
Alfonso Cabello defends that the Canary Coalition faces the 2023 elections “as what we are, the winners of the last elections, where we won in the five districts of Santa Cruz.” As secretary general of CC in Santa Cruz, he believes that one should “be proud” of belonging to a party “that has made this land grow and advance.” He assures that he lost a year and a half with the government of Patricia Hernández, and that if CC wins it is because “he knows how to listen” and provide “solutions”.
-How is the relationship between CC and PP in Santa Cruz?
“The Santa Cruz City Council government team is working exceptionally well. It is not addressed from the political perspective of the party that each of the councilors represents. It is really being a stage of leaving the political colors at the door and sitting down to face the issues from the best of the city, something that I think is what the citizens demand, that we public managers provide certainty, answers, and that we face problems, and that is an inherent part of the Santa Cruz City Council team.”
-You are secretary general of CC in Santa Cruz, how do you see the party after leaving the mayor’s office and returning with the motion of censure?
“In the same way that I told you that the government team faces problems and provides answers, CC also does so because it is something inherent to our party. This is a project and it is not a position, which is born from the bottom up, it is a project that now in my role as secretary general of the CC of Santa Cruz, it is increasingly clear to me that it is made up of thousands of people in the city of Santa Cross. We are talking about the fact that the Local Committee is the largest in the party in the Canary Islands and in which the militancy has a more active position. Before each plenary session, the mayor (José Manuel Bermúdez) and I sit down in a large assembly with members and supporters and we address the points of the plenary session. There we spend a long afternoon of reflection.
-That approach to the militancy has something to do with the affirmations that CC had distanced itself from its bases, that this led him to lose power…
“There I deny the major. CC in Santa Cruz, but also in the Cabildo and the Government of the Canary Islands won the elections. And we do not have to let them make us fall into doubt that this was so. CC grew in number of votes being a project that has been at the forefront of institutions for many years, with the wear and tear that this entails. What is totally clear to me is that CC’s action for Santa Cruz and Tenerife has been good. It is important to put that reality on the table because there are those who have made our members and supporters doubt the fact of what CC has contributed to this land, and I think that has been overcome. It seemed that you had to say CC with a small mouth, and I think it’s the opposite, you have to be very proud to be part of a project that has made this land grow and advance”.
-The rest of the political forces have not contributed to this advance?
“What I am increasingly convinced of, and someone who on a personal level has a past linked to the PP says it, is that the solution to a large part of the problems of this land we have to generate, manage and defend from the local scope. Thinking globally and acting locally is good in an outermost archipelago, economically dependent, not on the State, but on what happens in the EU as a whole, because we depend on emerging markets and destinations, we depend, due to our status and tax regime , of decisions that are made in Europe and modulated in Madrid to see how they come to us, and there is a whole field of response from nationalism”.
-What kind of nationalism does CC exercise?
“It is an inclusive, constitutional nationalism, that to be equal we have to be treated differently, we have to be understood. I think there is a problem in the general political tension in which the capacity for dialogue is being lost. That has been lost and I think that the answer to the problems of the Canary Islands and Santa Cruz is more nationalism”.
-So how does CC face the 2023 elections?
“As what we are, as winners of the last elections. We are the project that won and grew in number of supports. It amuses me because it seems that whoever pulls a rabbit out of their hat is rewarded with a I have a new Santa Cruz, to which we respond, no, we have a project for Santa Cruz. It is a project that has been working on for years, that has a clear line and that steps are being taken to make things happen, on many occasions more time has passed for these things to happen than we would all like, but the reality is that It’s moving in a line.”
-There was a government team that tried to change lines or follow them but they were not allowed…
“The question is whether there was any progress at that time, and the answer is no, because in the end the city has a cruising speed and has some objectives. What businessmen and citizens demand from you is to know what to expect, and from us they expect commitment, work capacity, sacrifice, but above all, knowing how to listen”.
-From your speech it follows that if CC does not govern, Santa Cruz stops…
“I believe that Santa Cruz lost a year and a half with the government of Patricia Hernández. There were many issues that we left on the table and they were in the exact same corner of the table that we left them on, I could even say that the pandemic excuse was good for them.
-CC still hasn’t defined its candidates for 2023…
“The insular secretary of CC, Francisco Linares, has recently summoned the local committees to nominate their candidates between the months of June and September. It is not something that worries us, I am convinced that the best man for Santa Cruz would be José Manuel Bermúdez, just as I am convinced that he would be the best man for other places as well, but this is an issue that will have to be cleared up in the coming weeks and months”.
-Where does Alfonso Cabello see himself in 2023?
“As part of the team.”
– Leading it?
“I don’t think the time has come for that. I acknowledge that I consider myself a project worker. For me, on my personal side, it has been a great responsibility to take a step forward in the Local Committee of Santa Cruz, and there were even those who wanted to see in that step forward a will or a similarity of being a candidate, and for nothing. It comes to be a natural process in which there is a team working at the head of that local committee for four years, in which the general secretary was José Manuel Bermúdez, and I was the organization secretary. The mayor is very focused on a very delicate moment for Santa Cruz de Tenerife”.