Jonathan Domínguez faces his first elections on May 28 as a candidate for the Canary Islands Coalition (CC) for the Mayor’s Office of La Laguna with the aim, he says, of recovering the local government and “returning the City Council to the people”, in addition to other Lines such as resolving “road chaos”, improving public transport, offering “opportunities for young people” or the new PGO. Domínguez was a councilor for different areas of the local government in past terms, when he governed CC, and now he is from the opposition as a spokesman for the group, and he also did intense work in the neighborhood movement in his neighborhood, La Verdellada.
-How do you face the next elections in your first time as a candidate?
“With great enthusiasm, it is a fairly large responsibility because it is no longer just representing a political project and assuming responsibility for what the electoral result may be, but also winning and governing and being mayor, with what that implies. For me this is not a game, but a very big responsibility, especially because of what it means to have to lead and take responsibility for what is day-to-day and the progress of the municipality”.
– Do you think that CC will recover the Government of La Laguna?
“We have an objective, which is to win the elections and recover the local government, we presented ourselves for that. Obviously, I don’t know what will happen on May 28, but the sensations we perceive, especially in the neighborhoods, which is where the voters of La Laguna really are, are very good. The people want change in the municipality, the change that was promised to them has remained a caricature and they want to return to a municipal project where the neighborhoods and towns have as much prominence as the center, which has been lost a lot in this mandate. We believe that we have a very interesting project and a very good candidacy that represents the values and plurality of La Laguna, but it must be the citizens who decide on May 28”.
-Do you have some red lines when it comes to agreeing?
“I don’t have red or blue lines, the only one I have at this moment is a path that leads me to May 28 with the greatest enthusiasm and with the best project. Our objective is to be in an alternative government to the current one, and on May 28 we will see, but at this moment we cannot run for elections telling the citizens that I am going to agree with one or the other because I am disrespecting people and right now it’s science fiction. I want to win the elections and I want to be mayor of La Laguna, that is very clear to me”.
-What are the main lines of your program?
“The main objective is to return the Town Hall to the people. At this time the City Council belongs to the socialists, if you are not, they do not count on you. You have to end that. You have to go back to the neighborhoods and towns and sit down with the people and decide things together. Our first way of proceeding is going to be that, and we want to recover the area councillors, who I believe is a fundamental figure. From there, build together a municipality for the future that allows it to be once again a place of investment attraction, of opportunities. And the City Council staff must be improved to staff strategic areas on which essential services depend. The Urban Planning Management is practically paralyzed, they promised a PGO and we finished the mandate and there is no PGO, they have disappointed many of their voters by demonstrating that it was a matter of pure and simple demagogy. And we need land because La Laguna needs at least 1,600 public homes, by 2030, for vulnerable families. The municipality must also be prepared for 2035, when it is estimated that more than 50% of the population will be over 50 years of age, and where are the infrastructures that we are going to need? Well, all that has to be foreseen in the PGO”.
-What needs do you see most urgent in the municipality at this time?
“We have the problem of road and traffic chaos, the improvement of public transport, the dignification of the countryside and opportunities for young people, because in La Laguna at this time youth policy is limited to throwing parties for them. On the road issue, one of the proposals we have is a municipal parking plan and we already have seven plots located at different points. It is also necessary to solve traffic problems at certain entrances and exits to the city and improve the public transport service in La Laguna, which has 13 urban lines and ideally reaches 20 and for that the budget must be increased, and We also have a proposal to improve public transport in school environments. Our idea is a government that works to solve the real problems of the citizens and not one that is dedicated exclusively to photography and partying”.
-What assessment do you make of this mandate?
“The summary that I could make is that this government has done absolutely nothing, because it has not made any project, plan, nothing concrete has come out, they have dedicated themselves to pure and hard maintenance and to the inertia of what was already coming from behind. The plan that they presented for the floodable park is urbanistically unfeasible, however, they have all the parks in neighborhoods and towns totally abandoned”.
