The President of the Canary Islands, Ángel Víctor Torres, pointed out today, New Year's Eve, that 2020 has been a year in which we have faced "our capacity to resist" and also to "rebuild ourselves in the most unexpected events".
In his institutional New Year's Eve speech, broadcast tonight by TVC, the first words of the President of the Canary Islands were to thank the citizens that the pandemic produced by COVID-19 "did not stop our hopes". He also had words of recognition for the health personnel and the professional and social groups that are still "on the front line, ensuring that the ship, which seemed to sink irretrievably, manages to sail again the waters of this Archipelago of the future that we want to build together".
Ángel Víctor Torres also referred to other victims, those who have lost their jobs due to the crisis derived from this global pandemic, especially in the tourism and commercial sector. In addition, he recalled, for example, the multiple challenges that have been happening throughout these months and the relentless effort to make it clear that in this situation "we need more than ever the solidarity and help of the rest of Spain and Europe".
In this same line, Torres said that "we appeal to our condition as an outermost region to compensate for the distance and the greater social and economic impact of this crisis, and so that the Canary Islands can recover like other continental territories: on equal terms".
The President of the Canary Islands recalled in his New Year's Eve message the thousands of migrants who have arrived on our coasts, but also those who were left behind, in the waters of the ocean. He appealed for a response to this phenomenon that, as difficult as it may be in a small territory like ours, cannot fail to be supportive and tolerant.
Torres expressed his conviction that the circumstances we have experienced this year "will make us stronger and more resilient", and alluded to the fact that the road has not ended: "This terrible 2020 has introduced us to a hard and invisible enemy that, unfortunately, has claimed too many lives". The president also stressed that "we have one last stretch of the journey left, until the application of the vaccine is extended".
Ángel Víctor Torres asked that "we do not trust ourselves", that "we do not lower our guard" and that "we fight to ensure that the Canary Islands are an example of reconstruction and hope".
