The constant presence of Rosa Dávila (CC), President of the Cabildo of Tenerife, and her Vice President, Lope Afonso (PP), in the media, in various formats and often under the guise of institutional advertising or propaganda, beyond the weekly press conferences where they almost seem to come and go hand in hand literally (the true relationship between them in day-to-day life is another matter, based on the sources consulted), this omnipresence, which stands in stark contrast to the previous president (Pedro Martín, PSOE) reluctance to ‘sell’ management, translates into figures, percentages, and, of course, money. So much so, in fact, that by the end of 2024, the Advertising and Propaganda budget spent more than it had allocated, reaching 107%, and up to last June 30, that same department had consumed almost 70% of its allocation, clearly placing it at the forefront of all the councils and items in the insular accounts for 2025.
These numbers, of course, clearly indicate something that has been evident practically from the beginning with the change of government from PSOE-Cs (with external support from Sí Podemos Tenerife) to CC-PP after May 2023. Since that summer, it has been noticeable that nationalists and conservatives, especially Rosa Dávila (the feeling is that she is overshadowing a timid Afonso), wanted a strong and daily presence in various media (press, radio, TV, social media…). In fact, her image, opinions, or arguments have appeared in almost any issue: from any emergency to the crisis of the Club Deportivo Tenerife, from the last Cook Music festival in Santa Cruz (another ‘festive’ event snatched from the Port of la Cruz, part of that successful refrain of ‘just parties’ by Marco González) to the Cerdán case, migration, the embarrassing state of the Auditorium or the port of Los Cristianos.
It is nearly impossible not to find some reaction or images of Dávila in countless news stories or events that have occurred over the past two years on the Island or at other scales, aside from her constant presence in various places. So much so, that the idea has spread that her job is to travel around the Island, appear in places, no matter how remote, and achieve a higher profile among the general population (something that was also missed by the previous government), while the actual management is carried out in the shadows by José Miguel Ruano, one of her great successes in compiling the list and one of the brightest minds in CC for a long time.
One million more euros in 2024 compared to the previous electoral year
This almost obsessive premise regarding image and ‘selling’ management translates clearly into the numbers. In contrast to what was spent in 2023 on Advertising and Propaganda, when the final percentage reached 81.9%, the previous year that ratio broke the ceiling and hit 107%. In 2023, of course, expenditure was shared between the two parties, and it is usual to spend more during an election year, but 18.1% was left unspent, and of the 1.828 million budgeted in this area, both governments spent 1.496 million. However, expenditure in the following year raised that nearly 1.5 million to 2.481 million, an additional one million euros which was evidently felt daily in the various types of media, compared to the 2.319 million that this item included upon approval of the insular accounts.
This has led the main opposition party, the PSOE, to have so far characterised the CC and PP government as one of ‘announcements and propaganda, but with almost no management and very few results’. In fact, last week they criticised Dávila and Afonso for having executed 5% less of the budget in 2025, as of June 30, than in the first half of 2024, with only 35.5% (from a total budget of 1.313 million), practically half the percentage of what has indeed been spent on advertising and self-promotion. That 70% (specifically, 69.82%) represents a total of 990,485 euros executed (705,882) or awarded, compared to the 1.418 million budgeted for this exercise. Either there is a ‘relaxation’ in the spending pace in this second half of the year or that 107% of 2024 will clearly be surpassed.
This clearly contrasts with what has been executed so far in other areas. The least spent in the first six months of 2025 was on the 37.6 million euros shared by various departments, of which only 1.9 million has been executed (5.2%). The next least was 18.9 million for Municipal Cooperation and Housing, followed by 26.2 million for Presidency and Heritage, 27.8 million for Natural Environment and Emergencies, 28.1 million for Social Action, and 29.2 million for Tourism and Foreign Action.
Above 30% is the Employment and Youth department (36.1%); the Social and Sociosanitary Care Institute (IASS), with 36.2%; the Research and Innovation department (37.2%); the Industry, Commerce and Primary Sector department (also at 37.2%); and the area of the President (39%), while Culture, Museums and Sports reaches 42.5% (close to the average total expenditure at this point in 2024), with the highest being Mobility, at 55.6%.
