The stability of the political bloc that governs the area with the highest concentration of hotels in the archipelago is facing a crisis of confidence at the island level. The Primero Canarias (Prica) platform, a left-wing, sovereignist, Christian-based party, has officially launched its candidacy in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, a strategic move executed unilaterally and without the authorization of the regional leadership of Coalición Canaria (CC), given that it involves a former CC member, Marcial Morales. CC has a prior agreement with Unidos por Gran Canaria, a secular center-right party, on the island, and in southern Gran Canaria, business interests are nervous about Prica's potential bid for strategic council positions such as tourism or urban planning, currently comfortably held by CC. For now, they need to meet with Unidos and CC. "This isn't just a Tenerife issue; they've been governing the island for the last 12 years," a business source told Maspalomas24H.
"We have always been open-minded; we will not tolerate sectarianism," a CC source, who asked not to be named, told Maspalomas24H. The situation is not much different in the hotel sector: "The emergence of these new parties introduces a distorting factor into the roadmap for local government agreements in southern Gran Canaria, where control of budgets and land-use planning in Maspalomas, Meloneras, and Mogán depends on highly sensitive coalition balances," explained a hotelier who had previously contributed to Nueva Canarias and requested anonymity.
Prica's maneuver in Las Palmas directly impacts the very foundation of the strategic alliance that Coalición Canaria Gran Canaria (CC) and Unidos por Gran Canaria (UxGC) forged on February 12, 2026. That nationalist convergence agreement, signed by CC's Secretary General, Pablo Rodríguez, and UxGC's President, Lucas Bravo de Laguna, aimed to unify the Canarian vote on the island to increase the province's influence in the Congress of Deputies. The leadership of Unidos por Gran Canaria, a party with a solid electoral base of over 18.000 votes on the island, has requested an urgent meeting with CC's leadership to halt what they consider an unacceptable interference that undermines the territorial stability commitments signed for the south.
In the local councils of the southern region, this political maneuvering is interpreted as a threat to the continuity of the general urban development plans and pending tourism licenses. San Bartolomé de Tirajana and Mogán traditionally operate as fiefdoms where political alliances determine the awarding of multi-million euro public service contracts and the pace of foreign investment. A fragmentation of the nationalist vote caused by the emergence of Prica weakens the negotiating position of the area's mayors vis-à-vis the Canary Islands Government, reopening old rifts in a political space that has been plagued by internal division for over two decades.
The design of the February 2026 pact included the creation of a joint monitoring committee to safeguard institutional peace and coordinate political action in the key municipalities of the Canary Islands' economic engine. Lucas Bravo de Laguna's argument was based on political generosity and unity of action to increase the representation of the province of Las Palmas, a proposal now contingent on CC's ability to reject non-agreed candidacies. The lack of organic control by the nationalist leadership over satellite parties projects an image of regulatory weakness to hotel associations, which prioritize political predictability over committing investment flows.
For his part, Pablo Rodríguez had linked the success of the coalition to the end of partisan polarization and the consolidation of a truly archipelagic decision-making center in anticipation of the 2027 elections. However, the reality of the political undercurrents in the south dictates different dynamics, where the local committees of Mogán and San Bartolomé de Tirajana defend their management autonomy against the dictates of the headquarters in the capital. The emergence of Prica without the approval of the central leadership disrupts the established blocs, forcing local tourism operators to diversify their communication channels in the face of the risk of ungovernability and fragmented representation in the northern and southern town councils.
The dispute over leadership within the nationalist movement has now moved to the offices of the parties' internal guarantee committees. UxGC is demanding strict adherence to the coalition agreement, reiterating that its contribution of political capital is essential to securing electoral gains in the province. The high-end accommodation sector in southern Gran Canaria is watching the dispute with the certainty that any instability in the municipal lists will immediately translate into delays in processing urban development permits and hotel licenses—the very assets that sustain the profitability of the coastline.
