María Sandra Izquierdo Fernández (PSOE) yesterday became the first female mayor in the history of Tacoronte, thanks to the support of the four mayors of Canarian Coalition and the three from the Popular Party, who will be their partners in a tripartite government. The Socialists will contribute another five councilors to the pact, which adds a absolute majority formed by 12 of the 21 members of the local Corporation. New Canary Islands (4), Somos Tacoronte (2), Sí se Puede (1), Ciudadanos (1) and Vox (1) will form the opposition.
The plenary session of constitution of the new corporation had been postponed to this Wednesday due to the appeals filed for the invalid votes that finally gave a councilor to Vox and due to the delay in the credentials of some councilors. It was held in the Óscar Domínguez Hall, in the Casa de la Cultura, before a hundred people and numerous representatives of political parties and institutions, such as the president of the Parliament of the Canary Islands, Gustavo Matos; the acting island president, Peter Martin; Lope Afonso (PP); Nira Fierro (PSOE); Frame gonzalez (PSOE); Ignacio Rodríguez (PSOE), or the former mayors of Tacoronteros Guillermo Graham, Álvaro Dávila and Rodolfo Lionamong others.
The councilors entered preceded by two agents of the Local Police in full dress. José Luis Almenara (SSP) and Yaiza Díaz (PP) constituted the age table, before which Sandra Izquierdo was the first to be sworn in as councilor, followed by the rest of the corporation from 2023-2027. Once the plenary session was formed, Izquierdo received the support of the absolute majority of the councilors, after Noemí García (CC) and José Caro (PP) withdrew their candidacies for mayor, by virtue of the tripartite government agreement that had been presented by the last week.
the speeches
After the appointment of the new mayoress, who replaces José Daniel Díaz Armas (NC), the spokespersons for Vox, C’s, SSP, Somos Tacoronte, Nueva Canarias, PP, CC and PSOE spoke briefly. They all agreed to thank the voters for their support and to bet on joint work “for the good of Tacoronte.”
Carlos Medina, spokesman for Somos Tacoronte, made one of the longest speeches and lamented the growing fragmentation of the vote in the town, with 8 parties in plenary session, and the “continuous supra-municipal interference by parties that have not benefited Tacoronte at all.” . He was very critical of the new tripartite and made a very negative assessment of the recently dismissed mandate, where he was part of the government group until he was expelled from the PSOE for not following the instructions of the island leadership when agreeing in the municipality .
A “complex” situation
José Caro (PP) recognized that the starting situation is “complex and difficult”, but advocated working from the government so that the municipality of Tacoronte recovers in the coming years “the leadership and position it had in the region and in the island”. Former mayor José Daniel Díaz (NC) also thanked the participation of the more than 200 people who were part of all the candidacies in the town and the work of the 11 mayors who were in the 2019-2023 term, “marked by the pandemic and by the termites”, and that now they do not repeat in the Tacorontera Corporation. He had words for his former government partner and new mayor Sandra Izquierdo, who will represent “51% of the voters and that barely exceeds the sum of the opposition by 200 votes.”
He acknowledged that NC was negotiating to continue in government, “but we found out late that there was another negotiating table” in which his party was not counted. And he promised a “vigilant and monitoring role”, a “loyal, responsible and reasonable opposition, which will not do what some have done in this term.” And he issued two warnings. Quoting Tierno Galván, he said that “politicians must have glass pockets”, and stressed that “there are a hundred days of courtesy, but we will not leave them for that management that is continuous.”
Noemí García Martín (CC) was more concise than Medina and Díaz, showed pride in being “the second force in the municipality” and defended “this governance pact with the two most voted parties and a third partner.” She promised a “stable” government to bring Tacoronte to its rightful place in northeastern Tenerife.
The tacorontera mayoress, Sandra Izquierdo, thanked the support and participation of voters to “make Tacoronte a better place to live, safer, that takes care of its people and its landscape and heritage”. She stressed that her arrival at the Mayor’s Office breaks “another glass ceiling” as she is the first mayor in local history and promised to “always have the door open” of her office to attend to the neighbors, “which will require a lot of dedication and sacrifice.” She promised to work “with transparency and respect” so that “Tacoronte recovers her place in Acentejo and in the North.”
“This government presents itself with strength and unity,” stressed Izquierdo, who thanked Noemí García and José Caro for their support and promised to “take the helm together.” In his opinion, yesterday “a new illusion that will bear fruit in the next four years” was sown. After the session, the three leaders of PSOE, CC and PP went out to the balcony of the House of Culture to greet the many neighbors, friends and supporters who gathered in the Plaza del Cristo to attend this historic change in the Tacorontera Mayor’s Office .
