Teacher for 35 years, Damian Perez Vieradecided two weeks ago to leave politics after 10 years and 8 months as mayor of Fasnia, his hometown. Under the acronym of the PSOE he managed to unseat the nationalist Pedro Hernández Tejera in 2011, for 23 years with the baton. He did it with an absolute majority that he repeated in the 2015 and 2019 elections. Now, at 67 years old, and alluding to the fact that he needs more time to dedicate to his family and his health, he has given his witness to Luis Javier González Delgado, from the past Tuesday the youngest mayor (35 years old) of Tenerife.
How was your arrival in politics?
“I had always been dedicated to my profession as a teacher, and although it is true that I was always linked to associationism, I had never gotten into politics, until one day, a group of friends on October 12 in Los Roques came up with the blessed idea of presenting ourselves to the elections, and not only did we win, but we did it with a majority, with the enormous luck of having the confidence of the fasnieros and up to three times”.
-When you presented your resignation on the 7th, did you already know that Luis Javier González Delgado, number five on the electoral list, was going to be your successor?
“We formed a very cohesive group and there were no problems choosing Luis Javier as the candidate to replace me, as was known almost from the beginning of this mandate, although it had to be ratified by the government group, with the resignation of the councilors who were ahead of him on the list and by the assembly of the local group of the PSOE, with tremendous joy, to see the unanimity that there was in his election.
-You came to office in 2011 in the middle of the adjustment plan of the administrations and you leave it after another health crisis and in view of another economic one. He took the City Council without debts, but with barely 100,000 euros to invest. How have you been able to work like this, in a City Council with hardly any resources?
“Now when you see that last year, this year and the next you can allocate the remainder of the treasury to works, you remember when in 2011 we did not even have money to contribute 10% of works that you could do with the Cabildo, through the Plan of Municipal Cooperation. Thanks to the fact that we formed a compact team, there we were saving and doing the essentials for the neighbors, with small almost recycled works, learning to manage better over the years, thanks to the guidance of the secretary and auditor, from whom I said goodbye more as a friend than as an official, especially since 2015 we have been able to do what was previously denied to us and now I am going calmly with the rehabilitation of Los Roques, after ten years, already running”.
-Do you leave with the feeling that you could do more than you have done?
“The only thing I know is that I have done it with all the will possible, but I always think that there have been things to improve. During my time as a teacher I always thought that I could get much more out of the students and with Fasnia the same thing happens to me. But I think that today Fasnia is better than in 2011, with projects aimed at making the municipality even better in a few years, with the possibility also of unblocking the file of the old cinema and having a building closed for cultural events”.
-He won by majority in 2011 and 2015, but he no longer wanted to repeat as a candidate in 2019. Why did he do it?
“Yes, it is true that I said in 2015 that it would be the last, but when they told me that Pedro Hernández Tejera and Germán García were going together in the Canary Coalition candidacy, I decided to present myself, just for a matter of maintaining our line of work, without politicking, thinking always working for Fasnia, even with the opposition, from which one must always learn”.
-Perhaps your worst moment as mayor were those first days of the state of alarm and the closure of the nursing home?
“I remember those days with 13 infections in the senior center and not knowing what to do, without masks, without anything. It was very hard. We all did not know what that pandemic was and we were at City Hall every day to answer the neighbors, although we could do little because we had no means. But COVID has also discovered the countryside for some who now do not want to continue living in a flat in the city. Fasnia is a good place for teleworking and this is an opportunity to rejuvenate a municipality with a lot of older people”.
-How is your health?
“I apologize to those who feel disappointed by leaving the Mayor’s Office now, but I need to dedicate more time to my family and my health, now with the tension through the roof.”
And is it a definitive goodbye to politics?
“Coincidentally a week ago they made me a proposal to take a position in the insular executive of the PSOE, but when I told my wife, she already told me that she was putting my suitcase at the door. I will help the party as much as I can, but I am no longer going to dedicate myself to politics, only to my family, to my mother who turned 94 this month, to my vines and of course to my health.
