The Port of La Luz has a physical problem: the land is finite. The attack from the Maritime Cluster (which includes foreign capital logistic operators linked to the 1978 Regime) on the PSOE and Madrid has a secondary reading: the rush to consolidate their dominance. By demanding that Madrid expedite regulations, what the lobby seeks is to have the space concessions defined now. Whoever controls the square meters of dock where the floats are going to be assembled will control the toll that all the multinationals (Iberdrola, Equinor, etc.) wishing to enter the Canary Islands will have to pay. The contradiction of the Cluster: Competitiveness or Barrier to Entry? The study of the 950 million euros annually mentioned this Tuesday in an official appearance before Navantia employees is a very powerful pressure tool. By presenting such enticing figures, the Cluster justifies the State handing them 240 million euros in public funds for port infrastructure. The suspicion of many is that these public investments will ultimately benefit exclusively the three or four companies already positioned at the Port of Las Palmas, shielding their positions against new competitors or smaller tech companies that cannot pay the fees imposed by these ‘historic operators.’ The Role of Madrid and the Oversight of Brussels Here is where subordination to Brussels takes on a new meaning. The European Commission is extremely vigilant with state aid and free competition. If Madrid designs an auction that, in effect, forces the use of the services of three specific operators in Las Palmas, Brussels could overturn it as an anti-competitive model. The wind lobby of CMC attacks the PSOE because Madrid is trying (albeit very slowly) to ensure that the auction bases do not unfairly favor the usual players. The Cluster operators, on the other hand, see this as a ‘loss of opportunity’ and a ‘brain blackout,’ when in reality it could be an attempt to prevent the port from becoming a closed club. The Trap of Stable Jobs Even the figure of 3,276 jobs can be viewed with skepticism. If the model is a closed club of port operators, those jobs tend to be highly temporary or extremely subcontracted, while the bulk of the profit (the margin of the logistics service) remains in the coffers of the port concession companies. It is the uncomfortable economic reality: offshore wind energy in Las Palmas risks shifting from being a driver of change for the entire economy to being an extension of the business holdings of those who have dominated the Port of Las Palmas for decades, bringing, hypothetically, labor from Malaysia at 400 euros a month.
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