Rosa Dávila Mamely (S/C de Tenerife, 1970) aspires to be the first woman president of the Cabildo de Tenerife after being elected last Friday by the Island Executive of the Canary Coalition. She graduated in Business Sciences from the ULL, she was General Director of Transport in the Government of the Canary Islands (2003-2015), the first in Spain, and Minister of Finance (2015-2019). She is the vice president of the Parliament of the Canary Islands.
Have you already assumed that you are the candidate for the Cabildo? Did you bet that Carlos Alonso would continue?
We had already spoken and three years ago he told the party that he was not going to continue to close a cycle. After 15 years in the Cabildo he made a personal and political decision. We asked him to continue coordinating the opposition, but someone else had to be chosen and my name was there the whole time. I already have it figured out. I felt this was the time to top a list for Tenerife.
Why do Tenerife residents have to vote for Rosa Dávila in May 2023?
This government aroused many expectations of changes and solutions to problems that had been there for some time, but what it has done is make it worse. Tenerife has been losing leadership and the Canary Islands weight with respect to state politics. Only a nationalist party can give each of the islands an island project within a Canarian context.
Do you trust to be the first woman president of the Cabildo?
You try to normalize it within a new society in which women are the protagonists of all spaces. I am responsible and aware of breaking a glass ceiling. That said, yes, I would like to be the first female president of the Cabildo de Tenerife.
What assessment do you make of these three years of PSOE and Cs government in the Cabildo?
They have been years of paralysis in which Tenerife has been left behind and has missed the train of the future. Important projects for the Island have been paralyzed. For Pedro Martín, they have been three and a half years of personal failure. He has not managed to connect with the people of Tenerife or with the island dimension. He has taken weight away from the Cabildo, which has to be involved in all the problems, whether or not they are within its jurisdiction.
He always emphasizes the lack of leadership of Pedro Martín.
He was not aware of the institution to govern. It lacks leadership, enthusiasm, work and management. You have to be 24 hours a day and seven days a week. You cannot have office hours when you are president of the Cabildo.
He has had government responsibility but in a rather shadowy and technical task.
I have not been on the political front line, but I have been preceded by people with technical training and solvency to offer. Surrounded by teams, they have made technicians and officials participate in the island’s politics. It is essential to link public employees and make them feel proud again.
Who are your referents in politics? Is your partner Carlos Alonso among them?
My father-in-law was Adán Martín and I am excited to arrive at the place where the person who gave me the first opportunity became great. He put hours and passion into it. He had a speech for the happiness of the people. With Carlos my personal relationship has always been magnificent. He is a hard worker and I am discovering that in this transition. A generous person who will be there by my side.
Something that you would not repeat from the three decades of CC government?
Yes. Sometimes decisions were not made at the right time and the table had to be slammed. If I become president of the Cabildo, let them criticize me for doing but not for not doing.
The Cabildo is a great mechanism that, according to CC, has not worked in recent years.
It is disassembled. It must be in all the circumstances of the life of the people of Tenerife so that they can have a future on their own island beyond. The PSOE has dealt more with dismantling the above, what CC left, than with executing its own projects
Is there a lack of strategic projects for the Island?
They have all been loaded. Puerto de Santa Cruz has languished, Granadilla unresolved and Los Cristianos collapsed without a euro of investment. Regarding the Tren del Sur, we say that the collapse of traffic in Tenerife, with situations such as the queues for the TF-5, will not be resolved with a single decision. It is a complex problem with plural solutions. Efficient, collective and high-capacity systems. It can be a train. To the South or to the North, but there are also bus-vao lanes to discourage private vehicles. We have also demanded free public transport here. It would help reduce the use of private vehicles. If it’s free, you take it.
As for the circuit Enginefirst there are people and socio-health projects, education and job. The priority is to eat and people are in the queues of hunger. I see the propaganda about the Circuit as unnecessary
Another battle horse has been the socio-sanitary field.
During these years, all health and socio-health projects have been paralyzed. Not a single public bed has been built and this has led to the collapse of hospitals. Surgical waiting lists have increased due to the inability and mismanagement of the island government.
And the Ansina program?
They remove it with a stroke of the pen when it was a family respite project. An example of mistreatment of the elderly that they themselves did to continue contributing to society just when they have a greater population weight.
Will tourism continue to be the engine of the island’s economy?
The economy must be diversified, but without crushing tourism, which has been tried to be demonized. Tenerife should be proud of being a world leader in this sector. Its wealth has to reach people and make it more sustainable. Total dependency no, but putting it in value yes.
The primary sector.
There is a lot of talk, but what we see is the farmer slaughtering his animals. It is absolutely cynical not to give them all the support and provide the means so that he can compete. The agribusiness sector has also lost weight. With cases like letting an emblematic company die, JSP, on which 1,200 jobs depended. And the president of the Cabildo absent. We will go from an absent president to a present president.
The Teide and the Master Plan. How do you analyze aggressions in protected natural spaces?
The protection of Teide is not only the PRUG document. It has to be in relationship with the means to protect it. You can limit but not suppress uses without consent. Provide the means, a consensus document with the participation of all stakeholders who want to be part of the solution. There are examples such as the Picos de Europa with the participation of three communities. You have to listen to those who know.
There are many people from Tenerife having a bad time. What does it tell them?
There is an opportunity for Tenerife as the engine of the Canary Islands; They have stopped that engine and we will start it together, men and women of this Island, working. Not subsidized, but with decent employment. Canary Islands Government and the Cabildo have money and capacity that they have not put at the service of the citizens.
