The panel in charge of studying the modification of the Statute of Autonomy of the Canary Islands concluded its work today, Friday, after the parliamentary group of the Canarian Coalition (CC) reached an agreement with the Socialist (PSC-PSOE) on the only issue that prevented the proposed statutory text from moving forward: the electoral system. Socialists and nationalists moved closer to agreeing to reduce electoral barriers by up to fifty percent from the 2007 elections - reducing the island barrier to 15 percent of the votes and the regional barrier to 3 percent. They also approved that "an electoral law should establish the constituencies that will exist in the Canary Islands: island, regional or both."
Article 17 of the Statute agreed today by CC and PSOE establishes that a Law of the Canarian Parliament, approved by a majority of three-fifths on the initiative of its members, will regulate the electoral system according to a series of bases: the electoral system will be of proportional representation; the number of deputies will not be less than 60 or greater than 76; and the electoral districts will be regional, island or both.
It also indicates that the minimum percentage of votes that electoral lists must obtain to access the distribution of seats will be established, 3% for the regional and 15% for the island. In addition, it adds that no island constituency may be assigned a number of deputies lower than another that has less population by right.
Once the work of the panel is finished, the Board and the Board of Spokespersons of the regional Chamber will meet next week to decide the day - predictably July 25 - that the Government, Justice and Autonomous Development Commission will be held, which will prepare a report that will be debated in the second half of September in a plenary session of the Canarian Parliament.
Both the spokesperson for the parliamentary group of the Canarian Coalition (CC), José Miguel González, and the spokesperson for the socialist group, Francisco Hernández Spínola, expressed their satisfaction with this agreement. Specifically, José Miguel González declared at the end of the meeting that it will be a "good statute" since the Canary Islands of the years to come "has an important instrument to improve the services of citizens and meet the needs of the community."
The CC spokesperson explained that the agreement has been reached thanks to "the rapprochement between the PSOE and CC" who have decided that an electoral law can establish the constituencies "as is mandated."
VERY IMPORTANT DAY
For his part, Francisco Hernández Spínola described it as a "very important day" for the Canary Islands because "Canarians are going to have a new statute that is ambitious and includes a very large expansion of powers." For the Socialist spokesperson, the autonomous community "will take a spectacular qualitative leap with respect to the 1982 statute, as self-government will be affirmed." He recalled that what has prevented the statute from coming out before has been the electoral system.
"The PSOE has been maintaining a difficult and very distant position, but today I am extremely pleased to express that by agreement not only of CC, the mixed group and the PSOE, the PP has also joined the reduction of electoral barriers that will mean the possibility of other political forces accessing the parliament and that there is greater democracy from the 2007 elections."
Spínola considered that the most important thing now is to accelerate the process of reform of the Statute so that in September a plenary session is held in the regional Chamber in which the approval of the statutory text and the Organic Law of Complementary Transfers (LOTRACA) that will accompany it are discussed, so that "by the end of 2006 and the beginning of 2007 the Islands have a good statute that is in force in the elections."
Regarding the regional constituency, he indicated that the PSOE's position has always been that this constituency has the same level as the island constituency, something that has been achieved. However, he stated that the PSOE would have "liked" a more exhaustive development of the system, but the agreement "is sufficient because the regional legislator has ample room to set and approve that electoral law by a quorum that is no longer two-thirds but three-fifths, with a majority of 36 deputies "who will be able to approve an electoral law for the Canary Islands in the next legislature," he said.
SURPRISE AND DISAPPOINTMENT OF THE PP
The satisfaction of socialists and nationalists contrasted with the statements of the spokesperson for the Popular Parliamentary Group (PP), Jorge Rodríguez, who expressed his "surprise and disappointment" because CC and PSOE "have come so close to the point of demonstrating that they have a parliamentary alliance to support the Government; and in this aspect it has not been difficult for them to reach an agreement," he said.
Rodríguez criticized that the PSOE has gone from a "very large demand" when the panel began its work, even abandoning it if the electoral issue was not discussed, "it has now remained that a law of Parliament is the one that modifies the electoral system and decides whether the constituencies should be regional, island or both.
Rodríguez assured that the PP has been "loyal" in maintaining the pact around the electoral system, but instead the PSOE is the one that has backed down in this regard and "therefore the one that has taken the cat to the water is CC."
The popular spokesperson reproached that the socialists and nationalists have been entered "the rush" and that they are even willing to hold a board and a board of spokespersons next week to set the date of debate in the Autonomous Development committee before the end of July and "ventilate this matter in a single session", something that for Jorge Rodríguez is "disappointing".
However, he reiterated that the PP will do "everything possible" to achieve consensus in that statute and "will demonstrate which articles are labeled as unconstitutional and why the statute does not grant the councils the level of importance that we have claimed until now." Finally, he stated that he has the impression that "far from that attempt at consensus, the only thing that interests the PSOE and CC is simply to pay homage to the President of the Government, José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, and offer him one more statute within this dismemberment of Spain that we are witnessing."
For her part, the deputy of the mixed group, María Isabel Déniz, expressed her "great satisfaction" that the text has been closed by "broad consensus" and that the future statute has a "high ceiling of powers where the self-government that is formed in the Canary Islands has greater powers."
ACN Press
