The political rise of Luis Yeray Gutiérrez was brilliant: he went from PSOE adviser to general secretary of this party in La Laguna, candidate for mayor and local councilor. He all between 2018 and 2019. He is 37 years old and affirms that he has a degree in Economics after studying at the ULL and at the Distance University of Madrid. His goal now is re-election.
Why did you want this interview to be in La Verdellada? Do you see this area, electorally speaking, as the most difficult?
No. I am convinced that there is no part of this municipality that is difficult to reach with our message. It has happened that we are in La Verdellada because we are doing a campaign tour.
What projects stand out from your electoral program?
We have developed a program that emanates from direct contact with citizens and social representatives. We have tried to develop and capture proposals that are achievable. We present a program with 150 commitments. With them we want La Laguna to evolve and develop based on sustainability and participation, that it bets on individual and collective well-being and that rewards the improvement of the lives of citizens. There are also car parks, the burying of the motorway or the recovery of the Northeast Region.
Are you satisfied with the result of the last four years?
I am quite demanding with myself. I believe that we have worked in a very important way in these last four years, leaving completely what existed, with that confrontation always manifest in the City Hall. We have prevented the Consistory from becoming a circus. In general terms, I am in a position to say that we have worked very hard for this municipality. There is still a lot left and that is why I present myself.
Why have you decided to change the structure of the team?
We are a party in which it has clearly been shown that there is not only a quarry but highly qualified people to hold other types of supra-municipal positions. The fact that Yaiza, nothing more and nothing less, takes the step and is number two for the match at the Canary Islands level is important. And it is also true that they have requested the presence of Josimar, a position of my complete confidence in recent years, leading very relevant areas, such as Municipal Services, Works and Infrastructures or, even, at a certain moment, Parties and the Presidency.
How was the case of Josimar Hernández?
The party has requested different profiles to be on regional lists and I imagine that Josimar’s, with the professional he has shown and the management capacity he has had, has allowed his colleagues to notice him, in this case the general secretary, Angel Victor.
Are you on a list?
He goes to Parliament for the insular list.
Will there be a PGO in the event that it governs or would the specific modifications of the document continue?
The approval of a general urban planning plan is not so simple, especially when we are talking about a municipality with such dispersion. A PGO is not approved in two, three or four years, but rather with the consensus of the citizens, and that requires what we are doing: first, take out of the City Council the one that develops this General Plan to later make it ours, consult citizenship and enjoy wide acceptance. You have to be realistic: this municipality needs a PGO, but one that includes all the difficulties of the population centers. That is why we are making specific modifications in different towns and neighborhoods, because we know that it is a tool that will allow us to adapt it to the demands of the neighbors.
Wouldn’t it be safe for him to come out in the next term?
Our intention is to promote it so that it comes out in the coming years, but I am not going to give dates because you have to be realistic, know the Administration and know the difficulties to face the development of a general plan that fits the municipality.
In the lists to La Laguna there are more members than usual with a popular profile instead of a technical one. Has politics remained for those who want to be in it and the most solvent professionals flee?
The example that we put on the table is the opposite. Each and every one of the people in the top fourteen or fifteen positions on the list have training and professional experience, both in the public and private spheres. And I am one of the people who has always said that political life and those profiles of associative groups and neighborhood associations must be clearly differentiated. No need to mix; that perverts politics and is used as an element to capture votes in a very undignified way. In this list that we present there is not a single neighborhood representative, and we have had proposals on the table.
How have you seen your partner Unidas se Puede during the mandate?
The government group has shown significant loyalty. We have been very clear about the axes on which we had to pivot. Since there are clear differences between one formation and another, we have known how to have a lot of respect and talk, negotiate, debate and reach agreements where it belongs, which is within the offices. Therefore, I say that the relationship with the left-wing political formations of the La Laguna City Council are not only good, but that they are in very good health at present and I hope also in the future.
What is your opinion about agreeing with CC?
I do not put any kind of red lines. But I have always said openly that with those who have crossed that narrow personal line to try to do harm, it is difficult to reach agreements after the fact. What I am still talking about is requesting a broad majority of citizens of this municipality that allow me to maintain a mandate in which we can count on sufficient strength so as not to have to reach agreements with other formations.
