The fight of a boxer to retain the champion title is a simile that defines the moment of Pedro Martín (PSOE) before the elections to the council on the 28th. He asks for four more years at the head of the island corporation, but the CC and PP candidates, who are making their debut, are not willing to give him even the slightest margin. The polls decide.
Pedro Martín acknowledges his love for boxing. He is the champion who defends his title of President of the Council of Tenerife and he sees himself, more or less, against the ropes in the solitude of the long-distance runner. Opposite, an applicant who debuts and intends to snatch the belt. Actually, he is neither one nor does he debut. Are two. On the one hand, Rosa Davila (Canarian Coalition), who wants to be the first island president; on the other, Lope Afonso (Popular Party), with the endorsement of having been exonerated by justice from the shadow of corruption. They are not new to politics either, as they have extensive experience in local or regional management. Between the three of them the Presidency is at stake, according to all forecasts. The mechanism of the motion of censure of 2019 could even be repeated, with opposite protagonists. The PP would have the key there. But first you have to vote and then take out the calculator after the distribution of the 31 ministries –they increased last term from 27 due to the increase in population–.
And the others candidates? There are as many as thirteen, who head as many lists, including the previous three. Only the left of the PSOE, with Manuel Marrero at the head of Unidos Sí Podemos (USP), and the possibility of VOX (Ana Mercedes Salazar is number 1) would have a presence in the insular plenary session on May 29, according to all the surveys. The others work to turn around the obscure forecasts of statistics and poll studies. As Enrique Arriaga (citizens), who has governed these four years in a pact with the PSOE at the head of areas of great importance such as Mobility or Highways; or Valentin Correa (New Canary Islands) or Carmen Pestano (Drago Verdes Canarias). complete the list Sergio Rodriguez (Elderly Age in Action), Cristo Gil (PACMA), Marta Carmona (Reunir Canarias Sostenible), José Juan del Toro (Democratic Union of the Canary Islands) and María Tatiana Delgado (Communist Party of the Canary Islands People).
The socialist Pedro Martín became President of the Cabildo de Tenerife in 2019 as a result of the motion of censure against the nationalist Carlos Alonso (does not appear), who led the most voted list. The legislation establishes the immediate proclamation of the winner of the elections. Then, the PSOE-Cs pact, with the external support of the three directors of Sí Podemos Canarias (María José Belda ends her term as a non-attached) ousted him. Consequence: the first minority government in the history of the Cabildo de Tenerife. It has been a handicap, Pedro Martín acknowledges, but it has allowed him to get “the will and the negotiation” to approve four budgets, three supported by the purples and one, the last, by the PP. It has been examined as never before through a hundred extraordinary plenary sessions and appearances, when the average of previous mandates was twenty. The PSOE’s support for projects such as the Circuito del Engine or the Cuna del Alma tourist complex, in Adeje, led to the breakup of Sí Podemos Canarias in October 2022.
Pedro Martín advocates continuing to complete a “hard work” of four years (2019-2023). Its premise is to maintain the policy of “bringing order to the house”, especially in terms of road works and mobility on the Island. The queues on the highways, especially the TF-5, and the collapse of traffic continue , as in previous mandates, among the main problems for the people of Tenerife. Martín is committed to completing the regulation of the 69 dependent public companies. He defends the work of his team in four very difficult years, including the almost forgotten covid-19 pandemic.«to leave Tenerife with the best data of employment in a long time, with the largest production of renewable energy in its history or with the proper treatment of the wastewater that is discharged into the sea.” He influences the great works on roads, hand in hand with the Government of the Canary Islandsas a solution to those queues.
Canary Coalition, the main opposition party, draws a diametrically different picture. Among other things, with the possible stain of corruption that supposes the supposed relationship of the Cabildo and its president with the so-called mediator case and with the lack of budget execution that amounts to 634 million euros in these four years. Without forgetting the closures of Ansina and Cidemat, the lack of social health places and the repeated conflicts in the IASS, Titsa, Imetisa, Casinos, ITER… An apocalyptic vision that Rosa Dávila promises to fix.
CC and PP could reach the governance of the Cabildo de Tenerife together. It would be the most logical coalition, but you never know. Nobody is going to win by KO this fight. After the vote it will be time for the pacts to snatch the champion belt from Pedro Martín. Or not.
