A major failure of up to 13,000 metres of depth from the seafloor separates Tenerife and Gran Canaria. To one side there are the western islands; on the other, the oriental. Among them, a trip of less than two hours away by ferry, and a political gulf. The decision of Ana Oramas from voting against the investiture of the socialist Pedro Sanchez has caused an earthquake in the canaries Coalition (CC), the formation that has ruled the archipelago since 1993 until 2019, and that after losing the power go out their internal differences. The turn to the right of the sector tenerife threatens to break the balance is impossible that joined for three decades to various parties —today integrated—, seven groups —one per island— and endless ideologies with only one aim: the defense of the interests of the Canary islands.
The indiscipline of Oramas to ignore the party directive to refrain, coincides with the approach of the grouping of tenerife, which these days tries to prevent the punishment of his deputy, the only DC in the Congress. But, above all, is supported strongly by the electorate of the island where is the granary of votes (111.000 of 194.000, which he received in the elections of regional of may), members (12,000 to 20,000) and municipalities (9 of 20) of training.
In the conservative and rural Tenerife, almost all of them are with Oramas, who kept his seat with a speech very hard to the left in a year in the canaries Coalition lost the regional Government, the town councils of Tenerife and La Palma and several municipalities. Carmen Valladares, age 69, has it clear: “it Is fantastic. The match has been wrong,” he says on his barber. And he adds: “She represents our interests and has good posts”. Oramas has not wanted to talk with THE COUNTRY.
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Coalition Canaria makes a senator a former president accused
Valladares works in El Sauzal, a town in the north of the island. There has always governed in Coalition Canaria —sometimes with more than 80% of the votes, but before you call UCD. Paulino Rivero, the person who made possible the hegemony, does not match with the majority of the neighbors. The former mayor and former canary speaks with a voice slow and almost inaudible, but his reflection will blend with the dark clouds that hide the Teide: “The speech of Ana Oramas is not consistent in a force of nationalist. Doesn’t fit with what I represented”.
Smith ruled the Canary islands between 2007 and 2015, thanks to a capacity of pact that CC has lost despite keep your muscle election. In the first term, is supported by the PP; in the second, in the PSOE. And the governments of Spain always relied on him. A year after being relieved by Fernando Clavijo as head of the party and the Government, a Coalition expelled the socialists from the Executive. Today, Clavijo, son’s political Oramas, is charged with malfeasance and embezzlement, the CC is isolated politically and the archipelago, ruled by an alliance between the PSOE, New Canary (a splinter a progressive Coalition with great weight on Gran Canaria), United we Can and Grouping Socialist Gomera. Victor Torres, president, socialist, accuses the group tenerife put ideology above the Canary islands: “The concept that we pray has of Spain is the same as that of the ultra-right”.
Listed to the right
the leadership of The party denies to have listed to the right, but the critical sectors, led by the eastern islands (Lanzarote and Fuerteventura, more progressive) ask to recover the centrality. For Ayoze Corujo, a political scientist, the loss of power has done to jump all of the seams: “There are two coalitions, the canary islands, separated by an axis that is ideological and the other territorial.” But the power was always of Tenerife. Now, Smith asks that you do everything possible to not break the party: “The strongest has to be the most generous,” he says, in the local people.
The process against Oramas what muddies everything. Morning, the Standing Committee of National Coalition Canaria meets to decide what to do with the mp díscola. Your organizing secretary, Guadalupe González Taño, of the island of la Palma, maintains an admirable calm. Declines to rule on Oramas and explains the difficult coexistence on one or other side of the fault with a metaphor: “When I was little I had a pond that overflowed in my house, while the people of Fuerteventura gave water for his birthday.”
The mayor of La Orotava: “clientelism is a” topic
To join different sensibilities, coalición Canaria has maintained a discourse that is ambiguous and sometimes contradictory, but always pragmatic. And very close to the territory. Francisco Linares governs The Orotava, a half-hour of Santa Cruz, with an absolute majority from 2015. Has never lost touch with the voters. Once a month visit to the Association of Neighbors Walk of the Meadows, through the streets of this neighborhood, semi-urban, from seven in the morning and go into the homes to talk with neighbors. In the city there are around thirty similar associations, almost one for every thousand inhabitants. Linares denies that CC has established a network of political favors in the village: “patronage is a topic. Govern ourselves more because the people want it”.
In the metropolitan area of the island, CC, it has also managed to attract the favor of the bourgeoisie of tenerife, from which comes Oramas. Employers have always valued the stability of a party that ruled the archipelago for 26 years, and the mep has been able to defend like nobody’s interests. A former president of one of the leading companies of the region supports it bluntly: “CC is a lobby”. But the situation has changed.
On the horizon a plan of reunification in the nationalism that we all say we want but no one dares to undertake. The first step has been the joint ticket for the general on November 10, despite the fact that Ana Oramas and the mp New the Canary islands, Pedro Quevedo, voted different in the endowment of Sanchez. Román Rodríguez, vice president and regional leader of NC, asks to keep the covenant with Coalition in the Congress and continue to move forward in the future. He is the new strong man of the nationalism in the Canary islands. The woman is in Madrid and not arredra.
