PSOE, CC and PP sign an agreement to govern in Tazacorte (La Palma)
This week, the Coalition of the Canary Islands and the Popular Party finalized a government pact to evict the PSOE, the party with the most votes in the 28-M autonomous elections, from the Canary Islands presidency. The nationalist leader, Fernando Clavijo, assured that a pact with the socialist leader, Ángel Víctor Torres, was impossible for programmatic reasons. Municipal politics, however, is a strange travel companion. PSOE, CC and PP have signed an agreement to govern in the small coastal city of La Palma de Tazacorte (4,600 inhabitants, southwest of the island) and thus leave the most voted list, that of Nueva Canarias, in opposition. Manuel icon González (PSOE) will be mayor during the first two years of his mandate, while David Ruiz (CC) will hold the position for the next two years.
“It’s the idiosyncrasy of each site,” explains Tony Santana, spokesman for the People’s Party in the municipality. “Cities have nothing to do with big cities and Tazacorte has called for a change.”
Juan Miguel Rodríguez, from Nueva Canarias, the most voted candidate with five councillors, will remain in opposition after this pact. The PSOE got three councilors in the last elections; CC, two; and PP, one. During the last mandate, the municipality, one of the three affected by the volcano, was governed by a pact signed between Nueva Canarias and Unión Bagañeta-Coalizione Canaria. The representative of Nueva Canarias, Juan Miguel Rodríguez (the mayor who managed the volcanic crisis in the municipality) was mayor for the first three years: David Ruiz was the alderman for the last year.
Tazacorte was one of the municipalities affected by the volcano that erupted in September 2021: 59.31% of the territory was cut off, according to city hall data. 31.56% of its territory, 3.8 square kilometers, was buried under lava.