The Council of Tenerife definitively approved their budgets for 2023 with the 17 favorable votes of the government team (PSOE-citizens) and the Popular Party, which maintained its staged support in the initial approval on December 16. The 11 directors of the Canarian Coalition and the three of Sí Podemos abstained Canary Islands. In parallel, the allegation presented by Nueva Canarias (NC) for “imbalances in the distribution”, especially with Santa Cruz, the capital, was rejected.
Carlos Alonso, nationalist spokesman, exposed his rejection of the island accounts because “they breach their obligations to Santa Cruz.” He pointed out that “the Sports report confirms the breach in the reform of the Insular Center for Marine Sports (Cidemat), closed since 2020.”
Alonso detailed in his presentation this hypothetical breach in the Strategic Framework for Island Development (MEDI) with the municipalities and in the agreement for the reform of the Marine Sports Center of Tenerife (Cidemat). In particular, those derived from the adherence of the Santa Cruz City Council to the programs.
These were the two arguments of the claim presented by Gregorio Negrín, number 2 on the Nueva Canarias list, to the Santa Cruz City Council for the May 28 elections.
Canarian Coalition voted against rejecting the allegation. Alonso influenced the Governing Council agreement of May 4, 2016, which was later ratified by the plenary session. He assessed the 2023 PSOE budget as “sectarian.” He quantified it: “To Santa Cruz, which is given four times less than to La Laguna or the same as to Fasnia (around five million euros), and under these conditions we cannot support it.”
Also the Cidemat
The CC spokesman pointed out that “the Cabildo has also breached the agreement for the reform of Cidemat.” He alluded to a report from the Sports area. The document confirms that “the works will not begin until 2024 when the agreement signed in 2019 establishes that they must be carried out simultaneously with those of the beach of valleseco that are currently being developed.” «The Cabildo – he added – has to contribute 1.6 million euros to carry out the project. The installation had to be put to public use in parallel to the completion of the works. That will not be fulfilled, a detriment to Santa Cruz ». Alonso carried the weight of the extraordinary session, whose urgency was previously endorsed unanimously.
The socialist spokesman, Javier Rodríguez Medina, defended the position of the government team. He focused his speech on the idea that “small municipalities also need services and infrastructure.” He addressed Alonso like this: “Even if he does not look at my face, I tell him that” he is not going to intimidate us with the constant recourse to justice. He does it since the motion of censure. He has forgotten the general interest to settle in the political tacticism ».
The popular Zaida gonzalez appealed to the position of the Popular Party since it decided to support the budget last December: «We are a party of responsibility and political height. We could not allow countless groups to stop receiving their nominal subsidies.
María José Belda, export spokesperson for Sí Podemos Canarias, explained her abstention: “I want to maintain the same position as in December. I cannot dismiss the claim because I would vote in favor of something that I rejected then. David Carballo, the new spokesman, also clarified the position of Sí Podemos with an argument that, with regard to Belda, seemed to come from two different groups: «We oppose the project, but it does not seem right to us to ignore the report from the house that it considers that this claim does not hold. We already voted against it in the commission.” However, in the end he and his partner Cristo González abstained
The president of the Cabildo, Pedro Martín, closed the session: «The distribution of resources is adequate. Numerous programs have gone to the capital that it has not been able to take advantage of and have even returned money. The debate is over.” And the budget approved at last.
