At 35, he is the youngest mayor in Tenerife. Luis Javier González assumed the Mayor’s Office of Fasnia three months ago, the same day as his birthday, replacing Damián Pérez Viera, who left office after three absolute majorities heading the PSOE electoral lists.
-With almost 100 days as mayor, do you already have the reins of the City Council in your hands or do you still have to consult with Damián Pérez?
“Man, less and less. Damián is always needed, because 11 years in here means that many things have passed through his hands and I still have to call him to ask for some advice, although less and less”.
How has it been to get into politics?
“Since I was little I have always been willing to lend a hand for my land, for Fasnia in particular, and since I was 14 years old I joined the Socialist Youth. I have been in politics for 21 years, which is soon, and for me now it is a luxury to be mayor of my town.
-You, who were neither 2 nor 3 on the electoral list, were finally chosen to replace the head of the list…
“When the list was drawn up in 2019, it was never thought that Damián would resign during the mandate. And being a zipper list, to be as egalitarian as possible, the fact of interspersing candidates from different neighborhoods of the municipality and Damián and I are from the town was added, so it could not be number 2 or 3. But any of the six colleagues could have been mayor or mayor, but they decided it was me.
-Finally, after a long time, green shoots are being seen in investments in the municipality, thanks to supra-municipal administrations.
“Fasnia’s budget allows for maintaining services and some maintenance improvements, it never allows for large investments, such as those we are experiencing now, after the unblocking after several years of waiting, such as those of Tenerife and the Sea in Los Roques and the improvement from the promenade and the Las Eras breakwater, with which our coast is going to be quite rehabilitated. The rehabilitation of the old Fasnia cinema and the water tanks is also underway, with more than one and a half million euros”.
-And what can be done so that the youth does not leave Fasnia and continue to depopulate?
“That is the great challenge that Fasnia has ahead of it. We need to build houses and, for this, we are in talks with Gestur so that they parcel out an area of Los Roques and people can invest in self-construction of houses. In addition, we have added two workers to the staff of the Technical Office so that the collapse of licenses is minimized. But, above all, so that Fasnia does not suffer from depopulation, we need the fast track project to go ahead, similar to the one that was made from Abades to Arico or from El Puertito to Güímar, which connects the motorway with the medianías , from the junction of the old Los Chasneros restaurant to the lower part of the town. That route is planned in the PGO of 2011, but nothing has ever been done, there is no draft or project, there is absolutely nothing. It is a complex operation, because it is an agricultural road and it would have to be widened and land expropriated, but the first steps must be taken, we cannot delay this matter any longer, at least so that the project comes out in the next term.”
