The socialist Luis Yeray Gutiérrez has been re-elected mayor of the city of La Laguna this Saturday with a simple majority since he has only had the support of the ten councilors of his party. In the constituent session of the Laguna town hall, each of the political forces present (PSOE, Canary Islands Coalition, Partido Popular, Unidas Sí Podemos, Drago Verdes and Vox) voted for their candidate for mayor, so none of them obtained an absolute majority. , for which the candidate of the most voted force was elected, the PSOE with ten councillors.
United Sí Podemos and Drago Verdes Canarias threaten the PSOE not to “give” it the Mayor’s Office of La Laguna
Further
At the moment, the left-wing pact between the PSOE, United Sí Podemos and Drago Verdes Canarias has not been forged, which would add up to 14 councilors, the absolute majority. During the speeches by Alberto Rodríguez and Rubens Ascanio, leaders of both leftist minority forces, the PSOE was harshly criticized for trying to pressure them with a possible alternative agreement with the Canary Islands Coalition.
Both leftist forces have already begun to process the joint formation of the same municipal group, which will avoid them having to share a mixed group with the two Vox councilors in the future.
The spokesman for Coalición Canaria, Jonathan Domínguez, delivered a formal and conciliatory speech that followed a personalized greeting to each of the socialist authorities who attended the constituent plenary session of La Laguna (155,000 inhabitants), the second most important municipality on the island after the capital, where the PSOE also won but which has again leaned towards the CC mayoralty after its agreement with the Popular Party.
Harsh speech by the mayor against “the old politics”
In his inauguration speech, the re-elected mayor of La Laguna was especially hard on what he called “the old politics”, against which he asked “the opposition for maximum responsibility.” Luis Yeray Gutiérrez explained that the old politics “seeks confrontation and tension and despises the old consensus”, to then attack harshly – without mentioning anyone or pointing to any political force – against those who in the previous term attacked him with the use of “false accusations” and “slander”.
“Enough of judicializing politics, enough of personal attacks, enough of false accusations without foundations, enough of political hunts inside and outside this plenary hall,” he cried excitedly in clear reference to the complaints promoted by the opposition through the defector of Citizens Alfredo Gómez, encouraged by the Canary Islands Coalition through their related media. The last of them, referring to the so-called Laycas casewas archived just two weeks after the May 28 elections after two years of investigation and without any criminal charges against the mayor and the other defendants.
The mayor of La Laguna also made a veiled reference to the Canary Islands Coalition when claiming “involvement” of the municipality’s neighborhood movement. “A healthy neighborhood movement that always acts for the benefit of the community and not in the partisan and particular interest of any one.”
In addition, he issued a call to attention to the other administrations in the hands of the Canary Islands Coalition, the island’s Cabildo and soon the Government of the Canary Islands, from which, he said, he hopes “to have the due collaboration and institutional loyalty (…) with regardless of their political persuasion.
For the rest, the mayor proclaimed that “the recovery of the old lagoon will be a priority”, as well as the conservation of heritage, the new infrastructure and the promotion “of one of the most important sectors, the agricultural sector”, to improve services municipal, to achieve more and better citizen spaces, and culture as a sign of identity, “not as a simple form of leisure and entertainment, but as a sector that generates activity and an instrument to create a fairer and freer society.”
