At 81, he is lucid and addresses any topic, although, out of caution, he requests confidentiality several times. Guillermo Graham was Tacorontero mayor for 16 years and, although that could be understood as personalistic leadership, he believes that the municipality has lost the personalisms, the lack of leaders and the short-termism of recent decades.
-How are you?
“Well, I’ve had a pacemaker for 8 years because my pulse is low and they’ll change the battery, but it hasn’t given me any scares.”
-You have been retired for a long time: are you bored; What is your day to day like?
“I retired in 2002, but I have always done things; I collaborated with construction companies, now biotechnology companies.”
-He lost power in 1995 and stepped aside: didn’t he expect it?
“Several circumstances coincided. In April, we had polls that gave us an absolute majority, but we decided to approve the General Plan that month, very close to the elections…”
-And you couldn’t delay it?
“Of course, but we were sure it was good, since Tacoronte was never planned. It was very ambitious, but we did not realize the breeding ground, especially for throwing down a hotel in Mesa del Mar and the opposition took advantage of it along with the debt, which was also oversized. Furthermore, my party was divided and a ruling against it was added in 1993 for a ruin that was thrown out with the technical reports in favor. I was disqualified for 8 years and had to pay a fine. I appealed it in Cassation, they admitted it, but the opposition manipulated and said, little less, that I was going to jail. Furthermore, my lawyer investigated and the Supreme Court ordered the trial to be repeated. We asked that it not be the same court because it was contaminated, but they said they would start from scratch and, in April, they called the trial again. The surveyor (accused) could not attend due to an abortion and, nevertheless, it develops, the press talks about the convicted mayor and, in December 1995, I was acquitted.”
-Apart from this, would you have won by delaying the General Plan?
“I think so”.
-Did it hurt you a lot to lose?
“After 16 years working for the municipality… Above all, because it was a man with a private and municipal academy when the institute was able to be created. I’m not saying it was his fault, but it was indirectly…
-Hermógenes Pérez…
“He did too much demagoguery, for example with the debt. We supported him as president of the marching band and it hurt me that he took away our people. He took advantage of that mix of things.”
-Well, democracy is also alternation in power…
“Yes, but not with someone older than me and who came with the burden of being a Francoist…”
-Rivero always said that, upon arriving at the Mayor’s Office, El Sauzal was just another neighborhood in Tacoronte and that, later, it was almost the other way around: did they end up with a complex?
“Paulino was in the Cabildo and achieved many things. That perception was had because they began to decorate little trees… while we made policies for services, such as sewage, which cannot be seen. With Aurelio in the Cabildo, a councilor highlighted to me the importance of sewage because, unlike others, Tacoronte had 80% and there was no need to puncture or make cesspools. In La Orotava and El Sauzal they still play today… A mayor cannot live in a bubble, but rather facing his people, the rest and the Island.”
-He let El Sauzal do it, wow, and they lost regional weight…
“We helped El Sauzal with the garbage truck. They didn’t have any and Paulino asked me to lend it to him in 1980. He worked for them for 2 years, but when he finished he didn’t even say thank you to us. Between 1979 and 1983, we achieved an institute, FP, high school, the Guayonje school, the Agua García school, the Maximiliano Gil, preschool… and from El Sauzal they complained, when they were in the UCD, because there was nothing for them. In reality, it was by betting on resources for everyone with the Municipal Charter, the Northern Commonwealth, the hospital….”
-You never thought that they would lose the regional capital in favor of El Sauzal or, later, La Matanza…
“No, because, for example, we had the regional center for Social Services, the center for medical specialties, the health center… Yes, we may have lost the perception of the little gardens…”
-He criticizes Pérez, but he was there for another 16 years and, since him, mayors do not last: why?
“To the lack of sufficient majorities and leadership. The PSOE has had a lot of ups and downs.”
-Have you not even got it right with the current mayor?
(Laughter) I shouldn’t say… The problem is that the candidates did not unite the party, they thought only in the short term without creating long-term bases because Tacoronte needs a radical change.
-Have they asked you for advice?
“I have participated and said this. Carlos (Medina), whom I always supported, agreed with Dávila (CC) for the cascade agreement and took advantage of it, of his inexperience, put obstacles in the way of his councilors and did not know how to defend them or defend himself (…) . The councilors found themselves orphans and the PSOE, instead of fixing it with Carlos, took it upon themselves, the 5 that remained censured the PP with Rodolfo, the court quickly revoked it and Carlos was left alone defending the party…”
-And yet, then it has a good result…
“Yes, and I was in the first meeting with CC and Carlos was told that either he signs or is expelled, but he cannot make an agreement with Rodolfo because he had done the pirouette and he supports Dávila in the minority. It was a disaster, absolute instability… In 2019, Cs won with CC ex-ediles, making an agreement with Cs was like making an agreement with CC and I and Carlos defended a left-wing pact. They say that he is cheating on Pedro Martín, no one talks to him and, when it is his turn to become Mayor, Díaz (NC) says let’s see what the PSOE thinks and they immediately expel him. “They were fatal stages.”
-The PSOE now recovers the Mayor’s Office, although with a strange pact with CC and PP if history is analyzed…
“Nira takes the mayor to Parliament, she moves well there, she is friendly and that is democracy… The pact is the most reasonable, since NC had the problem of a very personalistic Daniel.”
-Have the people lost those personalisms?
“Yes, and the lack of leaders and short-termism, but because they don’t talk to the people. You have to take advantage of the moments and work with everyone. For example, we managed to resolve the highway issue in 2 years after twenty-odd years and 20 deaths because we met with sensitive people, we closed the Tf-5 and we fixed it even though the governor was going to put me in jail.”
-Returning to your stage: a mistake, success and frustration?
“The greatest success, the education and links of the TF-5; the frustration, the incomprehension of people from the party and the citizens, but it is sovereign. The mistake was giving a lot of freedom to some councilor, especially with the PGO.”
-Did they never ask you to come back?
Yes, but the family didn’t want it anymore. José B. Grillo, who has very great wisdom, said that he would return if they assured him that he would win… But it was already difficult.
-How is the mayor doing it; the advisor?
“No. Yes, she collaborated when speaking with citizens. “You have to work for the municipality with honesty and decency…”.
-And what do you feel on the street?
“They tell me that the Fiestas are fine, but there are no impressive projects, at least 2 or 3.”
-If you were mayor, what would you do?
“The La Estación project, which has not come out for more than 20 years, and the Mesa del Mar project, for which, in 1995, we had 1,200 million pesetas from Madrid if the hotel tower were demolished and, now, there is talk to recover it…”
-Should we knock down that tower: the sea has already caused scares?
“Yeah. We already had to build a wall: I went to Madrid, they didn’t want it to be a private concession, when, in fact, it was local, and houses could fall. A great work was done. Another success was to bring Coca Cola, even though ATI said that I took 25 million. Of course it was false, but I always said that, if by fate I had fallen into that temptation, the important thing was to install it. It is corruption and I would never get into that. It was already said in a pamphlet in 1983 that I had received plots of land in Jardín del Sol and what happened was that the developer told me whose name he put 3 in and I told him that, of course and by law, from the city council. In the end, 15,000 meters corresponded. They were already beginning to tempt and, if you get into that, you are lost.”
-Better politicians before?
“Yes, due to preparation and democratic enthusiasm. Now, some feel so comfortable in the opposition that they do nothing to govern; They escape with what they charge. During my time, they came to supervise us, to accompany us to Madrid: Padrón, Pelayo, Martinón… Now I don’t see this, they are just waiting to get paid.”
-Why did the PSOE lose so much power on 28M?
“For national politics…”
-And yet, after two months he rose by a million votes and has retained power…
“Because many saw the wolf’s ears of the PP-Vox pact and that it had to be prevented.”
-And how do you see Sánchez’s management and the amnesty?
“With the amnesty I have doubts because, if Junts stopped bothering, welcome, but look at the super plenary session… It is true that Sánchez is accused of lying and I think not: he has solved important things in the social sphere, in pensions… In that and in the economy it is doing well, and there are the results.”
-And how do you see the world?
“The thing about Palestine is tremendous, that they say that Sánchez supports Hamas… What cannot be done is justify a genocide of Israel.”
-Are you disappointed by what they say Felipe, Guerra… about Sánchez?
“They have gone too far. They have been great politicians, what happened in ’82 was an enormous illusion that made us sweep Tacoronte in ’83, but they are unfair. He is receiving very harsh criticism from the opposition and they should support him. If he lasts the 4 years, which is difficult but he is capable, he will be the longest-serving president after Felipe. And we must remember what the PP said about ETA if they gave up their weapons.”
-What about Aznar and that they would be generous with the “Basque Liberation Movement” (SIC)…
“Yes, the UCD, the PSOE, the PP said it… and now that he doesn’t kill and they are doing politics, they criticize Sánchez like this…”
-Is there too much noise, demagoguery and political amnesia?
“Yes, mostly amnesia. For example, Tenerife now needs politicians to speak clearly about what they want in mobility.”
-What would you do to solve the TF-5 queues?
“Anything but a third lane through Tacoronte, a wound that would never be stitched. We must finish the ring, the Los Rodeos road and rethink the third. Also, decentralize more and that the organizations are not all in Santa Cruz, that public transport has more frequency, a BUS-HOV lane and, of course, not saying that it can be solved in 90 days… “
-Does the North have reasons to feel abandoned?
“Yes, definitely.”
