During these last four years in Santa Cruz de Tenerife many things have happened for the first time, such as the Canary Islands Coalition losing a mayoralty in which it had been, uninterruptedly, for more than four decades. Also for the first time the PSOE agreed to it, and it did so by the hand of Patricia Hernández, the first woman to achieve it. For the first time, she governed herself in a minority during the first year of her mandate, with the votes of Unidas Podemos as essential to move forward with the governance of the municipality.
Only one year later, and again, without precedent in the history of the Consistory, a motion of no confidence was presented, which CC won thanks to the support of the PP and a defector, Evelyn Alonso, something that had never happened in the City Council either. And they did it in the midst of a global pandemic, the first in the last century.
With this background, the elections on May 28th appear to be the closest in history, where almost all the polls show a technical draw between the CC and the PSOE, with a PP that would rise in councilors (it now has three), which will It would become decisive to decide the mayoralty to one side or the other, yes, provided that the coalition formed by Sí Se Puede, Izquierda Unidas and Podemos meets the expectations of ceasing to be decisive when losing representation. Citizens, who are almost gone, are not expected either.
On May 28, a total of 197,200 voters are called to the polls in the municipality of Santa Cruz de Tenerife, according to data from the electoral census. A figure that includes resident canaries, those abroad and citizens of the EU and countries with agreements. Some numbers that, given the abstention figures that the capital registered in the 2019 elections (46%), will leave in the hands of just over half of these citizens both the Mayor’s Office and the proportional part that corresponds to the Cabildo de Tenerife and the Government of the Canary Islands.
In the case of the Santa Cruz City Council, the chicharreros will have 13 candidates to elect, among which are those that most already know, such as the current mayor, José Manuel Bermúdez (CC), the former mayor Patricia Hernández (PSOE), the Councilor for Public Services, Carlos Tarife (PP) and the spokesman for United We Can, Ramón Trujillo (USP). Two of the protagonists of the last term, the defector Evelyn Alonso and the Cs spokesperson, Matilde Zambudio, have become part of the CC and PSOE lists, respectively.
Although these political formations are the ones that have the most options to form a government, there are others that, election after election, present their proposals with the aim of reaching the municipal plenary session. One of those tireless is the PACMA Animalist Party, which once again aspires to a seat in the City Council, in this case its leader is a well-known defender of animal rights, Cristo Gil. Another historic party, which, despite its history, is presenting itself almost for the first time, is the Canarian Nationalist Party (PNC), which until now went hand in hand with CC, from which it has separated to present itself alone. Ilba Cristina Rodríguez tops his list.
Ciudadanos, although he was decisive in this mandate, is presented with a list unknown to the majority, with Enrique Arriaga as the main claim, who also opts for the Cabildo de Tenerife.
Nueva Canarias tries again in this mandate, this time at the hands of an old acquaintance of the City Council, Odalys Padrón, who after going through the PSOE and Socialistas por Tenerife, will now try to access the Consistory backed by the management that her party, led by Román Rodríguez, has developed in the Progress Pact.
Among the new candidates, Dragos Verdes, according to the much hackneyed polls, seems to be to blame for United Yes We Can not be as decisive as in this term, losing votes that are going to go to a party that could touch a councilor. Its candidate is Romén García.
Along with Dragos Verdes, but on the completely opposite side, that of the extreme right, is Vox, whose candidate, Alejandro Santiago Gómez, aspires to enter the chicharrero Consistory for the first time, at least that is how the electoral polls reflect it.
And among the parties that remain is that multitude of formations that are repeated in the different municipalities and whose aspirations are further from coming true than those of the rest. Reset is the name of one of the new ones, with Claudio Enrique Reyes as a candidate for mayor. Javier Reyes is the head of the list of Reunir Canarias Sostenible and Juan Carlos Carvajal is of Ahora Canarias-Partido Comunista del Pueblo Canario, another of the regulars in the different electoral campaigns.
pacts
Given how close the results seem to be, it may be that in this mandate there will also be some unprecedented milestones. And it is that the political gossips, either by putting pressure on the rival, or because someone has said that if in La Palma yes, why not here, there is speculation that the PSOE and PP could agree for the first time, not only in Santa Cruz but in other Tenerife institutions. Carlos Tarife has tired of saying that he will never agree with the PSOE, which makes it quite clear that he would do so with the CC, reissuing the agreement, but that will depend on what Manolo Domínguez, the regional leader, says, and what this tell him from Madrid, of course.
That CC and PSOE agree, which would not happen for the first time, depends a lot on the desires and decisions of their top leaders. Everything seems to indicate that Bermúdez would not be in a government with Patricia Hernández, and it goes without saying that she would not be in one in which Bermúdez was either. What neither of them has said so far is that they will not agree with the initials, that is, that if one or the other, or both, were not there, they could facilitate said agreement that has already been made on other occasions. Patricia Hernández is a deputy and aspires to remain so, for which she is number three for Tenerife. The same position that José Manuel Bermúdez occupies in the CC lists to Parliament also for Tenerife. This one also sounds strong, so much so that they almost take it for granted, as the head of the CC list for the December general elections, as a substitute for Ana Oramas, so the fact that he is mayor until December and that he is leaving to Madrid would be an option for Patricia Hernádez to be mayor or not.
In this move, Carlos Tarife as mayor is a future that cannot be ruled out, he is an option in the midst of other formulas with different forces, such as CC and PSOE. The Socialists would be pending their result in the Cabildo to condition the municipal pact in Santa Cruz. The PP supported the last insular budgets of the PSOE. And, in turn, CC, aware of this, would offer a counterproposal to Torres’s party so as not to lose its capital fiefdom. All those swords are raised.