SOCIALISTS ACCUSE REGIONAL GOVERNMENT OF UNDERMINING DEMOCRACY

SANTA CRUZ DE TENERIFE, Monday March 8 2010

THE SOCIALIST Party charged the regional government with interfering in parliament and undermining the constitution on Monday.

by JAMES TWEEDIE

Socialist Party (PSOE) regional MP and spokesman Santiago Pérez (pictured) accused the governing Canarian Coalition (CC) – Popular Party (PP) alliance of excluding members of his party from meetings of Parliamentary commissions.

Speaking at his regular Monday morning press conference, he alleged that PP health minister Mercedes Roldós had influenced Parliamentary Health Commission chairwoman Rosa Rodríguez – a fellow PP member – to refuse to reschedule a meeting which two PSOE members could not attend.

The PSOE pointed out that flexibility it was considered good parliamentary practice

Socialist MP Domingo Fuentes Curbelo had postponed last Friday's meeting of the Environment Commission which he chairs at the request of environment minister Domingo Berriel.

Mr Pérez said that he had sent a letter of protest to Parliamentary president Antonio Castro and that PSOE health spokeswoman Lola Padrón would be meeting Rosa Rodríguez

He said that the PSOE “cannot allow the PP and CC to control the commissions,” adding that “government inaction” had put the health of Canarians at risk through a failure to ensure the safety of the food imports on which the archipelago depends.

Mr Pérez further alleged that other commissions – including education – were not meeting as they should do due to of ministerial interference.

The PSOE spokesman went on to lambaste Canarian president Paulino Rivero for calling on residents to “rebel” against national airline Iberia's imposition of a surcharge of up to €70 Euros on passengers checking in more than one bag – even if they remain within the company's 23 kilogram limit.

Mr Pérez blamed the extra charge on privatisation of baggage handling services and the deregulation of the air travel industry.

He said that CC member Mr Rivero's call for rebellion was “ridiculous” and took the opportunity to remind reporters that the president had recently been accused of misusing an emergency services helicopter as his personal aircraft.
The PSOE has called for the 50 per cent subsidy on flights to the mainland for Canarian residents to be extended to cover the extra bag handling fee.

Mr Pérez, who is also a professor of constitutional rights at the University of La Laguna, further claimed that the Canarian government's proposed referendum on a new Citizen's Participation Law was against the constitution.

The PSOE has dubbed the bill 'Plan Riveretxe' after former Basque Country president Juan Jose Ibarretxe's attempt to legislate for greater regional autonomy.

Mr Pérez called on the CC and PP to respect the constitution and its mechanisms, which he said were “a pact of liberty, respect and solidarity between the Spanish people.”

The mystery of the Guanches

The origins and language of the indigenous people of the Canary Islands remain a mystery, writes Dr Sabina Goralski Filonov Translation by James Tweedie The guanches, the aboriginals of the Canary Islands whose origin, lost in the mists of time, still arouses intense and passionate debate and great controversy about their origins and the how the seven Canary Islands were populated – which according to some studies occurred between 10,000 and 8,000 years BC. Literally, the word ‘Guan’ means man or person and ‘Chenech’ or ‘Chinet’ is applied to the island of Tenerife, thus meaning a man or inhabitant of Tenerife – although according to Núñez de la Peña, the Spanish named them the Guanchos during the conquest of the islands. But with the passage of time, experts in the subject are questioning whether the word Guanche was used to designate the primitive inhabitants of all the islands in the pre-Hispanic period. The term ‘Guanche’ has also ceased to be applied to the distin

Los Gigantes Beach Landslide Tragedy - Three Days of Mourning for Victims

SHATTERED IDYLL: Los Guios beach in Los Gigantes in happier times. SANTIAGO del Teide council declared three days of official mourning after two women were killed in a landslide on Los Gigantes beach on November 1. by James Tweedie The local authority announced the period of mourning following an emergency council meeting on Monday November 2, called in response to the tragic deaths of 57-year old British holidaymaker Marion O’Hara and 34-year old Canarian hotel worker Maria Vanesa Arias Romera. Flags at Santiago del Teide town hall were flown at half mast for the period of mourning, and all official functions observed a minute’s silence in memory of the victims. The two women were killed when 130-foot wide stretch of the cliffs above the tiny Los Guios beach collapsed from a height of about 200 feet, burying them beneath rubble up to 15 feet deep, according to a spokesman for the Guardia Civil which was conducting the investigation into the accident. The landslide occurred about 3pm

Dispossessed Couple Begin Hunger Strike

SANTA CRUZ DE TENERIFE, Wednesday August 18 2010 A CANARIAN couple began an “indefinite” hunger strike outside Tenerife's Palace of Justice on Wednesday in a property dispute. by JAMES TWEEDIE Husband and wife José María Fernández Herrero and Esmerelda Delgado (pictured) from the island of El Hierro are protesting against a court ruling in March which deprived them of 350 square metres of the land on which their home is built. The couple set up camp outside the court building on in Avenida Tres de Mayo in the provincial capital with nothing but sleeping bags, folding chairs and a banner on Tuesday August 17. They announced their hunger strike, during which they will eat nothing and drink only water, at a press conference the next day. Their banner read: “Against judicial defenselessness in El Hierro.” The couple accuse lawyer Reyes Margarita Fernández Qunitero – a substitute judge who has nevertheless been in office for over four years, and who presided over the court case – of ru

African Teachers Against Privatisation

Teachers from across Africa urged the continental bloc to halt the privatisation of national education systems today. Unions affiliated to the Education International (EI) federation pressed the African Union (AU) to stop the spread of sordid tin-shack schools funded by the world's richest man. The EI statement, issued in the Ethiopian capital and seat of the AU Addis Ababa warned: “we are witnessing a shift away from education as a public good,” with “a reduction in education budgets and increased privatisation of education.” “This is not the Africa we want,” said EI Africa Committee Chair Christian Addai-Poku, referring to the AU's 'Agenda 2063' plan. “Quality education for the public good is an indispensable condition for the development of our continent and the realisation of the full potential of all its people.” The teaching unions criticised the rapid growth across the continent of ‘low-cost’ private schools, which they said were “notorious for empl

Homeless dogs’ home fights for compensation

Dingo Dogs owner Phil Nelson at his since-demolished home. DOGS’ home owner Phil Nelson has vowed to take legal action following his eviction from his Dingo Dogs animal sanctuary in August. by James Tweedie Indian-born Mr Nelson, along with former girlfriend and Dingo Dogs treasurer Leigh Crouch were left homeless by the court-ordered eviction and have been sharing a small hut in the mountains near Las Chafiras with ten dogs and three cats ever since. Mr Nelson’s dispute with his former landlord began in September 2004, after he officially registered his rented hillside finca as an animal sanctuary. It was a requirement of his registration that he keep proper financial records, including receipts for payment of rent. Mr Nelson says that despite having a rental contract and paying his rent “as regular as clockwork” for years, his landlord never gave him a receipt even after he began asking for one every month in 2004. In May 2005, after his landlord had refused

Search This Blog