The political controversy that is shaking Galicia in relation to the migration crisis due to the massive arrival of boats to the Canary Islands has raised the tone. After a week of reproaches and accusations in which the Xunta de Galicia and the mayors of the municipalities to which the immigrants are being transferred criticize the “obscurantist” management of the central government, the controversy has escalated with the decision to refer to a PP town hall to the immigrants who rejected a socialist one.
The initial intention was to house 40 immigrants in the Coruña town of Sobrado dos Monxes, but the socialist mayor, Lisandro Santos, refused. “It’s not the best for my neighbors,” he said. The change of plans was immediate and yesterday, the same day that their transfer to that municipality was scheduled, they arrived in O Porriño, a town of less than 20,000 inhabitants in the south of Pontevedra.
The mayor, Alejandro Lorenzo, found out about his arrival through the media. The Government delegate in Galicia, Pedro Blanco, confirmed this transfer to the press mid-morning, when the immigrants had already begun to arrive, and, however, he did not speak by phone with the councilor until hours later, late in the morning. tomorrow. “We are a supportive people, but what is clear is that we cannot find out the same day that they are already here,” he criticizes in conversation with EL MUNDO.
“You are the mayor, people are asking questions, it appears in all the media and you don’t know anything,” laments this councilor, who returned to the Town Hall after a meeting and found television cameras asking him about a situation that directly affected his municipality without him knowing anything.
The Government delegate visited a local company without warning, but this institutional discourtesy is not what bothers the mayor, who understands it as part of the political game that they belong to different parties. What causes “discomfort” is the “total misinformation.” Alejandro Lorenzo is willing to collaborate with the care of newcomers, but demands greater collaboration between institutions: “There must be information, communication, respect and coordination.”
When, late in the morning, he managed to speak with the Government delegate, he told him that “it was something that they had to solve quickly,” explains the mayor. He then assured him that he did not have to worry about anything, as the central government would bear all the expenses and take care of all the arrangements. However, this explanation does not convince the mayor, who insists that “beyond the political color, here we are talking about very important things, it is a complex situation in which we are going to try to collaborate.”
These 40 immigrants, all from Senegal and, in principle, all of legal age, spent the first hours oblivious to any political controversy, staying in the Senda Sur pilgrim hostel. The NGO Diversidades, of the Acoge Network, is in charge of the reception and refuses to make evaluations or explain the work they do, but this newspaper has been able to see how those first hours passed, between paperwork and provision of resources, since many arrived with clothes and summer shoes to a rainy town on the verge of a storm.
They were given appropriate clothing and shoes and the newcomers were even able to take a first walk through the town to go eat at a nearby establishment. Their presence did not go unnoticed and they had a good reception. «They haven’t bothered me. I was also an immigrant in Venezuela for 58 years and I know that one is never free from being in a situation like this,” says Susa, a neighbor on Rúa da Foz, the same one where the shelter is located.
This establishment is usually dedicated to hosting pilgrims of the Portuguese Way and has 48 places in shared dormitories. The new arrivals, about 40, occupied a part and coincided with some pilgrims with whom they could be seen chatting at the doors of the establishment.
Everyone saw them but no one reported it. “They are in O Porriño and O Porriño without knowing it,” criticizes the mayor. That criticism, however, does not mean that he does not want them to be in the town, where the majority of residents’ opinion is favorable to their arrival. “It seems very good to me, I am in favor of the town growing,” Jessica, a neighbor, tells this newspaper. “I don’t care, I feel sorry for them that they have to be like this, but it doesn’t affect me,” María adds.
It seems very good to me, I am in favor of the town growing
The Government delegate in Galicia, Pedro Blanco, regrets the controversy, criticizing that the Xunta and “some mayors” do not show “any solidarity” with the migratory crisis and that “due to this type of noise” that the autonomous and local administrations “had to make these types of changes” such as that of Sobrado dos Monxes by O Porriño or, for example, reducing the number of immigrants who planned to move to Sanxenxo, a town in Pontevedra whose popular mayor, Telmo Martín, was especially belligerent with the transfer. From the 350 that were planned, they have now been reduced to “80 or 90.”
“It is not acceptable that the PP in this sense is under the appearance or excuse that there is no information,” criticizes Pedro Blanco, who assures that there has been “clear and constant” information and that the PP is only putting “sticks in the way.” the wheels to lend a hand to relieve the pressure in the Canary Islands.
The representative of the Government in Galicia justifies that these transfers from the Canary Islands are “legal and orderly”, to meet “the demand of the Canarian Government”, while the Xunta insists, once again, that the socialist Executive acts “with its back” to the Autonomous executive. Thus, from the Department of Social Policy they have been showing for days their “willingness to collaborate” in the reception, as the “land of solidarity” that Galicia is, but they see it as “unjustifiable” that the central government acts in this way, and they find out “through from the press and other unofficial channels.
The Minister of Social Policy, Fabiola García, regrets the “lack of institutional respect” on the part of the central government, insisting that Galicia has “always” demonstrated and will demonstrate “now” that it is supportive.
