Although he holds three positions, Emilio Navarro Castanedo wants to continue being called, above all, “mayor.” Senator for the island of Tenerife and island president of the Popular Party, he is clear: “Above all, I want to continue being the mayor of my town, of Santiago del Teide.”
Until now, he says, he is doing well with combining the Senate with the Mayor’s Office, among other reasons because “the Senate is almost at a standstill waiting for there to be a new Government, which there will be, because I don’t think that the independentistas want to go to other countries.” elections,” he said yesterday in an interview on Onda Tenerife.
But above all, he seems happy when asked about his municipality, and he has reasons to do so, when he has once again gained a new absolute majority this year and sees green shoots on the horizon of his citizens. “We are – he comments – the municipality with the lowest unemployment rate in Tenerife and that despite the fact that we have a serious housing problem to accommodate workers,” he recalls.
But also because Santiago del Teide has been experiencing population growth for two years, recovering once again to 11,500 inhabitants, and, what is more transcendental, “rejuvenating” one of the oldest populations in the south of the Island, with more than 20% of residents over 65 years of age, while young people under 18 years of age do not reach 15%.
Faced with a situation like this, Emilio Navarro is optimistic about “the arrival after the war in Ukraine of some 300 Ukrainians to the municipality, who have done so permanently because they have bought their home here, unlike the English, who continue to be the majority. , accustomed to residing six months here and another six in their country, the vast majority.” Along with this increase in Ukrainians, the mayor also highlights the increasingly noticeable presence of Venezuelans, who already reach a significant number, around 700, surpassing Italians, Germans and Russians, and only below the British. It must be remembered that Santiago del Teide is the only Tenerife municipality where the foreign population is higher than the Spanish population.
To highlight this population increase, with the special incidence of Ukrainians and Venezuelans, Emilio Navarro uses education. “Before we thought about closing schools due to the lack of children and now we are going to have to open others,” he points out with a face of satisfaction with what this means to “rejuvenate” his town, which has a clogged coast – “we don’t have a coastline.” of Guía de Isora or Adeje, and we are between four parks,” he recalls, but which aspires to continue growing in the midlands, where there is a glimpse of “a five-star, sustainable hotel, a category that is missing in the municipality,” he states. .
