The Sí Podemos Canarias group at the Cabildo de Tenerife On the same day, the majority that supports the insular government in two relevant projects was overthrown: the South train and the new waste treatment plant.. Sí Podemos supports the PSOE from the outside, after the programmatic agreements at the beginning of the mandate that the spokesperson for the purples, María José Belda, recalled on several occasions yesterday. First voted against the tender for the recycling plant to be installed on a plot of the Arico Environmental Complex (CAT). They did it in the Extraordinary Plenary session convened at the request of CC and unbalanced the balance in favor of the opposition. In the subsequent ordinary plenary session, the pressure of his previous threat to break the pact was key to leading Enrique Arriaga, insular vice president (Ciudadanos, main partner of the PSOE government), to he withdraws his motion on the south train.
The day did not look good for the government team since the announcement of Yes We Can the day before, although it could have been worse due to the delicate balance of forces that supports it. The reflection of the importance of the day was in the intense movement during the morning with meetings between the groups and telephone calls.
extraordinary plenary session
The opposition celebrated as a victory that the votes against the new waste plant projected by the island government in the Tenerife Environmental Complex, in Arico, were imposed in the Extraordinary Plenary Session of the Cabildo. The opposition interprets that this agreement contrary to the project “cancels the tender” for a plant that it assures will function as “an incinerator.” The island government, however, continues to understand that it has the power to do so, to have the endorsement of the experts and to defend that this facility is going to “recycle, not incinerate.”
Last October, the Sustainable Development area of the Cabildo put out to tender the private exploitation of a public plot of 25,000 square meters of the Environmental Complex for the installation of a plant with state-of-the-art processing. There is none of this type in the Canary Islands and only 11 in the Peninsula. The winning company – only the Temporary Union of Companies (UTE) Arico Green Glass has been presented – will be able to occupy these lands for 15 years with a plant that, in addition to conventional recycling, will be able to incorporate three innovative thermal treatments that use high temperatures: pyrolysis, gasification and plasma. The contest excludes incineration itself, one of these high-temperature treatments that make up energy recovery. The Island Government replies that the only proposal they have received excludes thermal treatments and focuses on recycling.
The second point of the motion addressed the key to yesterday’s debate: competencies. For the government team “the power belongs to the Governing Council”; for the opposition, “of the plenary session”. The secretary’s intervention did not change the direction of the vote of any group and the point rejecting the new plant in Arico was approved with those in favor of CC, PP and Sí Podemos Canarias (against, PSOE and Cs). Exactly the same as in the Plenary Commission on November 19. Despite this, the Minister of Sustainable Development, Rodríguez Medina, who got into a bitter debate with Blanca Pérez (CC), unraveled the benefits of the tender “to end 35 years of burying garbage.” “We’ll move on,” he settled.
Blanca Pérez explained that “it is necessary to stop this project because the reality is that the specification allows “burning waste” by different processes (pyrolysis, gasification and plasma) instead of favoring reuse and recycling.” He insisted that the project presented is that of a biomethanization plant in which different residues are mixed. He concluded: “It is not a composting plant where they have the same origin.” In the same sense, Valentín González, from the PP, expressed himself, who stated that “information and transparency have been lacking” in addition to “breaking the consensus that declared Tenerife Incineration-free Island in 2019. For her part, María José Belda defended separation at source and recycling as “key island for better waste management.”
and full ordinary
The second battle of the day was not won by anyone, but the null combat benefits the government team. This time the opposition did not achieve what it wanted. Enrique Arriaga, after a few moments of uncertainty, withdrew the motion on the South train project, from Santa Cruz to Adeje, which asked to include it in the national road network of mandatory public service. He alleged that he was doing it in order to seek “the necessary consensus” after detailing the importance of the Insular Plan for Sustainable Mobility, in the consultation process. But the truth is that he planned the threat of Sí Podemos Canarias, a formation completely opposed to the guided transport system. As Belda had already assured the day before, “a red line.” He told Arriaga in plenary session that they will count on them “for sustainable mobility, citizen participation or the BUS-VAO lanes” but not for the train. He denied that they have threatened but acknowledged that “we value the electoral program with which we presented ourselves and the programmatic agreements with the PSOE.” He reiterated his doubts about the objectives of the 30-question survey carried out on mobility.
Rodríguez Medina affirmed that the PSOE “has bet and bets on guided transport” in the face of the swings of CC. He spoke of a circus show in front of Félix Fariña (CC) and Manuel Fernández (PP) who criticized the prevailing political tactics. Fariña even states that “the government is kidnapped by a party of the extreme left”, in reference to Sí Podemos Canarias.
The opposition accused Arriaga of “putting his interests before those of Tenerife” and of “lacking the courage to carry out an important project for the Island” in the face of “the threat” of breaking the government pact. Fariña stressed that “he has lost touch with Belda in exchange for maintaining his position and his salary as vice president.” The opposition insisted on “the evident lack of leadership of Pedro Martín”
CC and PP concluded that “guided transport is one of the solutions to facilitate mobility and put an end to traffic jams, but Arriaga has preferred to give up.”
New possibilities.
The announced resignation of the councilor Ruth Acosta was the final chapter of the leadership of Sí Podemos Canarias in yesterday’s plenary session. Acosta received an emotional farewell at the end of the session. She will be replaced by her party partner, Moisés Lubary, which opens up new possibilities. In this sense, a motion of censure against the current government team is now possible, since the regulations only indicate that the same councilors cannot sign two in the mandate, but Lubary did not participate in the motion presented in July 2019 to evict Carlos Alonso (CC). It is very unlikely, but not impossible. The motion of censure that prospered then had 16 favorable votes: 11 from the PSOE, 3 from Sí Podemos Canarias and 2 from Ciudadanos. However, with the departure of Acosta, the possibility of presenting a new motion together with the Canarian Coalition (11 councilors) and the Popular Party (4 councilors) opens up.
