Juan Antonio Fránquiz: Antigua City Council has excluded us since November 2024
The open conflict between the Antigua City Council and the Cabildo of Fuerteventura over the signage related to taxi service during FEAGA and its management now gains a new critical voice. Juan Antonio Fránquiz, president of the Antigua Taxi Association, has stepped forward to challenge the municipal statements and denounce that the exclusion the Council attributes to the Cabildo is, according to him, being suffered by the association itself for months.
“As president of the Antigua Taxi Association, I do not understand the Council’s stance of complaining about exclusion by the Cabildo, when it is precisely the Council itself that, since November 2024—the date I assumed the presidency of an association with more than 30 years of history—has repeatedly excluded us,” he told La Voz de Fuerteventura.
The criticism follows a public denunciation by the Antigua City Council of the Cabildo’s actions regarding signage and the organization of taxi service during FEAGA, held last weekend at the Pozo Negro Experimental Farm. In a public statement, the Council lamented that the island institution had acted, in its view, without prior coordination with the municipality, affecting professionals in the sector. From the Taxi Association’s perspective, the focus now shifts to municipal management and the relationship the local government maintains with an entity that represents a historic part of the sector.
The association’s president directly accuses the governing group led by Mayor Matías Peña of leaving the association out of recent dialogue spaces.
“Under Mayor Matías Peña’s direction, we have not been summoned nor invited to any of the meetings or working tables related to the taxi sector, despite several having been held during this time,” he says.
He adds that the situation is especially striking because the Council has held meetings with other interlocutors who do not formally represent the sector.
“This situation is difficult to justify, especially when meetings have been held with people who are neither taxi‑license holders nor members of the association that the mayor himself publicly mentions,” Fránquiz notes.
The collective’s discontent is not limited to the organization of FEAGA. The association reminds that the sector has long been demanding an update of the urban fare, a legitimate claim that, according to Fránquiz, remains unanswered by the Council despite even a strike being called.
Taxi strike in Antigua
The stance aligns with that of the Cabildo’s Transport Councillor Luis González, who told Radio Insular’s La Voz de Fuerteventura program that Antigua is one of the few municipalities in the Canary Islands that, in thirteen years, has not updated tariffs despite rising expenses, especially fuel costs.
The association also argues that, regarding FEAGA, there was a clear lack of planning by the City Council. According to the president of the oldest taxi association,
“It was the Council’s responsibility to have sent in advance a schedule of incidents or shifts to guarantee that on‑call drivers were present at the stop during the event days.”
However, the service request arrived only after the fair had begun.
“This association received a service request on Friday, 17 April at 13:10, when the fair had already started on Thursday, 16 April,” he explains.
By highlighting this timeline, the collective points to the City Council and questions the municipal narrative about what transpired.
“Given these facts, one must ask: Who is really responsible for the lack of management at this event?” concludes Fránquiz.