On May 17, the Infecar fairgrounds will host the 7th Island Congress of the Canary Islands Coalition in Gran Canaria, a key event for Canarian nationalism on the island. It will bring together 240 delegates, 30 of whom are from the southern part of San Bartolomé de Tirajana. Pablo Rodríguez is running for re-election and will appoint Alejandro Marichal as his deputy and José Gilberto Moreno as the party's strategic brain on the island.
At the meeting, participants will reflect on how to update the party's political project to meet the current needs of Gran Canaria's citizens. More than half of the delegates, a total of 132, were elected by the local committees of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria (54), Telde (48), and San Bartolomé de Tirajana (30), ensuring gender equality in all delegations.
During the Congress, the delegates will debate priority challenges such as access to housing, the aging population, youth policies, and the needs of the island's social and healthcare system. They will also address the strategies that will shape the Canary Islands Coalition's roadmap for the coming years, culminating in the election of a new island leadership. The island's secretary general, Pablo Rodríguez, emphasized that this event "will be the most participatory in the organization's history," highlighting the importance of designing "a solid strategy to offer more and better future opportunities to the people of Gran Canaria."
In the 2023 local and regional elections, Coalición Canaria made significant gains in Gran Canaria despite the traditional dominance of the PSOE and Nueva Canarias on the island. One of its milestones was obtaining representation in the Las Palmas de Gran Canaria City Council, with two councilors led by Francis Candil, after more than a decade without a presence in the capital's council. It also consolidated its role in Telde, where it maintains representation, and strengthened its presence in strategic southern municipalities, such as San Bartolomé de Tirajana and Mogán, key due to their tourism and demographic importance.
In the Canary Islands Parliament, Gran Canaria contributed several representatives to the nationalist group, including Pablo Rodríguez, who also served as spokesperson. From the opposition, the Coalition has proposed legislative initiatives to promote the construction of public housing, improve healthcare financing, and reform the transport subsidy system, always with a view to territorial justice for non-capital islands. The party has also insisted on reactivating the debate on dual insularity, advocating for a more equitable redistribution of funds and powers, especially within the framework of the new Statute of Autonomy and the Economic and Fiscal Regime (REF).
