The Antigua antenna that mobilized two ministries
The central government intervenes to change the location of a telephone antenna that sparked protests in the municipality of Antigua. The installation will be relocated, announced by two ministries and the Antigua City Council after several months of struggle. The administrations of Fuerteventura and the Canary Islands supported the legitimate demands of the population regarding the nuisance the installation could cause, but never questioned a series of health risks that are not backed by scientific evidence.
This morning a long‑standing dispute in Fuerteventura was finally resolved. In mid‑July, a group of Antigua residents went on the offensive after discovering a large trench on the Camino de las Piletas, where a 30‑metre‑tall antenna was planned to be erected without prior notice.
Local media such as La Voz de Fuerteventura revealed that the Antigua City Council had known about the project five months earlier—facts that the affected neighbours labeled “obscurantism.”
From that point on, several neighborhood protests erupted, accompanied by interventions from the Antigua City Council, the Fuerteventura Cabildo, and the Canary Islands Government, all trying to relocate the antenna. Accusations were exchanged among municipal, island, and regional authorities as each tried to “take the cat to water” and solve the problem.
No Scientific Evidence of Health Damage
While the antenna’s proximity to a residential area understandably caused discomfort among Antigua’s inhabitants, the protests also voiced fears about possible health risks from such installations. Public officials from the various administrations never confronted these claims, even though there is currently no scientific evidence linking telecommunications facilities—specifically mobile‑phone towers—to health ailments. If any risks exist, they have not yet been discovered by science.
An Antenna in Antigua That Reached the Ministry
The conflict was finally settled on Wednesday, 10 September, when the Spanish Government and the Antigua City Council announced that the installing company would seek an alternative site. The victory belongs to the neighbours and to the public institutions that backed the protests.
Nevertheless, this battle over a remote installation starkly contrasts with the pressing needs of the island of Fuerteventura that fall under State competence—needs that have received far less attention than a single antenna on the Camino de las Piletas. One can imagine a different outcome if island institutions were equally committed to addressing shortages in police staffing, fiscal and social‑security personnel, the state port, pending hydraulic or road projects, housing, and the resources required to manage the migration crisis.
Two Ministers Intervene to Move the Antenna
The Minister for Digital Transformation and Public Administration, Óscar López, and the Minister for Territorial Policy and Democratic Memory, Ángel Víctor Torres, mediated on Wednesday in a meeting in Madrid with Antigua’s mayor, Matías Peña, and TOTEM’s CEO, Patrick Farges. The meeting resulted in halting the original tower site and launching a process to find alternatives that would not disturb residents, emphasizing that any new location must preserve service quality without harming neighbourhood well‑being.
“We will always strive to find the solutions needed so that citizens and businesses can access the benefits of the digital society, wherever they live,” said Óscar López, in a government statement that avoided directly addressing the protests and instead highlighted connectivity improvements on the island.
Mayor Matías Peña welcomed the agreement, calling it “the most satisfactory outcome for the municipality.” He thanked the “immediate response” of the Spanish Government’s ministers to his request for mediation.
The TOTEM company accepted the relocation, which will restore mobile coverage lost by more than 14,800 Antigua residents in recent weeks after the original site became inoperable, the Spanish Government reported.