Canarian Coalition (CC) defends that the agreement signed with the PSOE for the investiture of Pedro Sanchez includes the paralysis of the privatization process of the control towers of the three main airports of the Archipelago: Gran Canaria and those of the north and the south of Tenerife. What’s more, the nationalists maintain that the pact with the socialists in Madrid, which in principle binds both parties for the entire legislature, It should serve to negotiate the incorporation of the Autonomous Community to the board of directors of Aenathe semi-public limited company – 51% of the share capital is in the hands of the state company Enaire – which is responsible for management of the national airport network. Not in vain, in CC they argue that although neither the issue of control towers nor the issue of airport co-management appear explicitly in the agreement with the PSOE, both are in fact included since it has been put in black on white that the socialists assume “full respect” for both the Statute of Autonomy as well as the Economic and Fiscal Regime (REF).
It must be remembered, on the one hand, that The only control towers that have not yet been privatized on the Islands are precisely those of its three main airports., and, on the other hand, that if these have not yet passed into private management it is not because the PSOE does not want to, but because three of its partners in Madrid – Bildu, Esquerra and the Galicians of the BNG – prevented it in the previous legislature. They were the ones who managed, through a transactional amendment that the socialists and Podemos had no choice but to accept, that the second round of privatizations, which included the airports of Tenerife and Gran Canaria, remained in the air. In principle, the intention of the new central government, or at least that of the PSOE –its main support in Congress–, is to finish the privatization process in this new legislature, but everything seems that it will once again encounter resistance from its partnersamong which now there is also Coalition.
The ‘Canarian agenda’ is based on “respect” for the Statute, which provides for the co-management of airports
The CC deputy in the Lower House, Cristina Validoexplained that not only is his party not going to take a step back in its refusal to allow the control systems of the capital islands to pass into private hands, but in fact he recalled that The Statute provides for the participation of the Autonomous Community in decisions that affect its aerodromes. The first commitment that the PSOE assumed when signing the pact with CC is “compliance with the canarian agenda», and it turns out that the premise of this diary It is precisely the “full respect” of the REF and the Statute, where airport co-management is made explicit.
It is the second point of article 161 of the particular constitution of the Archipelago that makes it clear that «It is up to the Autonomous Community of the Canary Islands to participate in the planning, programming and management of ports and airports of general interest. […] because they are essential networks for connecting the territory as Outermost Region». It is the article, in short, in which the nationalists have been supporting for years the demand that the regional Executive have a say in matters related to the island’s airports, which In practice it would result in the incorporation of some regional representative to the board of directors of Aena. Something that has not been achieved but that in CC they see now as more feasible than ever not only because this is stipulated in the agreement with the PSOE, but also because the socialists and Pedro Sánchez cannot afford to waste Valido’s vote in the Congress when your Government depends on partners as reliable as Junts or Esquerra.
So if the pact is fulfilled, which ultimately would be nothing more than complying with the Statute, It would be necessary to negotiate, as they understand in CC, the co-management of the airports. And it goes without saying that stopping the privatization of the control towers of Gran Canaria and Tenerife would be a precondition.
A conflict of interest that is difficult to resolve
There are many interests at stake in the control towers of the main airports in Spain. On the one hand, there is the Government of Pedro Sánchez, which has aligned itself with Aena – which is 51% owned by the public company Enaire – in its intention for them to pass into private hands and thus save a few million euros even at the cost of giving up a fundamental service, even more so in the Islands. In fact, the first round of privatizations already went ahead at the time. On the other hand are the PSOE in Madrid, whose position does not always coincide with that of the socialists of the Archipelago and which supports the idea of Aena and the Government of ceding management of the towers; and its partners Bildu and Esquerra, who last March stopped the second round of privatizations – which included the airfields of Tenerife and Gran Canaria. And there is also CC, which has been demanding compliance with the Statute for years, which provides for the co-management of airports, and which has now extracted from the PSOE the commitment to respect a canarian agenda whose premise is precisely to respect the Statute.
