The president of Cantabria and leader of the Cantabrian PP, María José Sáenz de Buruaga, experienced her first government crisis on Wednesday after barely a year in power and sacrificing some of her weakest and most notable opposition advisers, surrounded by controversies such as the non-payment of various taxes to the Treasury, several requests for impeachment and parliamentary disapprovals or internal crises in the Popular Party itself with its mayors over the management of European funds.
Thus, the first councilor to fall was Pablo Palencia (PP), who was implicated literally from the day he was appointed, when he already had to give explanations about his tax debts to the Administration, since there were up to a dozen public demands that were made of him in the last decade for non-payment of local taxes in municipalities such as Santander or Santa Cruz de Bezana. The head of the areas of Rural Development, Livestock, Fisheries and Food had also been suspended by the College of Veterinarians of Cantabria for a serious crime for “exercising professional practices contrary to the provisions of the legal or ethical regulations that govern the exercise.” veterinary professional, as announced exclusively by elDiario.es.
More recently, Pablo Palencia was warned by the General Inspectorate of Services of the Government of Cantabria for not having submitted on time the declarations of his assets and activities, documents that any senior official is required to register at the time of taking possession. In the annual report of the Inspectorate, dated February 8, 2024, it was indicated that the director had also not transferred his income tax return (IRPF) from the previous year (2022), as this newspaper was able to confirm and the director himself acknowledged. advisor.
His political management has also been surrounded by reproaches from professional associations in the sector that have questioned his work on issues such as the management of aid from the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) of the European Union or the health crisis of the haemorrhagic disease, an epizootic disease that attacks livestock and that killed thousands of animals last year, and has also generated unanimous criticism from the opposition, which has united in an extraordinary way in the Parliament of Cantabria to censor his work and endorse his disapproval, in agreement between the PSOE and the RPC. with Vox.
Internal crisis in the PP
In the case of the Ministry of Culture, Tourism and Sports of Cantabria, it has also been in the spotlight for a year, with criticism even within the PP. The department headed until this Wednesday by Eva Guillermina Fernández (PP) has specialized in traveling from controversy to controversy practically since the beginning of the legislature in July 2023. The most popular have been those related to tourism sustainability plans linked to European funds, mainly Santillana del Mar or Saja-Nansa, but the one that has traveled the most is the one that revolves around the regulation of holiday apartments.
The current head of this department has already announced that she will not put limits on these homes despite their massive proliferation that affects residential rentals. And, as he said, limiting the number of homes per owner or excluding legal entities to stop speculation “collides with the European Services Directive” that seeks to “favor the free market”, which is why he promoted a decree with practically no changes. and that has satisfied practically no one in the sector.
Other issues on which criticism has rained down against the Ministry of Tourism concern projects that conflict with the tourism model that different social groups are demanding for Cantabria. Hence the two large mobilizations that have taken place in recent months: one in Loredo and Langre against a macro-tourism complex that aims to transform this area into the “Ibiza of the North” and another in Puente San Miguel during the Day of Institutions against “mass tourism”.
In this sense, initiatives such as the alpine slide in Cabárceno Park, half a kilometer long and with more than half a million euros of investment – which the government later reduced to “an idea awaiting study like many others” -, or the Pas Cable Car, with an investment of 30 million and private management, ignite the flame of tensions between the social and political groups that participate in the aforementioned mobilizations, and which point directly to the regional government’s tourism management model.
