Ángel Víctor Torres: "We are leaving a better Canary Islands in employment, investment and social indicators"

In the final stretch of the most eventful legislature in decades, with crises common to the rest of Spain but which hit the islands harder than anyone else, such as the zero tourism of the pandemic, and also its own, such as the eruption of La Palma, Ángel Víctor Torres defends that his Government is going to leave "a better Canary Islands" than the one he received in May 2019, in employment, investment, social indicators and hopes also in healthcare.

"The numbers are objective", says Torres, without hiding that the Canary Islands still has serious problems with poverty and the distribution of wealth generated by its economy, which has led him to defend these days in Brussels that it is necessary for the idea that the desired sustainability cannot be only environmental, but also, and above all, social to sink in all areas of the European Union.

In an interview with EFE, the Canarian president reviews some of the key issues of the end of this legislature, at the end of three days in which he has met in the Community capital with the Commissioner for Cohesion and Reforms, Elisa Ferreira, and the President of the European Parliament, Roberta Metsola, and has taken the lead of the Conference of the Outermost Regions (ORs).

The battle of the green tax on aviation fuel, on track, but still open; the burden borne almost alone by the border regions with assistance to immigration; the implications of the "Masks case", the interpretations of the pact between the PSOE and the Canarian Coalition for the State budgets or the possible future of Carolina Darias as an aspiring mayor of Las Palmas de Gran Canarias are some of them.

What is your assessment of these three days of meetings against the Commission and the European Parliament?

The Canary Islands assumes the presidency of the Conference of Outermost Regions at a complicated time, but with good news: for example, that it will be proposed that in the multiannual framework of 2014-2020 (of the structural funds) everything not executed can be used to help families and companies that have difficulties to make ends meet due to inflation and the price of energy; also that we are moving forward with support to host the European Tourism Agency or that we must continue with the exemption from green taxes on maritime and air transport.

Have you been commissioned as the new coordinator of the ORs to be vigilant about the "Fit for 55" package, the new green taxation that they fear could backfire if it is not used well. Do you take for granted the exceptions for regions such as the Canary Islands?

We keep fighting for it. The parliaments of the nine regions, the parliaments of our respective states (France, Portugal and Spain) have spoken about it, and the European Parliament has also said so. We have achieved unique decisions for the ORs in the face of the will to impose taxes on air connectivity throughout Europe. I think it is a matter of justice. We are outermost regions because of the distance, not only because we are islands, but also because we are far away. You don't enter the Canary Islands by train, car or bus; you either arrive by plane or by boat, and we are much further away from islands that are close to the continent. Therefore, getting the exemptions is a matter of justice, but we will have to keep an eye on it.

The European Commission has been criticised here for its lack of support for migrant children, with an almost immediate response from Commissioner Elisa Ferreira, who has offered them the surplus structural funds from 2014-2020 also for these purposes. Are you satisfied with the measure or do you prefer a specific budget for the care of immigrants in regions that, like the Canary Islands, are a border?

It is something we have demanded both from the Government of Spain and from the European Union. In the State budgets that are in force we got 50 million euros for immigration in the Canary Islands and we have agreed to allocate them to unaccompanied minors. We are now also closing with the Government of Spain an amendment again for that amount, at least, to attend to the minors. It is essential that the European funds on migration, the AMIF (Asylum, Migration and Integration Fund), are oriented to the territories that host immigrants. And they have to be regionalised, because it is the border regions that respond to this situation. Therefore, I welcome the commitment and sensitivity of Elisa Ferreira, who has clarified to us that the European directive that was activated for Ukrainian refugees can also be applied to Africa, to immigrants fleeing from a conflict or a war conflict. The EU has to understand that there is also migration due to war conflicts 80 kilometers from the Canary Islands.

You have announced here that you will meet again in Brussels in the spring with the ORs to discuss social sustainability. Why? What is the message you want to send with that concept?

We want it to be understood that the crisis caused by the pandemic has affected the most vulnerable sectors the most. There are the data on severe poverty. And it has hit the most vulnerable territories, which are the outermost regions, those with lower per capita income and GDP. The March forum should therefore be dedicated to a basic pillar of the welfare state such as social rights. We will bring the numbers of the nine ORs so that it is understood that we have to converge, to equalize ourselves to the average of any European living in Brussels, Madrid or Paris.

That also means funds.

It means that those structural funds that Europe transfers to the ORs are maintained and increased. It has been achieved that with the United Kingdom outside the EU, with Brexit, the funds for the period 2021-2027 are practically the same as they were until now, but with one less contributor, none other than the United Kingdom. These funds have to be prioritized taking into account Article 349 of the European Treaty (which recognizes the special treatment for the ORs).

You have probably had to govern the most eventful legislature in the autonomous history of the Canary Islands. Do you think that, despite everything, you are leaving levels of social justice that are better than those you received in 2019?

These are objective data. Today there is less unemployment than in May 2019, today there are more people working in the Canary Islands than then, in fact more than ever. Today there are many more permanent contracts, less youth unemployment, there is more investment in the Canary Islands and more investment from Canarian companies abroad than there was four years ago. All these parameters have improved, but let's look at social rights: this year we have given 35% of dependency benefits, when the average is below 11% in all of Spain and in the Canary Islands it did not reach 8%. Today we double or triple the items agreed with the town councils for the third sector... These are objective numbers, today the Canarians have a Canary Islands that is better than in 2019, which does not mean that we do not continue working for those who still need it, for those who are in severe poverty, for those who have difficulties in finding a job.

This trip to Brussels has almost coincided with the decision of the European Prosecutor's Office to take over the investigation of the "Masks case" due to the suspicion that the money allegedly defrauded came from European funds. Were EU funds spent on those contracts?

We are facing an investigation into health equipment purchase files that the European Prosecutor's Office is carrying out not only in the Canary Islands, but also in other autonomous communities. What I can offer is collaboration with Justice. This is what the Government of the Canary Islands does: collaborate with Justice and let it do its job.

The director of the Canarian Health Service, Conrado Domínguez, resigned after a long conversation with you, as we have been told. Did you ever feel disappointed?

No. I think that is a closed chapter, I have already said, with respect to the management of the pandemic, that there is the work done. The director of the SCS is not in the Government. I think we have to move forward and make this legislature end with the best possible parameters and in that we have done an important job of increasing beds, reducing delays, cutting waiting lists, providing ourselves with new infrastructures, hiring 7,000 health workers... Also in healthcare we want to deliver a better situation than the one we collected in May 2019.

Why have the government parties, and in particular yours, the PSOE, opposed a commission of inquiry?

It is absurd that when there is an investigation by the Justice system, it is intended to carry out a parallel act in the Parliament of the Canary Islands. What better commission of inquiry than a procedure that is in the hands of the Justice system? Let's collaborate with the Justice system and not make political use of it. That should make the parties that ask for the commission reflect, because no member of the Governing Council is under investigation, when there are representatives of those parties who are. I think there needs to be a little coherence.

Does the first agreement of this legislature of the PSOE with the Canarian Coalition on the State budgets open other scenarios?

We were already saying that a good State budget could still be improved with the amendments, so I am glad that there is a new party that joins the favorable vote, because they are good budgets. Anything that is good for the Canary Islands will have the support of the President of the Government of the Canary Islands, without any doubt. My message is resounding and clear: with a socialist Government in Madrid, negotiating firmly, more improvements are achieved for the Canary Islands than by shouting and creating a fuss. More is achieved than with the PP Governments. And I think that is what CC has just verified.

What would you say to those who translate that agreement into hypothetical agreements after the 2023 elections?

That there is a Government in the Canary Islands that started the legislature and is going to finish it. That one of the strengths of these four years has been political stability. That there were those who thought that the Pact of the Flowers did not lead to autumn... and it has overcome four budgets. And that we will be the second government in the history of the Canary Islands to finish the legislature with the same partners that started it.

Would the Secretary General of the PSOE of the Canary Islands like to see Minister Carolina Darias as mayor of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria?

As mayor I would like to see her... or any colleague who runs in the PSOE primaries, because it is a fundamental place. My obsession as Secretary General is that in any of the 88 town councils of the Canary Islands there can be a socialist as mayor. The decision will be made by her and we will know in days, because the period for submitting candidacies to the primaries will soon open. I do hope that the good work that has been done in the City Council of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, also with stability, with a baggage of eight years, can be completed with another mayoralty defended by the PSOE.