The Mayor of Mogán is on her ongoing journey—if one can call it that—from the PP to a rather unique form of nationalism, underpinned by the utilitarian warmth of Coalición Canaria or towards an insularism still to be defined. She speaks of “black people and the others, the Moroccans”; makes her opposition to certain demonstrations clear, such as those that “harass tourists”; and fills her interview with the programme *The Alexis Army* with slogans, ideas—and I say again—trite phrases of pure conservative populism (even if she claims to be pragmatic), regressive and proud of her self-awareness and success at the polls… albeit in that manner, of course. She embraces the label proposed by the presenter: “I am the Ayuso here.”
She has never hidden it; she is proud of her uniqueness. “I am particular, like my name, which is unique aside from a girl from La Aldea whose father liked my name [when he saw it] on signs.” She is unfazed by the “hatred from leftist media.” Public opinion concerns her little, and even less do criticisms of her antiquated or contentious ideas faze her. She excels at the polls (despite lingering doubts regarding some questionable votes in the past), boasts of having 17 out of 21 councillors (and this after only “three months of social media”) and believes that this legitimises her for almost anything, including not concealing her opposition to certain demonstrations, no matter how well-informed and justified they are, especially those that question the current tourism model in the Canary Islands “if they do not provide me with an economic alternative.”
In an interview for the *The Alexis Army* segment on Atlántico TV, the channel associated with *Diario de Avisos*, Onalia Bueno shares a curated array of her political and existential manifesto. This Wednesday night, she will be interviewed by the dynamic and enterprising owner of the successful Dormitorum business, Alexis Amaya, who proves to be an effective interviewer.
“Black people do not generate problems, but the others do.” Who are the others, without invoking Amenábar? Naturally, “the Moroccans.” All of them? Ah, well, that’s irrelevant now: the streets—entirely—support her argument, or so she believes.
Herein lies one of the more dubious soundbites, yet the array of her remarks is nearly endless… “We must have more presence and security on the streets. Why are those kids congregating at one in the morning, around a hundred?” Yes, she has thought this through; she is not referring to young Canarians post-concert, foreign tourists in ‘Los Américos’, or two hundred well-heeled, white cayetanos in a Mercedes causing a ruckus in Madrid at this hour, allowing many to suffer sleeplessness despite not instilling a sense of insecurity. No, it’s migrants she is referring to, even those who risked their lives at sea to witness 80 lights flickering in the distance on the dark and chilly Atlantic night… According to her, parents now do not permit their 14-year-old daughters to go out at night on Triana street “because they do not feel free and because the level of crime has risen there dramatically. My people come first. Until 2020, cohabitation was normal.” Nevertheless, she does mention “take it home,” while not ruling out adopting children from Gaza if she could, “although that is very difficult.”
From the long-standing PP (although she claims to have always supported the unity of nationalism) to CIUCA and Juntos por Mogán, she now promotes the insular experience known as Somos Gran Canaria (having nothing to do with Sumar, “be careful, I get goosebumps just hearing that name,” she clarifies to Alexis, who misnamed it). In every response, Bueno excels in embodying Onalia. “I am not just representing Mogán; I am in Gran Canaria (…). Imagine if I were to run for the Cabildo… I would certainly induce some panic,” she states, referencing the fragmentation of the political landscape after the breakup of Nueva Canarias, the emergence of the “municipalists,” her “Somos” and Coalición Canaria.
She prides herself on her reputation for bringing buses to Las Palmas via the Arguineguín dock, “the dock of shame” (a name she coined after observing the condition of the rescued minors during the Canary crossing), during a period of heightened migratory pressure amidst COVID restrictions. “This made my persona more recognised and respected in Gran Canaria.” “Everyone passed through there and no one did anything (not even the NGOs), but with international media, we managed to make Pedro Sánchez, the young man, pull his socks up, and in November, the dock began to empty.”
It is then that her sense of humanitarianism emerges as she contrasts the misery she witnessed with the contrasting plight of “this country that claims to be progressive, that so-called progressive left, but I did not see anyone promoting progress, improvement, or human rights there.” She is reminded that the PP currently does not want minors in its communities (she refers to them as “menas,” naturally) and that she used Ayuso as an example (“I am the Ayuso here”), despite Alexis pointing out that the ultraliberal 3.0 version of Esperanza Aguirre “cannot emerge victorious from its treatment of migrants, not in the least.”
She embraces the PP’s anti-immigration rhetoric when referring to the PNV’s reluctance to have any migrants in the Basque Country; however, she insists, as she stated in 2023, that she will not cover “any burial costs for a migrant. And this does not fuel xenophobia, because the president disregards the Canary Islands, three ministers come, the entire court to the dock, and I’m left with the mess, this is where we’ve arrived. I had 40 boats accumulate, and what do I do with that, with the odours that are unbearable to residents 200 metres away? Destroying a boat made of fibreglass costs £5,000, not to mention the waste, and the fact that residents cannot live because boats are coming in all day, and fishermen cannot do their job, plus the burials… What am I supposed to do? Keep taking it all in? I have to expand the cemetery with the funds from Mogán’s residents, when it’s Sánchez’s responsibility. My legal obligation is not to bury those who die at sea. It’s a disgrace; it’s not my responsibility when there’s some guy in Madrid with abundant money, much from the EU…”
And this situation shifts, she claims, when it occurs in La Restinga (El Hierro) “because there the PSOE governs.” “Those who suffer are not those who die, nor their families, nor Sánchez or Ángel Víctor [Torres], but us, those on the front lines, the citizens of Mogán.” She says this with conviction, sure to receive enthusiastic applause in countless, perhaps too many, bars… She even stresses that migrants go to Arguineguín and La Restinga (autonomous ports) and “not to Arinaga or La Estaca, which are state ports”, implicitly suggesting that this destination is chosen deliberately, “because the Salvamar, which does not have permission to be in Arguineguín (if we were to confront this…), is state-operated.” In conclusion, she adds, “If the Salvamar is nearly going to pick them up from Morocco,” and she remains unfazed… “And that’s true; the crew themselves state this.” Naturally, because otherwise, they would die… And she argues that “we need these individuals for the welfare state, although if you cover their burial expenses, you can’t hire them because they are already dead. There’s a study stating that the EU needs 20 million migrants…” Is it necessary to continue? Let’s carry on.
She is cautioned about what such a discourse could incite on social media (which she doesn’t believe is her narrative), but she responds with the notion of two types of migrants: those arriving by boat or canoe (“the older ones are leaving the Canary Islands”) and those who come by plane. And once again, she asks “what might the solution be” because, naturally, “Vox will grow because the left is doing terribly.” And, of course, it’s all due to the “insecurity” they purportedly foster, according to her, from “migrant guilds that dent the population, making us feel insecure now in the Canary Islands when we go out on the streets and do so freely” (although she later admits that the economic situation is the key driver of criminality and that all demographics commit crimes irrespective of their background). Nonetheless, she claims that she is merely asking if this is indeed the case… And here comes the cliché: “Black people do not generate problems; it’s the others… the Moroccans [the majority of those committing crimes in her municipality, she claims], and not all, but the issue is that there is a law stating that if you offend, you are expelled, yet it is not enforced in Spain.”
She readily acknowledges that leftist media “hate me.” However, she professes ignorance as to “which group that is; apparently, it’s an entity that has been living off some things I don’t like for ages… They detest me vehemently, partly funded by Nueva Canarias.” After Alexis Amaya persists, she reveals: “El Canarias Ahora punto com” (SIC). “They have been flattering me with their headlines since 2007 until now; I have not experienced such aggression from others, even though I have long surpassed that, and moreover, thanks to this, I have an absolute majority.” She insists that this criticism isn’t due to the ideology of the medium (do you believe there is any ideology there?” she queries), later relishing the moments when she is presented as someone from the left when she says certain things and the complete opposite with others: ”Correct.” It becomes evident why Clavijo pursued her (politically) from the outset…
She Praises Ayuso but Advocates for a Tourist Tax
It is at this juncture that she, nodding and beaming with happiness, hears the interviewer remind her of her PP background and her support for Ayuso (yes, the friend of Milei), yet simultaneously, she does not wish to exploit all hotel room capacities that Mogán could accommodate, although she criticises the 25-year-old tourist moratorium in the Canary Islands or endorses the tourist tax (a point of contention with Clavijo, the liberals—and ultraliberals—and hoteliers, “who say nothing about their hotels in the Balearics or Catalonia, where there is a tax…”): “I am the only mayor in Spain [attempting to impose a tourist tax], and I was born into tourism; it’s part of my family, having been applied and reached out to us from Málaga, La Laguna, La Oliva…”. Nevertheless, she opposes demonstrations advocating for the tax and against the tourist overflow (she did attend those organised against oil exploration) “because all those who protest must bring me an alternative model. It’s tourists who uphold education and healthcare, and you (including those from “Gesplan or Urban Planning, whom I have in Gran Canaria”) are going to stir things up in Arona and Adeje, for that occurs here (in Tenerife), not there.”
Despite Alexis Amaya stressing that “that was not the case, that it involved two isolated instances,” she remains fixated on having seen the footage… In this regard, she agrees with the business associations (she does perceive “tourismphobia” and “absurdities in what they say”) while also believing there would be no protests (despite the environmental reasons) if we had “the welfare state we lost in the past, because we have grown by half a million inhabitants in two decades, thus the housing issues, mobility or obtaining a medical appointment when you do… This isn’t caused by tourists, who are not the ones flooding the roads in Tenerife, but rather how it is managed… How many more beds have been created in Tenerife, not in Gran Canaria, where, in fact, there has been residentialisation.” Yet, she promptly inquires, “what do we define as sustainability?”
Of course, this ideological oscillation (evident as she acknowledges the ports of Granadilla and Arinaga as unnecessary macro infrastructures) is summarised by a special gift she possesses that leads her to equilibrium, the Platonic virtue of knowing what is right: “I am practical; I take the good from one thing and another, I create a mix, and what benefits my people.”
“Municipalities Have No Ideals”
Naturally, she immediately leaps to the notion that municipalities “do not have ideals; those are left for much higher [as if general plans, privatisation or the lack of services and numerous other policies were neutral]. Ultimately, you must defend the neighbour, and I know all of them; if they are in the hospital, if someone has passed away, if the grandmother went to Mass on Sunday…”. And these are 22,000 legal residents in Mogán, “50,000 in effect daily.” She claims to know at least “half” of their names and recognises all the neighbours’ faces, “and those I do not recognise are either from outside my municipality because I don’t know them in my panorama or have been here only a short while, many Latinos who have recently joined, Romanians… but then I find out.”
Delving deeper into the matter, she asserts that López Aguilar, as Minister of Justice, “created a scheme to go against the PP of Soria” through the Góndola case, a corruption scandal involving the PP in Mogán, and she states this so calmly, as if discussing a penalty (real or not) for Madrid in the last match while waiting in line at the hardware store. “A corruption case is fabricated; this occurred in every municipality, I was just a kid, at 21, and spent three days in a holding cell. They searched my parents’ home, national headlines emerged, but ten years later, everything was archived, all proceedings, although the PP did not support me. That’s what happens with those parties when you become toxic.” In fact, she later boasts that the conservatives have no councillors in Mogán: “I got rid of them,” and laughs, naturally. She adds, “I get along with all of them; though my back is laden with wounds: they envy me because I accomplish what they would like to do.”
Following that, she pursued a Master’s in Political Communication at the Pontifical University of Salamanca and “was the best, but, as I was quite out of my depth, I went alone to Honduras to teach at San Pedro Sula University, and I received an electoral campaign in Puerto Cortés because the vice-dean was the deputy mayor. I arrived, and they ousted the president of the country, Celaya, in a coup d’état, and I was assigned a bodyguard. I wanted to leave, but my partner told me I had made a commitment, so I stayed, we won, and then I left.”
She later went to Senegal, “where the Lord lost His sandals,” but a group of “prepared” youths from Mogán contacted her via Skype and proposed creating a party (making use of the acronym Ciudadanos por el Cambio, CIUCA, “a brand from Telde,” which they borrowed), under the sole condition that she would be the candidate, despite her reservations about being involved in “that mess” of the corruption alleged by that “scheme” of the minister. She accepted, and Onalia, such a uniquely named person, shot to political fame in the Canary Islands.
And she does this now with Juntos por Mogán, albeit with no relation to Junts, “since independence is worthless, although I am a nationalist because, who isn’t in the Canary Islands, albeit moderate; one must be, but in moderation, stemming from Canarian sentiment: who does not feel an attachment to their land? Canaries have a poor sense of self-worth, and we perceive ourselves as inadequate.” One could wonder if she stated this during a meeting or a rally for Aznar, Rajoy…
