CC councilor Jonathan Domínguez (1979) became, in July 2021, the spokesperson for the CC municipal group, the main opposition group, in the City Council of The lagoonreplacing former mayor José Alberto Díaz, and acknowledges his intention to present himself “to the internal process to be able to be the candidate” of his party in La Laguna in the elections of next 2023. A native of the lagoon neighborhood of La Verdellada, where he exerted an intense work in the neighborhood movement, he was in charge of different areas in several mandates and affirms that “we are going to recover the government of La Laguna in 2023 so that it becomes everyone’s municipality again.”
-In July 2021 you became the spokesperson for the group, how have these months been at the head of your new responsibility?
“They have been quite intense, because although it is true that I am an elected councilor in this mandate, it is also true that once the previous one ended, I decided to join the private labor market. When I was given the opportunity to be the spokesperson to replace José Alberto, I saw it as a great responsibility because being the spokesperson for the main opposition party at a time like this, as well as being complicated, was going to be an exciting challenge, as That’s how I’ve lived in the last few months. A stage of renewal of the party itself in La Laguna, of concepts, values, illusions, projects… and at this moment we are like a real locomotive on the way to 2023”.
-Speaking of 2023, will you be the CC candidate in La Laguna?
“I cannot confirm it because it is the party’s organs that determine it, but I can confirm that my intention is to present myself to the internal process in order to be the candidate. I have weighed it during these months, in which I have hoped that La Laguna will once again have a nationalist project governing and managing. And in that progressive, inclusive vision that encourages the participation of all citizens in public life, I obviously feel quite excited about being able to be the person who leads the colleagues in that 2023 candidacy. But I cannot say that it will to be since the right and the power to be able to determine it are the companions through the internal democratic procedure”.
-He spoke before a renewal stage of the match in La Laguna….
“The CC project itself has been renewed, the generational change that has taken place in the general secretariat attests to this, right now there is a local executive made up of practically 60% generational renewal, compared to 40% of party life experience . That renewal, that enthusiasm that there is right now in the bases of the party, is being transmitted in the street itself. Almost three years after the last elections, in which we won in number of votes and councillors, not only do we keep our electoral base intact, but we have also grown in the number of affiliates and people who are joining the project, and in each of What we breathe in the neighborhoods and nuclei that we visit is that atmosphere of enthusiasm, renewal and desire to return to the government to continue with the line of progress that the municipality had until 2019”.
-And what will be the party’s programmatic lines for 2023?
“We had a development project, to promote essential services for the municipality, key infrastructure in the neighborhoods, our 2019 electoral program, and we will present ourselves again in 2023 with that program and it is fully valid, because the current Government practically it has limited to concluding the projects that we had in progress and there is not a single new one. However, obviously what has changed is society, COVID has been decisive in the last two years when it comes to changing certain concepts, activities, social communication model, citizen interaction, and that forces us to any party that have aspirations to govern again, to change the concept of how they communicate with citizens, which is what we are doing now. We are in a process of citizen consultation, in order to use all this information that we are going to collect to configure the main lines of our electoral program for 2023. We are going to preserve the strategic lines and basic infrastructures that neighborhoods and towns need, to promote public services both socially and culturally. And, in addition, there are some issues that have been missed in recent years, such as counting on the people to be able to build the municipality that we want, because at this time there has been a very clear setback in terms of citizen participation.
-How do you see 2023 with the PP crisis, the rise of VOX…
“CC depends on CC to keep its loyal electorate and grow, we do not directly depend on VOX or the PP going up or down, or on Podemos disappearing or staying. We know perfectly well that CC depends on CC to obtain good results in the municipality. That is where we are, we know what we have failed to do, what we have to correct and that along these lines we are going to recover the government of La Laguna in 2023 so that it becomes everyone’s municipality again”.
-CC La Laguna would be willing to agree with PSOE? With VOX? Does it have red lines?
“At this moment I am a municipal spokesperson, I am not the candidate yet. Obviously, I disagree with both VOX and Podemos in the radical views of society that they put forward. Does that mean that you don’t want to agree with them in life? I can’t say that because I would be a hypocrite. Those who say today that they are not going to agree with one or the other and after the elections they agree have deceived the citizenship. And I am not the one who determines with whom we can or cannot agree if we reach government agreements, that is what the citizens will say in May 2023, they will determine if an alternative majority can be formed to the one that is governing right now or not . That I can disagree with one and others, yes; that I may have some points where I can agree with some positions of one party or another, too. For example, in the electoral program of Podemos in La Laguna on issues related to mobility or of an environmental nature, I agree, it is very similar to that of CC. I can’t talk about VOX La Laguna because I don’t know who they are, so I can’t comment on someone I don’t know, nor their project. My red line is respect for democracy, that is, if the citizens choose that the representation in the Plenary is the one they decide, with those elected representatives the new government will be formed. The aspiration of our political project is to be the alternative to what is currently governing in La Laguna, we are the alternative to the current municipal government”.
-You said before that they knew where they had gone wrong and what had to be corrected. What do you think led CC to lose the Mayor’s Office, that number of votes?
“We have been governing for 26 years, and the very work of government tends to wear anyone down, and if you add the brutal harassment and demolition that we had from the opposition, it was impossible for any party to resist, although we did very well. What were our mistakes? The typical ones of a party that governs for a number of years and in the end there comes a time when you are absorbed by public management itself and sometimes you disconnect a bit from certain feelings on the street. We understand it and we have done our mea culpa. But what is certain is that we did not lose the number of votes because we worked less, but because of the campaigns that the opposition began against our project and leaders, and to say that this did not harm us would be to lie to ourselves. But let’s not forget that we continue to win the elections and in the last ones, in addition, we raised two councilors”.
-And how has it been for your party to be in the opposition for almost three years after 26 years governing?
“Going to the opposition was obviously not a good thing for the party in 2019, but one of the things that CC has shown, despite what was said that if it was not in the government it would be diluted, is that going to the opposition has not served us to disappear, but to strengthen us. The party is in an inertia of growth and people are very excited. We are democrats, we know when we have to be in one place and when in the other, and without starting to cry on the street corners, unlike other well-known parties and politicians in La Laguna. At this moment we are assuming with great responsibility our auditing task of the current government, and we are satisfied with the work we are developing”.
-What does CC think the municipality needs at this time?
“One of the vital things that the municipality needs is the PGO. And what we are finding is that those who at the time said that there was an alternative plan and that there was another possible city model, have spent almost three years and still have not moved a single paper, public exhibition or PGO model, and that means a handicap for the modernization and development of the municipality. La Laguna currently has a lack of social housing and in the municipality there are very small pockets of land. The current government has not moved anything for that, and has practically prevented that land from being available, now that the Government is looking for land to be able to build housing, because as the PGO has not been approved, there are not enough pockets of land to put at the disposal of the Government. The mayor recently said that he was going to bet on La Laguna having an Arena, a large multi-sports pavilion, since we differ from that proposal in that we do not want an Arena in La Laguna, but at least 2,500 social homes”.
-What general assessment do you make of the change of government in La Laguna and these almost three years of management?
“An absolute disappointment. The day I was appointed municipal spokesman, since then the mayor has not spoken to me or greeted me, little more than I have become his enemy. For me Luis Yeray is not my enemy, he is the mayor of my municipality, I respect him for what he represents me but he has disappointed me, he is a mayor who is not up to what the municipality deserves. At the same time, we find ourselves with a government that sells itself very well, but its big problem is that behind this publicity there is practically nothing, they do not manage and the setback that there is so great in terms of citizen participation and involvement is historic. It is the mandate of nothing, in management, in involvement with citizens and in practically everything, except in advertising and propaganda”.
-And what do you think the new Canarian nationalism should do? Do you think it is divided?
“I believe that Canarian nationalism has a future, it has matured, we cannot compare the year 93, when CC was born, with the current Canarian nationalism, it has been evolving, there has been renewal in the different bodies and now there is a new generation of young people nationalists who really believe in the project and are much further away from ideological or cultural personalism. We have a living party, where there are different currents and opinions that, through internal and public bodies, we share and weave into a project where we all are. In other words, it is an open, growing, current project that thinks about the present and future of the Canary Islands but without forgetting our past, which is our legacy. That is why I believe that CC not only has a great future but that from 2023 we will govern again ”.
