The Canary Islands’ politics has just entered an unknown dimension. Coalición Canaria (AM-CC) in Fuerteventura has launched a frontal attack against the Port Authority of Las Palmas over the new connection with Agadir, ignoring—or deliberately emphasizing—that it is their own party that holds control of the port authority.
This ‘friendly fire’ highlights a total rupture of discourse within nationalist ranks. While the Port Authority, under CC management, endorses the line with Gran Canaria, their own comrades in Fuerteventura are denouncing an ‘unbearable hypocrisy’. AM-CC’s argument is devastating: if the Tarfaya-Puerto del Rosario line was demonized due to the risk of pests, why does the Agadir-Las Palmas route have the endorsement of their own party members?
The ‘double standard’ of the acronyms
AM-CC’s criticism not only affects agricultural associations like COAG or ASAGA, but it also places the nationalist leadership in an unsustainable position. By questioning whether ‘pests do not enter through the Port of La Luz,’ the party in Fuerteventura is practically calling their own managers in Gran Canaria hypocrites. According to critics, this inconsistency demonstrates that the rejection of the majorera connection was not a matter of biosecurity, but rather of the economic interests of intermediaries that their own party colleagues would now be supporting.
Internal war for control of the narrative
This schism shows that Coalición Canaria does not have a unified stance regarding connectivity with Africa. While one hand signs commercial agreements in Las Palmas, the other denounces in the eastern islands that the plant health of the archipelago is being put at risk. The silence of the president of the Gran Canaria Cabildo, Antonio Morales, and of agricultural employers, serves as ammunition for AM-CC to denounce a pact of interests that leaves Fuerteventura as the major victim of the regional logistical landscape.
For the majorero nationalists, who are part of the board of the Port of Las Palmas, the announcement to enhance a link with Africa has uncovered a ‘double standard’ that they label as hypocritical. ‘Do pests and diseases not enter through the Port of La Luz?’ they ask from AM-CC, pointing directly to the Port Authority of Las Palmas and groups like COAG or ASAGA for not showing the same belligerence they exhibited with the majorera project.
