The PSOE coerced some of the mayors of Tenerife who have rebelled against the criteria of the Cabildo, governed by this party and Ciudadanos, to distribute 16 million euros among the municipalities in direct aid that will be contemplated in the 2022 island budget. The pressures sought to deactivate the press conference held yesterday by some of these first councilors. But the act was held. Six of the rebel mayors, from four different parties, expressed their protest at the distribution of aid because 88% of the total amount benefits municipalities where the PSOE governs or co-governs, which they see as “sectarian” and “unfair.” They were present Jose Manuel Bermudez (Santa Cruz, CC), José Domingo Regalado (Granadilla, CC), Arturo González (San Miguel de Abona, CC), Emilio Navarro (Santiago del Teide, PP), Escolástica Gil (El Rosario, IR Los Verdes) and Sebastián Martín (Arico, First Arico).
Some of those summoned to the press conference at the Silken Atlántida Hotel in Santa Cruz, such as the first mayor of Tacoronte, Daniel Díaz (Nueva Canarias), fell at the last minute of the appointment despite the fact that their appearance was scheduled. The cause in this case would be socialist pressures. The threat of breaking the pact that the government supports in the tacorontera locality (PSOE-NC-Sí se Podemos) weighed more on Díaz than make visible the protest against the one described by all the rises as a “monumental hand cast” of the island president, the socialist Pedro Martín. He is required to “rectify.”
The tacorontero mayor explained that after Tuesday’s call announcing the press conference there were “many calls.” “I received a few.” Remember that “we had agreed that representatives of each political force would speak.” He reveals that he could not attend to “not endanger the government pact in Tacoronte.” “I prioritized the stability of my municipality.” Díaz admits that he was going to the meeting because “Tacoronte is not well represented in that cast.” “And I am in this position to defend the residents of the town.” Asked about who had called him, the northern mayor refused to answer.
“This sectarian style of distribution breaks a historical model of territorial balance”
Rectify was the most used word in the meeting of six of the mayors opposed to the cast. José Domingo Regalado (Granadilla) was not in the call but he joined. Daniel Díaz was absent, for the reasons mentioned, and Antonio Hernández (PP), from La Guancha, who considered that he was already represented by Navarro, the mayor of Santiago del Teide from his same party. It had been agreed that there would be a single speech by political force. Hence, four of the six present spoke: Bermúdez, Gil, Martín and Navarro.
“You cannot be president of the Cabildo for less than half the population”
Unanimous rejection.
All present publicly staged their “rejection” after being excluded from the distribution of nominative grants and they agreed to ask the president of the Cabildo, Pedro Martín, to “rectify” and “reverse”. The mayor of Santa Cruz de Tenerife, José Manuel Bermúdez (CC), indicated that this act aims to “give voice to what is a cry” for the way in which a distribution of nominative subsidies has been carried out “unprecedented” in the history of the Cabildo, distributed “by finger” in a “biased and sectarian” way. Bermúdez stressed that the Council it has been characterized by the application of programs and plans “balanced in the territory and from the political point of view”. He used an adjective to qualify what has been carried out: “sectarian.” It considers that the main criterion has been to benefit the municipalities governed by the PSOE. The mayor makes it clear that “it cannot be tolerated that out of 16 million, not a single euro comes to the island’s capital.” He asks Pedro Martín to “rectify” and “balance” to include all the island’s municipalities in this distribution because “surely they all have projects to present.”
“It is sad that someone who was mayor has broken the aid consensus”
“Cacicada” and “revenge.”
The mayor of El Rosario, Escolástico Gil (IR-Verdes), was vehement in his speech. He based the “secular abandonment” of the Cabildo to his municipality with historical and demographic data such as that “today we have the same population as in 1972 when the neighborhoods of Districts Eleven and Twelve were ceded to Santa Cruz.” He insists that “they have left out more than 17,000 residents” and values that “cacicadas” and “political revenge” cannot be “the usual practice of the president of the Insular Corporation.” Consider that Pedro Martin “It has to rectify and be fair”, because “you cannot be president of the Cabildo for less than half of the population of Tenerife.” He recalled his days as a trade unionist to defend public sector workers by stating: “If we have to return to the doors of the Cabildo to claim the rights of citizenship, there is no doubt that we are going to do it.”
“We reach out to the Cabildo to modify the budget and attend the protest”
Outstretched hand.
The mayor of Santiago del Teide, Emilio Navarro (PP), emphasized that the municipalities are “to collaborate” and help “proactively” to advance the island as a competitive destination. He asks the Cabildo to take the “outstretched hand” of the mayors to be able to carry out a “consensual” budget and make it the “best” for the Island. Navarro acknowledges that the day before he received a call from Pedro Martín, with whom he says he maintains ” a good relationship”. Remember that Martín argued that it is difficult to square a budget when it is governed in pact but he showed him his predisposition to review the games and the distribution criteria. Navarro believes that “we mayors must have high-mindedness and understand the priorities when there are 31 municipalities on the island” but, he reiterates, “what we are asking for is a clarification of the criteria and a fairer distribution.”
Lost opportunity.
The mayor of Arico, Sebastián Martín (First Arico), regretted that “for the first time” a “historical consensus” has been broken so that the distribution of nominative grants from the Cabildo is done in a “consensual” manner. He also condemned that an explanation had not been given about what the objective criterion of an “unfair” distribution has been. He understands that the Cabildo “has missed a great opportunity to be able to compensate the municipality of Arico for hosting the largest landfill on the island,” for which it has been claiming “for years” financial compensation. He recalled the 600,000 tons of garbage from the entire Island that are received there every year. Like the other mayors, he has asked the president of the Cabildo “to rectify.” Martín underlines: «It is sad that whoever has ended the institutional consensus that existed in Tenerife is someone who was mayor (Pedro Martín, in Guía de Isora). Martín has also criticized that In the session of the Insular Council of Territorial Administration (CIAT), just a week ago today, it reported «without prior notice of the unfair distribution of 16 million euros, of which 14 will go to socialist municipalities. A budgetary imbalance by which several consistories have been “displaced”. Rate the accounts as “partisan.” Martín has described “the sadness that Tenerife municipalities go through after the traditional consensus among the island’s municipalities has been broken.” He considers that “the territorial cohesion of which the PSOE talks so much has been broken, with a distribution that leads us to begging and contempt”. The Ariquero mayor has made it clear that they found out about the distribution “in the same CIAT session without an objective explanation, if there is one, of that distribution.” Despite all of them, he concludes, “I hope he rectifies himself and returns to the path of dialogue.”
