The Councilor for Territorial Policy, Territorial Cohesion and Water of the Government of the Canary Islands, Manuel Miranda, described this Tuesday the demographic challenge as "the biggest challenge" that the Canarian society has faced since the approval of the Statute of Autonomy, and has defended the need to link the status of resident "to roots and sustainability."
This was stated during his intervention in a forum in which the social, territorial and economic implications of the growth and distribution of the population in the archipelago were discussed.
Miranda stressed that "the demographic challenge is no longer a future threat, but a present reality that conditions our public policies and limits the quality of life in many municipalities." Therefore, he insisted that the Government of the Canary Islands has decided to address it "not as a statistical phenomenon, but as a matter of territorial justice, social equity and sustainability."
During his speech, the councilor openly defended "the need to go one step further," to open the debate on "access to resident status," and to "assess legal formulas to limit, in certain cases, the acquisition of homes by non-residents."
"It is not about building walls, but about protecting rights," said Miranda. "We cannot allow the housing market to be governed solely by speculative logic or by the pressure of external demand that multiplies prices and expels our people from their land."
The head of Territorial Policy defended the need to provide the Canary Islands with a legal framework adapted to its condition as an outermost, insular and fragile region, demanding differentiated treatment from the State and the European Union. In this sense, he advocated promoting regulatory changes within the framework of Article 349 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the EU, which recognizes the singularities of the outermost regions.
The councilor's speech also served to review the progress of the Canary Islands Strategy for Demographic Challenge and Territorial Cohesion, which already has an Executive Action Plan with 43 measures and 428 specific actions, and which has mobilized more than 763 million euros in the 2025 budgets.
Miranda highlighted some of the initiatives already implemented by his department, including:
- The creation of the Demographic Challenge Observatory, a digital tool that collects more than 100 key indicators on territory, population, housing and mobility.
- The launch of the Virtual Office of Administrative Support to Municipalities Demographic Challenge, which assists the 47 municipalities with less than 10,000 inhabitants in their urban planning and management procedures.
- A digital training line financed with Next Generation funds, which has allowed to train more than 6,600 people in rural municipalities.
- A program of aid to speed up the processing of building permits in the 26 municipalities with less than 5,000 inhabitants.
- A pilot study to analyze the impact of population growth on public services, key to planning new facilities and housing.
- And the ongoing update of the Land Law and Protected Natural Spaces, which will facilitate the development of affordable housing and sustainable planning.
The councilor announced that, before the end of the year, the Strategy and its Executive Action Plan will be formally approved by the Governing Council, which will allow them to be provided with a budget and full operability. He also confirmed that work is already underway on the drafting of a future Canary Islands Law on Demographic Challenge and Territorial Cohesion, which will provide a stable and binding legal framework to give continuity to the policies initiated, guarantee collaboration between institutions, and strengthen citizen participation and evaluation mechanisms.
The meeting, held at the Real Casino de Tenerife, was attended by public officials and experts such as Mari Brito, president of the FECAM; Alfonso Cabello, Deputy Minister of the Presidency; Eva Padrón, attached to the management of GESPLAN; and Manuel González de la Rosa, representative of the University of La Laguna in the participation tables of the Strategy. The councilor stressed that the true power of social transformation lies "not in confrontation, but in conversation."
"The Canary Islands has the right to demand bold measures to guarantee its territorial and social cohesion. The demographic challenge is not only a technical or administrative problem: it is, above all, a matter of justice and future," he concluded.