Tenerife’s new president, Carlos Alonso

[Janet]

Today is the final day for President Ricardo Melchior's mandate at the head of the Tenerife Cabildo. Sr Melchior is standing down tomorrow after 14 years as president in favour of his hand-picked successor. Sr Melchior's time in office has been productive for Tenerife, not least in terms of his avuncular image and multilingualism – he speaks English and German fluently. Recently he has hit the headlines for his support of the Tenerife train project, and his call for fellow CC member Paulino Rivero similarly to step aside as President of the Canarian Government.

His successor, Carlos Alonso, is a younger switched-on family man, whose main interest is communication technology. In this, he's seen as "next generation" to Ricardo Melchior, whose main focus for much of his presidency was renewable energy. Both men are generous with the press, and regularly make themselves available for questions or interviews. Unlike Melchior, however, Alonso is unlikely to be at the helm in Tenerife for over a decade: he is on record as saying he won't end his career in the Canaries, and that he'll be moving on, perhaps to the mainland or even the EU in a few years. Good luck to both men, one for an enjoyable retirement, and the other for a further successful step in what seems likely to be something of a stellar career over the next thirty years. JA

[El Profesor]

I'm sorry, but I will remember him as the man who travelled down to Arona at 11 pm on a windy Monday night last October to walk around the village hand in hand with the mayor who had been banned from office by the state legal system four months previously.

This was a "show of support" for a mayor who had been banned for corruption and has subsequently been charged by the public prosecuter with perversion of justice for ignoring the legal system and just carrying on regardless. Melchior publically supported this gross pisstake.

The illegal mayor now faces 3 years just for that, without the other cases of corruption. 14 other slimey gits have been charged with him . . . . but this one just slips away and gets accolades for "his avuncular image".
I suppose that is a successful politician and a master of media manipulation.

Good luck for an enjoyable retirement . . . give me a break.

[Janet]

agreed! 

[Guanche]

I would suspect that the younger man has his eyes fixed on richer pickings in Brussels. Its where the big money is. This free apointment will serve as a good stepping stone.

[El Profesor]

Today is the final day for President Ricardo Melchior's mandate at the head of the Tenerife Cabildo. Sr Melchior is standing down tomorrow after 14 years as president in favour of his hand-picked successor.

Spanish politics - no democracy.

[Janet]

If anyone would like to watch the handover from the departing president of Tenerife, Ricardo Melchior, to his successor, new president Carlos Alonso, it is being transmitted live by the Cabildo on the following link from 5pm.

[Perikles]

Thanks, but just too exciting.