Junts per Catalunya has the key, but Coalición Canaria has the latchkey. The only seat of the Canarian nationalists in the Congress of Deputies can decant important votes, starting with the election of the Table, next Thursday.
With the support of the Canary Islands Coalition, the conservative bloc formed by the Popular Party, Vox and Unión del Pueblo Navarro could add 172 deputies, forcing the progressive bloc to seek the affirmative vote of Junts.
In this scenario, the abstention of the formation led politically and spiritually by Carles Puigdemont would not be enough. We could say that the canary seat will have the capacity to regulate the voltage of Junts.
If the Canarian nationalists come closer to the Socialist Party, the bloc articulated around the PSOE – without Junts – would reach 172 seats, one more than the 171 deputies of the conservative bloc.
The person in charge of moving the latchkey will be the deputy Cristina Valido, who makes her debut in Congress to replace Ana Oramas, a politician with many tables who was the voice of the Canarian nationalists in the Spanish Parliament for five legislatures. Oramas knew everything about the big movements in Madrid DF. In her dialectical twists in the stands you could always capture the direction of the wind.
The deputy Valido, born in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria and resident in Tenerife, comes from the local sphere, like a good part of the Canarian politicians. She began as a Youth Councilor for the La Orotava City Council, was a social policy adviser for the Cabildo de Tenerife and an Employment adviser for the Government of the Canary Islands between 2017 and 2019. Valido will handle the latchkey, but the decisions will be made by the direction of the Canary Coalition , headed by Fernando Clavijo Batlle, president of the Government of the Canary Islands for a few weeks, with the support of the Popular Party, the Independent Group of Herreña and the Socialist Group of La Gomera, a split from the PSOE, headed by former senator Casimiro Curbelo, who dominates that island and has three deputies in the Canarian Parliament. Curbelo is a character to follow.
Canary Coalition has returned after a brief eclipse. The PSOE won the regional elections on May 28, but the left did not achieve a majority, as a result of the collapse of Unidas Podemos, which had to compete with a new left-wing Canarian candidacy (the Drago platform) that had the sympathies of Yolanda Diaz. That platform today is part of Sumar.
Canary Coalition was second on 28-M, but obtained the necessary support. Canarian politics is convoluted, but the Canarian Coalition, born in 1993, as an aggregation of centrist autonomism, independent platforms and the splinter nationalist branch of the Canarian PC, once again has the key. And this time it's a gold-plated latchkey.
