The general secretary of the PSOE Canarias, Ángel Víctor Torres, encouraged citizens today to go to the polls in the upcoming general and regional elections, on April 28 to give continuity to the important management that Pedro Sánchez has carried out in these nine months and on May 26 to turn around the painful legacy left by three decades of Government of the Canarian Coalition.
"Let's fill the ballot boxes with ballots that produce change in the Canary Islands. We have to do it for our sons and daughters," he said at the presentation of candidacies in Lanzarote at an event in which the candidates for the Cabildo and Parliament for the island, Dolores Corujo, for the Arrecife City Council, Eva de Anta, for Congress, the Senate and all the municipalities participated.
In his speech, he lamented that the CC Government boasts of a high surplus that in practice is nothing more than "inability to spend the money." He recalled that the Canary Islands ended 2018 with a surplus of 947 million, the highest of all the autonomous communities, according to data from the Ministry of Finance.
"The reality is that the Canary Islands is the worst autonomous community in the country in budget management. Let them not cheat with the word surplus because here it means not spending, so I wonder how CC can look at the dependents, those who are waiting for an operation, so many people who are going through difficulties, because that data is an absolute censure of Clavijo and his Government," he said.
"PSOE Team"
Ángel Víctor Torres warned of the danger of the "threat" represented by those who aspire to replace Pedro Sánchez in Moncloa, "because what they really want is to recover the dark years of the dictatorship with masks of supposed democrats to impose those theses."
After reviewing the many achievements in Spain at the hands of the PSOE Governments in their fight for rights, he valued the "decency" demonstrated by Sánchez in these nine months and indicated that the most recent example of his great management is in today's agreements of the Council of Ministers, including the approval of a public employment offer for 2019 of 33,793 posts in total, the largest in the last 11 years, or the eight million for irrigation water in the Canary Islands.
"All this has a point and followed on April 28. Let's make those who have more pay more and those who need more have more hope. Let's continue fighting in the administrations to deliver a much fairer country," he said. As in the Canary Islands, he continued, "we cannot miss this opportunity" and remarked that those who in the islands have been seen as essential "now see that they cease to be so."
He criticized the "arrogance, arrogance and disregard" of the "power maintained for a long time", in allusion to CC, and pointed out that a good example of this can be found in the Cabildo of Lanzarote. "Faced with this, we have the team of Loli Corujo, magnificent women and men who will make the Presidency of the Cabildo of the PSOE."
Next, Dolores Corujo took the floor and stated that Lanzarote and the Canary Islands deserve an urgent change after so many years of nationalist right. "Enough is enough," she said, and encouraged a "mobilization without precedent." She recalled that the PSOE has been censored in Lanzarote for denouncing corruption, "but we continue to represent courage, because we are a free party and we are not pressured by economic powers on this island."
Corujo said that when a socialist governs, "he governs for everyone and without any fear", so he insisted on defending the implementation of necessary services on the island and that really respond to the demands of citizens, especially the most vulnerable. "We have a wonderful opportunity. They are not going to make it easy for us, but we are not afraid."
"Socialist Pride"
The event was led by the mayoress of Arrecife and candidate for the City Council, Eva de Anta, who valued the importance of facing the two electoral appointments from the unity of the party and appealed to the confidence of the citizens to consolidate a change that came to Spain at the hands of Pedro Sánchez. "We will have a socialist majority in the Canary Islands and in Lanzarote," she assured.
The candidates for Congress Elena Máñez and Ariagona González also spoke at the event. Máñez highlighted the "socialist pride and feminist pride" with which the PSOE candidacies are running in the elections against a "right that wants to take us back to a Spain that we thought was overcome." She explained that now, "we have seen ourselves recovering rights that we should never have lost" and warned that socialists will not allow "a single step back." As for CC, she argued that after the appointment with the polls "we will say point and end, because in the Canary Islands they have put us at the tail in everything." She remarked that if Pedro Sánchez "opened the door to hope for us, Ángel Víctor Torres will return hope and dignity to the Canary Islands."
Ariagona González stressed the need for an authentic mobilization to take place on April 28 in favor of "an honest, egalitarian Spain, with common sense, a Spain that aspires to conquer the future and not travel to the past, a Spain in which we all fit". She defended continuing the feminist struggle as "the present and future of a country that must be more egalitarian and fairer to women."
For his part, the candidate for the Senate, Manuel Fajardo Palarea, said that in the next elections, what it is about is to "say yes to a great pact for education to reach 5% of GDP, to the gratuity of schools from zero to three years, to a great pact for culture, to access to public services, to decent employment with capital letters, to a new statute for the intern, to eliminate the wage gap, to a strategic plan for the rural world, to universal access to social services, to a pact for equality and against machismo and to a sustainable development without nuances."