The electoral hangover of United Sí Podemos (USP) is being especially hard. And it doesn’t seem like an ibuprofen is going to fix it. The purple formation bordered on extinction after the elections last Sunday by practically disappearing from almost all Canarian institutions. He bump suffered by its leader Noemí Santananot even achieving his own seat in the Canarian Parliament, was replicated in councils and town halls of all the islands. Of the 1,629 positions that were distributed throughout the Archipelago, only fifteen were dyed purple. The formation was left out of the regional Chamber and of all the insular corporations and He only managed to maintain his presence, with 15 councillors, in twelve of the 88 Canarian municipalities.
The party has passed in just four years of being part of the Pact of the Flowers and govern in coalition with PSOE, NC and ASG to disappear from the Canarian political map, which also prevents the repetition of the progressive government and opens the way to the pact between CC and PP. United Yes We Can did not get representation in Parliament neither by the insular constituencies, nor by the regional list. The sum of the results reflects that the party obtained 91,000 fewer votes than in 2019. This caused the loss of the four deputies that the formation had.
Fragmentation
The fragmentation in the left block took its toll on the purple formation. The appearance in the Archipelago of candidacies such as Drago Verdes Canarias, led by Alberto Rodríguez, caused a greater distribution of votes that made it difficult to break electoral barriers. This was appreciated in the archipelagic list in which the party led by Santana stayed behind Rodríguez’s plate. USP accumulated 28,552 votes and Drago reached 29,504, but neither of them reached the electoral barrier of 4%. Both formations remained on 3.3%.
The distribution of votes also left the two formations out of all the island councils. Drago did not enter, but United Sí Podemos lost all the representation it achieved in 2019. It came to be in Gran Canaria, Fuerteventura, Lanzarote, Tenerife, El Hierro and La Gomera, and now, in none. The biggest blow, by councils, was in Tenerife where the three seats they had escaped. In the case of Fuerteventura and La Palma, the purple party even obtained worse results than the new organization headed by Rodríguez.
And in the town halls the story was very similar. The formation deflated and in most cases lost the seats won four years ago. The fall in the eastern province was greater where he only kept three mayors, one in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, another in Arucas and a third in the Lanzarote municipality of Tías. Disappearing in seven municipalities. In Fuerteventura they only presented candidacy to the Cabildo and Puerto del Rosario and neither of the two proposals were successful.
In the western province, Unidas Sí Podemos maintained a presence in twelve consistories and disappeared from seven. In Tenerife he resisted in Adeje and in Tacoronte although in both he lost a mayor. The fall was greater in San Cristóbal de La Laguna where he went from five to two. In Arona, El Rosario and El Sauzal the seat they scratched in 2019 escaped and in Santa Cruz de Tenerife the coup caused the loss of their three representatives. But it was not all bad news. In Candelaria they won a seat that they did not have and in Los Silos they took two new mayors. In Güímar, San Juan de la Rambla and Tegueste he maintained the representation that he achieved in 2019.
There are few cases in which training has ballots to be decisive. One of them is that of the capital of Gran Canaria where they give the numbers so that the councilor Gemma Martínez is part of a new government of progress. It also happens in San Cristóbal de La Laguna, but for this USP must put aside the differences with Drago Verdes Canarias. In the municipality, both formations won two seats that could be the key for the PSOE, with ten councillors, to get the support they need to achieve an absolute majority and govern the municipality.
In La Gomera there was only bad news. The mayors of San Sebastián, Valle Gran Rey and Vallehermoso vanished and no party representative remained on Colombina Island. On the other hand, in La Palma the purple formation managed to keep the mayor in Fuencaliente.
In his first speech after the recount of the votes last Sunday, Santana regretted that the confluence of the left of United Sí Podemos was not enough to stop “the reactionary wave of the right” that broke into the Parliament of the Canary Islands. The acting Minister of Social Rights used her social networks yesterday to thank “all the people who trusted” her and the project of the purple formation. “We will see each other in the streets, in the struggle, in the social movements,” she added.
