On November 5, the Canarian Coalition ratified the appointment of Rosa Davila as a candidate for the Cabildo de Tenerife. An election that is endorsed by all levels of the party in the insular area, including the explicit support of the insular president Francisco Linares, and the one who still acts as the group’s spokesman in the Cabildo, the former insular president Carlos Alonso. Dávila, regional deputy and second vice-president of the Parliament Board, offers the people of Tenerife “technical solvency, the ability to work and something that seems very important to me, determination and courage”.
-Did it take a long time to make the decision to be the CC candidate for the Cabildo?
“It is a decision that you have to make consciously, and I mean being aware of the responsibility that it entails. That means that before taking it you weigh your personal life, your children, everything that a decision like this entails. Once I made it I felt liberated, but it is true that it was a decision that I thought a lot about because I am very aware of responsibility and I wanted to take into account all the elements that accompany me.
-Have you received the support of your family?
“Yes, they have given me their support, I can say that they even knew before I did that I was going to accept. I knew that taking this step was important, both politically and personally, and all of that was well thought out.”
-You have held different positions of responsibility, but never in the political front line. How do you deal with it?
“With enthusiasm and desire. I have held various positions such as being in charge of public accounts in the Canary Islands. At the local level I have been a councilor, and in regional politics I have directed areas such as the Women’s Institute, or the General Directorate of Transport, at the head of which I was 12 years. An area in which, by the way, I was the first woman to direct it, in fact I was the first woman to attend the meetings, a very masculinized sector, a position in which they thought that in 3 months they would dismiss me, but the sector however, he gave me his support.”
-Now she is once again the first woman in this case to be a candidate to preside over the Cabildo. Why does she think it has taken her so long to have a female candidate?
“The truth is that I would not know how to give an answer. But the reality is that it is about time that we women try to normalize our presence in spaces of political responsibility, also in those of business management, at the head of institutions, or banks. We have the same skills and qualifications, and politics is probably a reflection of society, where it is still difficult to reconcile professional and family life with management or being in charge of responsibilities. I am aware that it is breaking the glass ceiling, that there is, that it exists in politics, in companies, in business organizations, but also that these ceilings must be broken normally. When I was in charge of the Ministry of Finance, I did not make a flag of being the first woman in charge of the Canary Islands accounts, what I tried to normalize was that this was something that went with society, that is to say, that both men and women are, due to their abilities, in the places that correspond, regardless of their gender.
-What can people who vote for Rosa Dávila expect to preside over the Cabildo?
“Solvency. I believe that I have shown myself to be a good manager at the head of the places where I have been. Technical solvency, the ability to work, and something that seems very important to me, determination and courage. I come to the Cabildo to work and put this island in its rightful place in the Canary Islands, because these years we have been paralyzed. It has been an island that has not been promoted socially or economically, and we all perceive a paralysis and a loss of political and institutional weight of Tenerife as a benchmark. We are neither more nor less than anyone, but of course we cannot continue with the paralysis that we have experienced these four years.
– And what do you think is due to this paralysis that you denounce?
“To cowardice and lack of work, to instability. Here you cannot come during office hours and return home at two in the afternoon. We would all like it to be like this, but this is a Cabildo, and institutions work seven days a week, 24 hours a day. Here you come to work, to build solvent teams, both technical and political, brave, with determination and to move this island forward”.
-If tomorrow you were the president of the Cabildo, what would be your first decision?
“There are several areas in which we have to intervene. But the first is the social sphere. The situation that the most vulnerable people currently have in the Social Health Care Institute (IASS), where the workers themselves have denounced undignified treatment of the elderly, people with disabilities, and women victims of violence. A situation in the centers where there are no bedding to change the clean sheets, there are no nightgowns, in which the relatives arrive and find the mother with a cover…, that is not a question of bitches, but of management . It can’t happen.”
-What other issues are paramount to you?
“Of course, the very serious problem of mobility that the island of Tenerife has collapsed must be tackled without fear. We have to be aware that we cannot have thousands of cars every day on the highway, collapsing, preventing people from reaching hospitals, that the women of Tenerife have to give birth on a hard shoulder, something that has already happened, because Ambulances don’t go to hospitals. We must look for a great social pact, because we will have to build the necessary infrastructures, promote more sustainable modes of transport and we must do it with courage and determination”.
-CC was governing for 30 years and did not end the traffic jams…
“While CC was there, great advances were made and one of them is the tramway. Today we cannot imagine going from Santa Cruz to La Laguna without a tram, it was done with determination and the tram was passed between two cities, and a lot of work was done to achieve it. We also had the southern train project that was stopped, the bus-vao rail to La Orotava, which has been left in a drawer. This island has lost weight of investments, both private and public, which were essential for the economic boost of the Island, and have been paralyzed by the lack of determination of the current president of the Cabildo, who has had the island stopped and gagged, for being in the hands of a political group that says that the train in Gran Canaria is sustainable but in Tenerife it is not”.
-She is therefore in favor of developing new infrastructures such as the southern train…
“We must commit to much less polluting, high-capacity, sustainable modes of transport, and remove vehicles from island roads, and we must build the roads, which were designed, but above all we must commit to collective public transport. If we are talking about the fight against climate change, we have to be aware that we have to bet on public transport. What is not understood is that, at the moment, the suburban train on the Peninsula and the Balearic Islands is free as a way of encouraging people to leave the car at home, and here what is done is to put the bus in the same collapse than the rest of the vehicles.
– Have you thought about who is going to accompany you on this trip?
“I know that many people will accompany me, many more than those who will be able to be on the list, and that I have received the support, affection, trust of people who will be, and many who will not be in groups, third sector, economic, who have the illusion and who see in this an exciting and solvent project for the future”.
-How is the replacement with Carlos Alonso?
“It is not only that he gives me advice, it is that Carlos has made a transition process of handing over the witness in a very elegant way. He had already said some time ago that he was closing a personal and political stage of being at the forefront of the Cabildo, and at this moment I have to say that I have met an extraordinarily generous person. I had been able to work with him while I was Minister of the Treasury, and also Director of Transport, on several important projects for Tenerife that were decided in Brussels. He and I, in the middle of August, along with the small children, took a plane and planted ourselves in Brussels so that Tenerife would be part of the trans-European transport network. He spends hours, determination, and has a very deep knowledge of the Cabildo. In these weeks we have been able to go around the Island, and Carlos’s generosity is extraordinary. I feel very fortunate for his support, and also for that of Paco Linares, who has accompanied me to all the meetings. I believe that this has added enthusiasm and many people, beyond a decision that is made in a single body. My decision was to transfer the word and ability to express themselves to each and every one of the bases and committee of the party”.
-CC has been out of institutions for four years. Has the game reflected on what happened, on what to do to make them trust again?
“People trusted. We won the Cabildo. Carlos Alonso won by rising in votes, we rose in Parliament and City Councils. But it is true that there were parties that had the democratic, legitimate capacity to ally themselves to displace CC. Undoubtedly, I want to go out and win with a sufficient majority that allows me to govern calmly and with stability in the Cabildo. I mean doing it without the possibility of alliances paralyzing Tenerife. I think that people have tried these four years with the PSOE ruling in Madrid, the Canary Islands and Tenerife, to see if things changed, but the reality is that we do not see more resources coming, that this land is respected. It has been a rather disappointing government, with a disoriented Cabildo, without management, without decisions and facing Tenerife society”.
-CC, when it has not governed alone, it has done so with other parties. For these elections, is there a red line when it comes to agreeing?
“I have one thing clear and that is that I do not like extremes, nor a conflicting society. I like moderation with determination, and I believe that we have had the capacity to offer citizens a political offer that defends the Canary Islands and all the islands, and I have come to defend Tenerife, within the Canary Islands as a whole. I know that reaching absolute majorities is very complicated, but I am willing to form alliances with those forces that have proposals to defend Tenerife, even beyond their initials”.
– Will you do double with the Parliament list?
“Nope. Absolutely. I show up without a safety net, I go for everything. I believe in this project and I will focus all my efforts on it”.
