The politics of Gran Canaria have demonstrated that an incident seventy kilometers away can trigger an earthquake across the island. What began as a springtime drinking spree by the mayor of Guía, Alfredo Gonçalves, in the tourist hotspot of Maspalomas, has escalated into a survival crisis for Primero Canarias (Prica) in the south of the island. The incident, which resulted in a court conviction in San Bartolomé de Tirajana for a traffic offense against the mayor, has provided the perfect excuse for the PSOE and Nueva Canarias (NC) to launch a latent legal offensive: the defection of dissenting councilors to the non-affiliated group.
Gonçalves's sentence—40 days of community service, it's unclear whether in the place where he admitted to the offense, and an eight-month driving ban—has not only tarnished the institutional image of the north, but has also unleashed a war of words in the south. Julio Mateo, a powerful figure in Gáldar and a key player in the sector linked to Teodoro Sosa, went way too far in highlighting the seriousness of his counterpart's behavior in Guía, forgetting that the PSOE holds the key to making Prica a tangible force on the island. However, Prica's retaliation, which attempted to exploit the mayor's intoxication for political gain, has prompted the PSOE to act with a lethal bureaucratic coldness.
The key to this crisis is a document from the Ministry of Territorial Policy that Ángel Víctor Torres's inner circle had kept under wraps. This report, which has not yet been made public but is expected to be released following the Maspalomas incident, supports the argument that the councilors who left Nueva Canarias to found Prica should be relegated to non-affiliated status. The consequences are both financial and operational: the immediate loss of salaries and a reduction in their voting power on key decisions. The PSOE has gone from keeping the document—which directly affected figures like Samuel Henríquez in San Bartolomé de Tirajana—to wielding it like a sledgehammer after the damage done to the image of the progressive bloc in the north.
The paradox is absolute. While Prica criticized the lack of decorum of the mayor of Guía, the Ministry was "losing" and "finding" the report as it suited the moment. This game of shadows leaves the councilors of the south in a position of extreme vulnerability. If the Ministry's criteria prevail over those of the regional Deputy Ministry of Public Administration, municipalities like Santa Lucía de Tirajana will be forced to declare Prica members defectors, leaving Mayor Francisco García in the minority and jeopardizing the financial stability of their public officials.
The crisis underscores the fratricidal war for nationalist space. Carmelo Ramírez, NC's Secretary of Organization, has seized upon the chaos generated by Gonçalves's conviction to intensify the pressure. For Nueva Canarias, Prica is nothing more than a splinter group that must be neutralized through the rigorous application of the Anti-Defection Law. The fact that Teodoro Sosa and Óscar Hernández (Agüimes) lead Prica from different local parties (BNR and Roque Aguayro) personally shields them from the report, but it does not protect their "pawns" in the south, who did run under the NC banner in 2023.
The incident in Maspalomas has accelerated a process that seemed to have stalled. The ethical lapse shown by a mayor in the north has given the PSOE the moral cover to carry out an administrative purge in the south. Teodoro Sosa, aware of the encirclement, has already begun to suggest a swift merger with the Canarian Coalition to prevent his municipal structure from being devoured by the pincer movement between the Ministry and the leadership of New Canaries. In southern Gran Canaria, the message is clear: one bad night in the tourist area could end up costing an entire nationalist faction their salary and political career.
