Ana María Oramas González-Moro (1959, Santa Cruz de Tenerife) closes a stage of 14 years in national politics to inaugurate a new cycle at the regional level. And he does so with a warning to boaters: don’t let anyone think he’s back in some sort of retreat. Nothing could be further from the truth: she returns to the island arena as “fighting” as always.
You have to do pedagogy. ‘Listen, I’m not going to Congress, but to the Canarian Parliament’.
I return to Canarian politics after 14 years in national politics because Fernando Clavijo He asked me to join the team. And that’s why I come here: to form a team. Team next to him, next to Rosa Davila, together with our mayors… We cannot resign ourselves to the difficult situation that this land is going through. I want to contribute everything I have learned in national politics: fight, fight, not resign, sit down to reach agreements… Canary Islands It needs tolerance, that we listen to each other and that all the political forces reach agreements to defend this land, to get out of resignation and change data that is terrible for families.
Do you know that there are those in the other parties who say that you have retired, without so much strength and drive?
[Ríe]. Let no one think that I am returning to the Canary Islands, I am going to continue being the same fighter as a parliamentarian for Tenerife. Because, furthermore, I believe that the Island has gone backwards in the last four years with an absent Cabildo. A Cabildo that was always the engine Tenerife, with Galván Bello, Adán Martín, Ricardo Melchior or Carlos Alonso, and who now has an office worker as president. All the projects have been stopped, we have the worst data for employment at a regional level, of social exclusion…, and on top of that, when in Madrid we get things for the Canary Islands, like free buses, they get hit and hit. They get upset! What’s more, we achieved other things so that they would arrive on January 1, such as the mental health plan for La Palma, and it turns out that they postponed that money and those benefits for the Islands just so that Canarian Coalition the point will not be scored. It is something that hurts a lot.
Well, that money will come.
Yes, of course, but not since January 1, and I remind you that you have to spend them before December 31. As the president of the College of Psychologists told me, if the money arrives when the schools are closed, they will only have two months to act. And also from January 1, one hundred percent of the transport of merchandise had to be financed by the State. Or the funds we got for the two Canary Islands universities, or the scholarships for university students and for Vocational Training… And they haven’t signed it! He Government of the Canary Islands He hasn’t claimed it because he doesn’t want CC to write it down. This makes me angry and sad. We canaries cannot resign ourselves, as it has done Angel Victor Torres; We cannot resign ourselves to having 300,000 people on the poverty line and we cannot ignore what Cáritas, the Red Cross or social graduates say. Let’s not look for culprits, let’s look for solutions, but the first step is to recognize that the employment, health and care situation for the elderly is much worse than it was four years ago.
Félix Bolaños said that Torres was not a problem, but the minister, María Jesús Montero, almost denied it a few days ago, praising his defense of Canary Islands interests as a “power hammer.”
Several things seem tremendous to me. First, the PSOE of the Canary Islands and Ángel Víctor Torres are happy when Pedro Sanchez and a minister say that he is the only president of the Autonomous Community that has not caused problems. And it also seems tremendous to me that they have not been able to do anything because there was fires, because the volcano happened or because of the covid. No, look: Galicia, Asturias, Madrid… All have suffered from the covid and, nevertheless, have improved in health, while the Canary Islands have become the last in line. And the volcano on La Palma is no excuse for the fact that employment has not improved on the island of Tenerife. And the fires are not an excuse to have half of the young people unemployed.
They argue that times have been difficult and that this has prevented further progress.
Yes, and they say that they came to change things because the Canarian Coalition had been in power for 16 years. And I want to remind you that in those last 16 years, with the exception of the two in which Fernando Clavijo ruled in a minority, the PSOE had the vice presidency and led Health, social services… They think people are stupid. The PSOE is responsible for the good and the bad. Let us be able to take away our pride, citizens cannot be fooled over and over again. Many people do not reach the 25th day even having a salary; dependency has not improved, because improving is not giving people a remote assistance button in case something happens to them; nor has care for boys and girls with disabilities improved; and health does not improve, where they talk about 7,000 more people but they do as with employment. You cannot have professionals in public health or education who have been working for 20 years in conditions that private companies are not allowed by law. Because in healthcare there are no discontinuous fixed contracts, in healthcare what there are are junk contracts. One cannot understand that, with a billion more, healthcare is worse. But they deny reality, and if they deny reality, how are they going to solve the problems?
But you will have to plow with these oxen if you aspire to rule.
We aspire to govern, but more than to govern, we aspire to change things, not to resign ourselves.
And is that possible in a pact with this PSOE? Do they look at the PP?
We have governed with the PSOE and with the PP. The important thing is to have a strong government, which is committed to changing things in the Canary Islands and fighting for things in the Canary Islands in Madrid and Brussels. And don’t kneel, don’t shut up and don’t throw in the towel.
I insist, is it possible with this PSOE?
And I will say the same thing again: we aspire to govern, and we are going to set our conditions, which are these: change things in the Canary Islands and fight things in Madrid and Brussels. That for that someone has to give up leadership in the PSOE or the PP?… Look, in the end they are just as bad or good depending on who governs. For the Canary Islands, the absolute majority of Mariano Rajoy was terrible and the absolute majority of the PSOE is terrible, or rather, this pact with Esquerra and Bildu. We do not have the government, but we have the streets and the people. And they are the ones who decide on the 28th.
