He PSOE and Canarian Coalition move towards a government agreement in the La Laguna City Council. After the municipal elections of May 28, the mayor of the city, the socialist Luis Yeray Gutiérrez, they gave him the numbers to renew a progressive pact. Its ten councilors, together with the two from Drago Verdes Canarias and the two from Unidas Se Podemos, would add the 14 councilors necessary to obtain an absolute majority. However, the party is getting closer to reaching an agreement with the nationalist party. While the PSOE and CC negotiate the distribution of areas and the conditions of the agreement, they deny that this can be reproduced in the Government of the Canary Islands, where the nationalists govern with the PP. “What happens in La Laguna, stays in La Laguna,” they say from CC.
The latest negotiations of this pact are taking place a few days after CC will announce its support for the investiture of Pedro Sánchez. The party will give the ‘yes’ of its only deputy, Cristina Valido, to the socialist leader, although she has expressed her rejection of the Amnesty Law for the Catalan leaders of the processes. Despite this, the PSOE and CC deny that “it has anything to do” with the agreement that is being developed in La Laguna.
The agreement for a new government in the Tenerife city “has been discussed for months,” Francisco Linares, general secretary of CC in Tenerife, told this newspaper. ”Everything indicates that, over the next few days, our local committee will approve a government of stability for the next four years,” he adds. ”We are the second political force and, therefore, it is logical that we assume the role of trying to reach an agreement,” insists the secretary.
For her part, the Secretary of Organization of the PSOE in the Canary Islands, Nira Fierro, insists that there is still “no agreement.” ”What we have said is that a path is going to be opened to provide stability in institutions where there is none,” she explains to this editorial team. ”The mayor has repeatedly attempted a progress pact that has been frustrated. It is his responsibility to seek a majority in the plenary session,’ says Fierro.
Luis Yeray Gutiérrez has governed since June as a minority. Unidas Se Podemos has assured Canary Islands Now that the PSOE “did not make the slightest serious attempt to achieve the construction of a majority of progress.” “The numbers were clear and it seems surprising to me to hear that an understanding with the left has not been possible. An agreement was possible, but supported by a program,” says the party spokesperson in the La Laguna City Council, Rubens Ascanario.
For his part, Drago Verdes Canarias did not want to make statements to this newspaper, but he did speak out on social networks. “The 28M were the most voted force in La Laguna. The third largest municipality in the Canary Islands did not give them an absolute majority, but it did give them the possibility of a broad agreement that would allow them to face the serious problems of the municipality: housing, mobility, public services, poverty, …”, they say from the party founded by the former deputy. Alberto Rodríguez. “Once again, the usual ones agreeing with the usual ones,” the party has published on its X account (formerly Twitter).
For Unidas Se Podemos, “the dispersion of the left” in the local elections has made the agreement between the PSOE and CC easier. “If the left had a more powerful result in the Canary Islands, it would probably have allowed them to be in a regional government and in other administrations, but it is evident that the pragmatism of the PSOE has always been one of its hallmarks. Perhaps that is why it lasts so long as a historic match,” says Ascanio.
A “strictly local” agreement
The spokesperson for Unidas Se Podemos in La Laguna assesses that the agreement “does not have so much to do” with the city, but with “possible changes of stickers that could occur in the Government of the Canary Islands or in the Cabildo of Tenerife.” “La Laguna seems like part of that war booty that can be distributed,” he says. For Rubens Ascanio, this pact “had been rumored on the corners since June” and began to crystallize “in the first plenary sessions of July.” “They agreed on the increase in the salaries of political leaders, on the changes to the traditional schedule of plenary sessions and they have maintained common positions on many motions,” he says.
Although the PSOE was the most voted force, CC presides over the Government of the Canary Islands thanks to an agreement with the Popular Party. According to the party led by Fernando Clavijo, neither the ‘yes’ to Sánchez nor the La Laguna pact endanger this pact. “It is a strictly local issue. Closing this possible pact has nothing to do with breaking other agreements. What we have signed with the PP is signed, and it is to be fulfilled in these four years. What happens in La Laguna, stays in La Laguna,” insists Francisco Linares.
Nira Fierro has assured the same. “We stick to the case of La Laguna, where the mayor has tried to govern and has not been able to,” she asserts. “We are a responsible party, which is making a rigorous opposition, and that is where we have to be now in the Canary Islands, but we should not read further or make assumptions,” she adds. “What we have said is that a period is opening where we can reflect on stability in institutions where there is none. In the Government of the Canary Islands, as far as I know, there is stability,” says the Secretary of Organization.
In the protests against the amnesty that took place in the Canary Islands this weekend, protesters asked the leader of the PP in the Archipelago, Manuel Domínguez, to break his ties with CC. This Monday, Domínguez responded that he cannot “allow” the PSOE to return to the Canary Islands Government. “No one will have any doubts that if the PP leaves, the PSOE immediately enters, whether it is president or not, but it enters directly to govern,” he stressed in statements to Cope Canarias.
The departure of Jonathan Domínguez, the first step
This Monday, the Canarian Coalition announced the departure from the La Laguna City Council of Jonathan Domínguez, spokesperson for the party in the corporation and candidate for Mayor in the local elections on May 28. Through a letter, Domínguez resigned from his position as councilor to be appointed deputy councilor of the Government of the Canary Islands. The Government Council of the Canary Islands has approved his appointment as Deputy Minister of Communication and Media Relations.
Sources from the La Laguna City Council assure that this is the “first step” to formalize the agreement between CC and PSOE, due to the bad relationship between the mayor and Domínguez. In the last legislature, the non-attached councilor Alfredo Gómez denounced Luis Yeray Gutiérrez for a alleged case of corruption, the Laycas casealready archived.
Then, Gutiérrez warned that “behind” the complaint was the Canarian Coalition and an attempt to “laminate and discredit the mayor’s image.” For his part, Alfredo Gómez, a councilman who turned away after leaving Ciudadanos, assured that he was only trying to “fight corruption.”
The general secretary of CC in Tenerife denies that Domínguez’s departure from the City Council is related to the agreement with the PSOE. “It was before this. It is a decision made by the president, who considers that comrade Jonathan meets the best conditions to be in this position,” Francisco Linares stressed.
