In the corridors of the Las Palmas Port Authority building, discontent is no longer being voiced in whispers. Unease within the Canary Islands PSOE over the role played by Álvaro Rodríguez Dapena on the board of directors of the archipelago’s main port facility has reached boiling point. The party’s message is unequivocal: it expects Transport Minister Óscar Puente to dismiss him imminently. The metaphor circulating among Socialist officials to describe his presence is clear-cut: ‘It is like having a zombie on the board’—a figure who ‘weakens the strategic force of the positions and initiatives promoted by Puente’ and by the president of Puertos del Estado himself, fellow Canary Islander Santana.
‘There is a Las Palmas port board meeting in September that we do not like at all because we are going to contradict the Economy Ministry and the CNMC, and we do not know whom to call on the phone; this feels like Brussels,’ joked a Socialist leader with extensive experience managing alliances on the islands. ‘We must be strong for what is coming,’ the same source emphasized, requesting anonymity and explaining that the Gran Canaria PSOE island committee will adopt a proposal before October.
The internal discontent stems from the imbalance of political forces within the governing body of the Port of La Luz. The positions of the Transport Ministry, in opposition to the guidelines of the port’s current management—led by figures aligned with Coalición Canaria and the Partido Popular—are being publicly assumed, defended and contested by elected senior officials from the PSOE and Nueva Canarias who sit in the island institutions. While territorial representatives bear the political cost of scrutinizing the port’s course, the figure who theoretically embodies the highest representation of the General State Administration on the board is barely making his presence felt.
A technical profile disconnected from the political battle
After leaving the presidency of Puertos del Estado for being accommodating toward the Andalusian PP at the Port of Cádiz, as revealed by Puertos y Navieras, Rodríguez Dapena’s arrival at the Las Palmas Port Authority in May 2025 as the State’s representative—after being replaced at the helm of Puertos del Estado by fellow Canary Islander Gustavo Santana—was initially interpreted as a major reinforcement for the province. A civil engineer by training, with more than three decades of experience at the public body, the arrival of this Galician official promised to provide technical weight at a time when the port’s organizational structure lacked professionals in his field.
However, the clash between political expectations and the reality of the board has been total. The island’s PSOE officials say they are missing a combative commitment and a forceful voice against the line set by the regional pact between CC and PP. Rather than acting as a staunch guarantor of Transport Ministry policies and as a bulwark against the Port Authority’s decisions, Socialist sources accuse Rodríguez Dapena of adopting a comfortable position, engaging in what they derisively define as ‘institutional tenderness’ toward the leadership controlled by conservatives and nationalists.
A setback for Óscar Puente’s strategy
This attitude is in direct contrast with the political firmness that Óscar Puente’s team demands in the management of the national port system. For the Canary Islands PSOE leadership, it is incomprehensible that the Spanish government’s direct representative should adopt a neutral or condescending profile while municipal and Cabildo representatives have to multiply their interventions to counter the board’s decisions. ‘It cannot be that those standing up for the Ministry’s positions and confronting the Port Authority’s model are elected officials from the PSOE and NC, while the person appointed to defend the State’s position acts as a mute and mere wallflower,’ Socialist sources from the metropolitan area of the capital of Gran Canaria summarize.
The party’s assessment is bleak: Rodríguez Dapena’s passivity is diluting Madrid’s influence in a strategic hub for Atlantic trade, supply logistics and the islands’ energy transition. For this reason, internal pressure on the Ministry to act and replace its representative on the island’s port board has continued to intensify, in an effort to restore a profile suited to the current political climate and what lies ahead.
The article ‘Tensions within Canary Islands PSOE: Puente urged to dismiss Dapena from Las Palmas Port over “softness” toward CC and PP’ was first published on canarymaritime.com.
