Four months before the municipal elections, Arona is emerging as one of the key squares where the main political forces “will throw in the rest”, aware that it is at stake to govern the municipality with the largest population in the South, with 100,000 inhabitants, and the possibility even to decide the political future of the Cabildo.
As a starting point, the strategies of the majority of formations are aimed at minimizing the victory of the PSOE that all the polls predict. The opposition sees “practically impossible” for the current mayor, José Julián Mena, to revalidate the absolute majority obtained in 2019 after the fracture of the socialist municipal group and assumes a very open pact scenario, if, as the polls predict, they agree to the plenary hall between six and seven parties after 28-M.
A significant fact is that none of the main parties, with the exception of the PSOE, repeats the candidate as the head of the list. This commitment to renewal has caused some internal tensions between the leadership of the political formations, in favor of moving the bench, and some of its current councillors.
All against Mina. Thus has begun a long campaign that promises to be dog-faced as the appointment with the polls approaches after a term in which the current government group has not had it easy, having to face the second part of it in minority after the breakdown of the local Executive. The mayor, who in May will add eight years as head of the City Council, rose from his ashes when his own party considered him politically liquidated after expelling him along with Luis García (whom Mena had dismissed as Urban Planning councilor, the origin of the conflict), as a Solomonic solution to try to save the municipal group.
But the measure, blessed by Santos Cerdán from Ferraz, turned out to be a botch, as the courts would show shortly after. The Justice sided with Mena, who managed to get out of a strategy of harassment and demolition of his own party and the opposition. The PSOE resorted to “peelos a la mar” and confirmed, months later, the candidacy of the current mayor as headliner for May 2023.
Mena arrives at the meeting supported by his party and with the control of the Arona Socialist Group, after the closing of the ranks of the militancy embodied in a new Consensus Executive chaired by Francisco García Santamaría, a history of Aron socialism. Canary Coalition, which has replaced the four councilors elected in 2019 throughout the term, has designated the lawyer Clara María Pérez, who for eight years directed the Social Services area, as a candidate for Mayor. Although the name of the councilor Alexis Gómez appeared in some pools -his public appearances in recent months had multiplied- finally the CC assembly unanimously elected Clari to lead the plate, who appeals for “mobilization” to make Arona a “safe, clean and orderly” municipality.
The PP has opted for the economist Fátima Lemes Reverón, a bet of Emilio Navarro, insular president of the popular, who defines it as “a serious and rigorous alternative.” It came to speculate on the name of a well-known construction businessman and even from the current municipal group an internal proposal was suggested. The new candidate has declared that she assumes the challenge as “the biggest commitment of my life” and she has warned that she will not agree “with those who have done things wrong.”
Dácil León will head the list of Más por Arona, a party recently created by the councilors who decided to leave the PSOE in September alleging “non-compliance” in the open crisis in the municipal group. After having been part of the candidacy headed by Mena in 2019, the councilors hope that their new party will be decisive in the pacts to decide the future local government. León underlines “the experience in human quality and management capacity” of his team.
As for the rest of the political formations with municipal representation, some unknowns remain, such as the possible convergence of the left-wing parties (in 2019 Antonella Aliotti, from Sí Podemos, was elected) or the possible signing by Nueva Canarias of one of the two councilors of Ciudadanos por Arona, as well as the future of Francisco Niño, who presented himself four years ago under the acronym of Cs and who has been seen in some CC acts. The Vox proposal is also yet to be known, a party to which the polls give some councilor.
Two candidates, currently outside the City Council, opt to enter the next elections: one of the founders of the Southern Public Prohospital Platform, Emilio Lentini (Fuerza Canaria Arona), who has announced that he will renounce his salary, and the hotelier and former socialist militant Juan Luis Hernández (Movement for the People), who already presented himself four years ago.
