President Fernando Clavijo appeals for "understanding, dialogue, and reason" to face the archipelago's challenges and move forward in building a "Canary Islands for Canarians." In his New Year's message, the head of the regional government assures that 2026 will be "key" for the future of the islands, expressing his confidence that "we will leave the noise behind and focus on what truly matters: improving people's lives."
Clavijo defines 2025 as a year "marked by political tension and the abandonment that the Canary Islands have suffered" from the State. "They have left us alone to face problems that are not just ours," he assures, after expressing his hope that the dynamic of confrontation will be buried in the coming year.
Regarding 2026, he warns that the "uncertainties" surrounding national and international politics cast a shadow over the progress of the Canary Islands, threats against which he calls for the "reasoned defense of our land and the protection of our rights." He recalls that "what has allowed us to grow for decades" is "reason over force" and "sanity over tension.""Because while in Madrid they remain entrenched in sterile confrontation, in the Canary Islands we opt for public service and useful politics. Because while others launch themselves into a suicidal fight, in the Canary Islands we work," stated the head of the autonomous government during a speech delivered from La Palma, which focused on defending the "Canarian way of doing things."In his opinion, this commitment to dialogue and understanding will be vital to ensure that the State fulfills its commitments to the Canary Islands and also to face "the bad news coming from Europe," referring to the future EU Financial Framework that proposes "a possible cut in the funds that support our primary sector."
The head of the Canary Executive acknowledges in his New Year's message that getting Brussels to rectify its budgetary proposal for the 2028-2034 period "will be a tough battle, one more in our long history of fighting to be treated justly," although he guarantees that "we will fight it with the strength that comes from knowing that reason is on our side." Faced with this "new threat," Fernando Clavijo assures, "all Canary society will unite" to prevent "a death blow to our agriculture, our livestock, and our landscape."
"However difficult that challenge may be, I am sure that we will achieve it and that this success will be for all the islands," the president indicated after recalling that despite all the obstacles, the archipelago has managed to move forward in 2025.
Advances in 2025
In this regard, the president proudly claims the work done by his government in 2025 for the construction of "Canary Islands for Canarians." "Being Canarian is not just being born here and having our roots here. Being Canarian is also deciding to stay. Deciding to be part of this land, to work in it, to respect it, to love it, to care for it," he adds to emphasize that the archipelago "is not built by excluding."
Fernando Clavijo has taken advantage of his New Year's message to highlight that, despite the noise of national politics and global geopolitical tension, "not everything has been negative" in 2025. In his opinion, it has also been a year of "important progress" in the Canary Islands.
Highlights the legislative changes to accelerate the construction of both public and private housing, the reduction of healthcare waiting lists "thanks to realistic planning and hiring more staff," and the beginning of reversing the "neglect" in dependency care.On the economic front, the head of the Canary Islands government recalls that the islands have closed the year with record employment figures and economic growth above the national average. "And that is thanks to the Canary Islands' productive sector, our self-employed workers, our SMEs, our agricultural cooperatives, our tourism professionals, and those in technology and industry," Clavijo emphasizes.
The president of the Canary Islands attributes the progress made in 2025 to the drive of "all of Canarian society," "to those who work the land, to those who staff a counter, to those who teach, heal, research, clean, transport, repair, or undertake," he indicates in his New Year's message to thank those who "sustain the Canary Islands." "Canary Islands belong to you, and this government works for you," he emphasized.
As an example of this capacity for overcoming adversity, Clavijo delivered his message from a Palmeran farm built on lava, a place that "is a symbol of resistance." In his opinion, the reconstruction effort in La Palma "is history, it is the present, and, above all, it is the future. A future that is built every day with the same tenacity with which our grandparents built terraces and cared for their crops."
State Abandonment
In his speech, the president defines 2025 as a year "marked by political tension and the neglect that the Canary Islands have suffered" from the State, because "Madrid still does not clearly see the islands on the horizon." "They have left us alone to face problems that are not just ours," he denounced after indicating that "another year goes by, many fundamental works and infrastructures continue to await state funding that does not arrive," while "more and more Canary Islanders are the ones facing this apathy, with our income and our fiscal sacrifice."
The head of the regional government also criticizes that the State continues to provide no response to the migratory pressure on the archipelago as Europe's southern border. "One more year migration has been the protagonist with thousands of exhausted and desperate people who arrived on our coasts and whom we have attended with respect and humanity," he emphasizes in defense of the example of solidarity that the islands provide.
Regarding the international situation, Fernando Clavijo believes that Europe is undergoing a process of change that "can affect the pillars of democracy and shake the values that have allowed for the greatest period of stability and prosperity in our history." "We are witnessing, live, the demolition of everything we took for granted; advances and freedoms that previous generations fought for. In the 21st century, we are living with wars on European soil, with genocides, with the imposition of protectionist policies that threaten Canarian products, and with the return of authoritarian attitudes we thought were overcome," he stated in his speech.
The president of the Canary Islands has closed his New Year's message by appealing for understanding to overcome the challenges posed by 2026. "I sincerely hope that this new year brings us serenity, dialogue, and agreements. That we leave the noise behind and focus on what truly matters: improving people's lives."
