The Santa Lucía de Tirajana City Council is experiencing one of the most acute institutional crises in its recent history, marked by a contradiction bordering on political surrealism. While the full council approved a new Citizen Participation Regulation on April 13, 2026, intended to "empower" residents, the core of the government was legally collapsing. Mayor Francisco García, along with five of his councilors, has formally become an independent councilor following their expulsion from the Nueva Canarias-Frente Amplio Canarista coalition. This move, certified by a report from the General Secretariat, transforms the current governing group into a cabinet of defectors with limited political rights and a de facto minority government.
The paradox is absolute. The governing team defends as "exemplary" a set of regulations that boasts of opening the doors to the public, yet it does so from a political bunker besieged by institutional disloyalty. The rupture was consummated after the councilors left for Municipalistas Primero Canarias, the party promoted by the mayors of Gáldar and Agüimes. By expelling his former partners from Nueva Canarias in an attempt to maintain control, Francisco García has not only undermined the stability of the pact, but has also left himself at the mercy of a 2020 court ruling that the City Council itself had previously instigated and which now mandates his transfer to the non-affiliated group, restricting his room for maneuver precisely when he most needs legitimacy.
In this context of weakness, the approved regulations act more as a line of defense than as a bridge to the community. Faced with citizen demands for an Open Government model, where individuals would have majority decision-making power, the city council has opted for a strategic retreat. The official response has been to shield the "leading role of community organizations," a structure the government considers more controllable and susceptible to political influence than the unpredictable will of an independent citizenry. It is the architecture of a technical paradox: legislating on participation to ensure that control of the neighborhoods does not slip from the hands of those who currently hold power precariously.
The final reinforcement of this control scheme has materialized with the inclusion of political proportionality in all sectoral councils. Under the guise of a concession to democratic pluralism, the City Council has ensured that neighborhood debate is an exact replica of the plenary session. By mirroring the composition of participatory bodies with that of advisory committees, it is guaranteed that any social demand will be filtered through the logic of the political parties. Santa Lucía is launching a cutting-edge set of regulations today, at least on paper, but it does so under the leadership of a government that is worn out and tainted by political defections, making this openness the perfect mechanism for the power structure to remain unchanged.
