will receive a nominative subsidy from the Cabildo in 2022 are Los Silos (600,000 euros), La Orotava (600,000) and Los Realejos (678,034 euros).
Not a single euro to the capital.
Santa Cruz denounces that it does not receive “not a single euro” of aid from the Cabildo, The Mayor, Jose Manuel Bermudez, criticizes the exclusion of the capital from the distribution “by hand” of 16 million for the municipalities. The City Council asks for money for the reform of La Rosa Street, among other projects. Bermúdez, raises his complaint before the decision of the Insular Corporation, because “it is the first time that the Cabildo de Tenerife distributes, in its budgets, 16 million in a nominative way; that is to say, by finger between different city councils, and it draws powerfully the attention that of all that money, this municipality does not receive a single euro “, criticizes the councilor. It is not even, he adds, “it is contemplated to help support the Municipal Reception Center (CMA), the Shelter, and its services, which are intended for citizens from all over Tenerife, so it has a clearly insular function.”
Bermúdez reports that Santa Cruz has expressed the rejection of the Cabildo’s budgets in the Insular Council of Territorial Administration (CIAT), “For this abandonment of our capital in subsidies.” “Although there is no vote in this body, since it is an accounting, I did express my rejection of the budgets, due to the lack of criteria with which this amount of money is awarded. Of the 16 million that are distributed in a nominative way, 14 go to municipalities governed by the PSOE ”, he says. “We could understand that three million were given in a nominative way because something was left out in the budgets, but that 16 are distributed, a very important amount, and that Santa Cruz remains absolutely out, it is not acceptable and it is not understandable” , adds the mayor of the Tenerife capital, who cannot hide his anger.
“The objective criteria for giving this money have not been explained to us, despite the insistence”
Amendments.
The councilor for the Treasury of Santa Cruz, the nationalist Juan José Martínez, indicates that Canary Islands Coalition (CC) will present amendments to these budgets to “rebalance the island accounts, with the aim of serving Santa Cruz projects, such as the acquisition by the Cabildo of the Auditorium Building, for 20.5 million euros.” The purchase of this property, located in the Cabo Llanos area and which was handed over to the capital city council by the businessman Antonio Plasencia, convicted of the Las Teresitas case, would allow the insular Institution “to have a first-rate property in commissioning conditions. underway in the short term destined for entities of strategic interest or island administrations “, says Martínez. The Santa Cruz de Tenerife City Council also demands an item of 1.5 million for the Making Neighborhoods Plan, aimed at “hiring people in a situation of social exclusion or long-term unemployed in construction.” «The capital also needs 550,000 euros for the remodeling of La Rosa street, an intervention proposed for the revitalization of the traditional commercial sector in the El Toscal area, consisting of the semi-pedestrianization of the road, while giving high treatment quality urban furniture, facilities and landscaping ». In the area of public infrastructures, Juan José Martínez points out that the «250,000 euros necessary for the interior remodeling of the Guimerá Theater are also requested, which would allow undertaking the reform of the stalls and other premises of the enclosure, the main historical reference of the arts scenic in Tenerife; 500,000 euros to undertake the roofing of sports centers in some schools; 450,000 euros for the second phase of the rehabilitation of the Palacio de Carta; and 450,000 euros for the Buenaventura Bonnet Social Health Center, “which would allow the rehabilitation of this old school to locate different centers for social and health care, facilities that are always very necessary to serve the elderly in this municipality.”
“It is powerfully striking that Santa Cruz has been excluded from the cast”
El Rosario, very critical.
Escolástica Gil (IR-Verdes), mayor of El Rosario, is especially critical of what happened at the CIAT meeting yesterday. He assures from the outset that “I owe myself to all my neighbors, I am here to defend their interests, even if they have not voted for me, and I ask the same of the president of all Tenerife residents.” He adds that “after two hours of debate, I can’t tell where the equitable distribution he’s talking about is.” Insists that «The Cabildo has to watch over all the small municipalities, those with less than 20,000 inhabitants, and with decisions of this type it does not do so ». Gil points out that «already last year they left El Sol street out and we had to get to the Canary Islands Superior Court of Justice (TSJC) so that finally in this exercise they contemplate a game for that work ». He underlines: «And what about the La Esperanza sports center, a place so cold, and in which they do not undertake the necessary rehabilitation. We are still waiting, despite the agreement signed for this in 2018 and the 2021 plan has been completed ». Gil has had some other disagreement with the Cabildo such as the controversial protocol, which he denies, with the insular councilor of Ecological Transition, Javier Rodríguez Medina, on the day of the inauguration of the Wastewater Treatment Plant in El Rosario.
Gil recalls: «Of the almost 16 million euros, 88% goes to municipalities governed by the PSOE. I wonder, where is the fair share? Gil regrets that “this decision divides the Island into two blocks and it should not be like that.” And he sums up: “Not a single euro for El Rosario.” He underlines: “I tell the president that I wanted to see the criteria he has followed to award the subsidy and after two hours he tells me that the amounts have not been read.” Given this, he concludes: “I ask that mayors and municipalities be respected and that they don’t kid us.”
Neither Santa Cruz, Arico and El Rosario, nor 14 other municipalities will receive one euro from this line of aid
Arico sees no precedent.
The assessment of Sebastián Martín, mayor of Arico, brings serenity from the firmness. In this sense, he does not want to talk about anger or confirm whether the president of the Cabildo withdrew the floor at the end of the session. He does acknowledge that there was a “brawl” and assesses: “There were no precedents for this type of nominative subsidies to municipalities.” He points out that “there will only be 14 who receive it and another 17 will stay out, including Arico.” It recalls episodes of a certain confrontation from its town hall with the Cabildo as has happened with the Tenerife Environmental Complexand compensation to the municipality for having it within its limits. Martín insists that his approach in the CIAT forum was based on “asking for explanations about the objective criteria that have been followed to award the grants.”
In addition to “suggesting how we could opt for them if there was any possibility.” He assures that he has reiterated on several occasions that he is given “explanations” and values: “Mr. Pedro Martín is the president of the entire island and not only of the municipalities governed by the PSOE. And it seems so when 88% of the global games go to consistories where this party governs. In conclusion, Sebastián Martín affirms: «Many municipalities on the island are left out and we do not know what criteria have been followed to determine it. Without competition, without advertisement and arbitrarily. Logically, it does not seem correct to me. Martín, Gil and Bermúdez are currently forming this front of rebellious mayors against the nominative subsidies of the Cabildo, but it is likely that they are not the only ones.
