The mayor of Mogán, Onalia Bueno, appeared this morning at a press conference together with Senator Fernando Clavijo and the mayor of Vega de San Mateo, Antonio Ortega, to deny the president of the Cabildo of Gran Canaria, Antonio Morales, after stating this on Monday that the aforementioned municipalities decided not to participate in the second Insular Socioeconomic Development Program (FDCAN). Both local councilors deny this, ensuring that this decision has been made by the Cabildo unilaterally without legal protection, a fact for which they assure that they will take the Cabildo of Gran Canaria to court if it does not rectify it.
Clavijo explained that during his time as president of the Canary Islands, as a result of a negotiation with the State, 160 million euros per year of extraordinary funds were achieved for the Archipelago. “At that time we decided to create a Canary Islands Development Fund with the aim of improving social conditions after the end of the crisis as well as the competitiveness and infrastructure of the municipalities,” he said. “We tried to involve all the Councils, so that they also contributed a portion of resources. Likewise to the City Councils, so that we multiply the effect of the investment,” he continued.
The duration of the FDCAN was established at ten years and the Island Councils created programs for the distribution of funds among the municipalities. However, Gran Canaria did not achieve the consensus of the 21. “President Antonio Morales was unable to bring the municipalities of the island to an agreement, in such a way that the distribution was not adjusted to objective criteria, but rather subjective criteria of sympathy or antipathy, made some municipalities decide, instead of the Cabildo's program, to go directly for projects to the FDCAN, to the Government of the Canary Islands," the now senator has contextualized.
The Cabildo of Gran Canaria then decided to establish its program in four years. “For that first call, Mogán, Vega de San Mateo and Firgas chose to go independently,” he noted.
In this sense, the mayor of Mogán has stressed that now “a new call with new conditions” has begun, referring to the fact that on this occasion all the municipalities of the island are obliged to access FDCAN funds exclusively under the umbrella of the Cabildo, not being able to present projects directly to the Government of the Canary Islands, an issue that was possible in the 2017-2021 call. “It is like saying that a student is eligible for a scholarship in 2023-2024, meets the requirements but will not be able to apply for the new 2025-2026 call,” she exemplified.
“What mayor does not want to be part of a distribution of money to improve the services and infrastructure of their municipality? It is absurd and something invented by the president of the Cabildo of Gran Canaria," he stated, ensuring that after two meetings held in the last year between the Cabildo and all the municipalities of the island, Antonio Morales "was clear that he was going to exclude Mogán and San Mateo”. “In those meetings we claimed that it was illegal,” stated the mayor, who also showed the formal writings sent to the FECAM, FECAI, Government of the Canary Islands and parliamentary groups putting this situation on the table. “In response we have received silence,” she said.
Bueno points out that the Cabildo tries to argue the exclusion by indicating that when Mogán and Vega de San Mateo presented their projects directly to the Government of the Canary Islands in the first call, these municipalities received more investment than what was supposedly theirs per inhabitant. However, this is not included in the aforementioned. “They have no legal justification. "They invent this to exclude us," he assured, also emphasizing that by leaving out Mogán and Vega de San Mateo, the Cabildo fails to comply with article 14 of the Spanish Constitution, which states <>, as well as article 18. 3 4 of Law 38/2003, of November 17, General Subsidies.
The mayor of Vega de San Mateo spoke in the same terms. “Non-legal justifications are being sought so that municipalities that went for projects are now within the Cabildo program,” he indicated, referring to Firgas, who for this second call has been included in the distribution of the FDCAN funds of the Island Administration along with the other 18 municipalities. “It's unreasonable.” “There is no consensus as the Council has told the citizens. They are leaving us out without our consent. Of course we want to access those funds,” Ortega declared.
Both mayors hope that the Gran Canaria Council “reflects and redirects the situation” by incorporating Mogán and Vega de San Mateo. The first mayor of Mogana has reported that the legal teams of both municipalities are working to, if not, take the matter to Administrative Litigation requesting precautionary measures. “If these prosper, we will be held responsible for paralyzing the FDCAN in Gran Canaria, because the sole responsibility lies with the Cabildo,” she stated.
