The second meeting between nationalists and socialists to explore the possibility of an agreement for the Government of the Canary Islands may have been the last. Coalición Canaria and Partido Socialista have not arranged any more meetings and the nationalists have said that they will take the decision on what to do regarding agreements to their National Political Council this Thursday, while the socialists insist that it is still possible to reach an agreement but maintain that the presidency for the winner of the elections, Juan Fernando López Aguilar, is "non-negotiable".
At the end of the meeting, the spokesperson for the socialist negotiators, Francisco Hernández Spínola, made it clear that the socialists want to reach an agreement to have a "solid" government for the Islands and while he said that there were no discussions about positions, the nationalists explained that they were met with the premise that for the PSOE the presidency of the Government for Juan Fernando López Aguilar is "non-negotiable".
"The agreement is difficult because we do not consider that López Aguilar can be in the presidency of the Government because of everything that has happened since he was elected candidate," said the spokesperson for the CC negotiators, José Miguel Barragán, who alluded to the candidate's criticisms during the campaign and certain insults for which the socialist has not apologized. "How are we, the thieves, going to make an agreement with the policeman who intended to put us in jail? many Canarians will ask themselves," said Barragán, alluding to the socialist candidate's 'insults'.
In the meeting, the nationalists proposed measures to be implemented in matters such as population control, which the PSC rejected. In the second meeting, CC and PSC addressed "programmatic issues" such as the Statute of Autonomy, population control, illegal immigration, the Canarian police, and border control.
STATUTE
Francisco Hernández Spínola, the spokesperson for the PSC-PSOE, pointed out that the PSOE has clarified to the nationalists that the position of the socialists both in Madrid and in the Islands is to "carry forward the Statute of the Canary Islands in this legislature with the greatest possible consensus".
That means, Spínola explained, that the PSOE will present the amendments together with CC and will try to get the PP to join in the Congress, but if in the end it does not happen, "the PSOE would support the text" together with Coalición Canaria. The socialists have also conveyed to them that the content of the statute approved in Parliament "will be respected in the Courts" and that the Canary Islands will have the highest level of powers and self-government.
José Miguel Barragán (CC) pointed out that the PSOE "still does not specify" several articles of the Statute, such as the one linked to powers, as well as the fact that the Organic Law on Transfers of the Canary Islands (LOTRACA) is not within the Statute but in a deferred manner. "We have told them that goodwill is not enough and that a level of specificity is needed on the statutory issue," Barragán told reporters.
Another issue they addressed was that of population: the need to control illegal immigration, in which the PSOE, Spínola pointed out, "has expressed its commitment to strengthen border control and fight against immigration." CC complained that the Canary Islands-State Commission on immigration "in which they have been working for a year and nothing has been specified" has not worked.
DISAGREEMENTS
CC proposed to the PSOE the application in the Islands of an instrument that has to do with the free movement and residence of community members. The socialists pointed out that this is something that "is very difficult to fit into the EU treaties" and that it might harm the Canary Islands to promote an instrument of that nature when "the approval of its permanent statute, which is included in the European constitution, is pending. We believe that from a political point of view it is inconvenient to propose the access of community members in the Canary Islands," Spínola clarified, who added that there was talk of modifying some state laws to control immigration.
Barragán indicated that what is proposed is that, since the Canary Islands is an Outermost Region (OR), measures related to the population that enters can be taken.
Security was another of the axes of the meeting in which they did not reach agreements. The PSOE highlighted the implementation a year ago of the Security Plan for the Canary Islands and promised to develop it and increase the endowments. It also advocated strengthening the security of the Canary Islands through a mechanism, which is the assignment of National Police units to the Autonomous Community as the first phase of a Canarian Police force".
CC did not accept that proposal, said Barragán, "because we propose a complementary Canarian Police force like the one in Galicia." In addition, he criticized the "virtual measures" of the Security Plan for the Canary Islands.
BORDER CONTROL
Regarding external security and border control, the two political forces agreed on the need to strengthen control, not only through Frontex but also with units of the Spanish Government.
Coalición Canaria stated that it did not agree at all with how external security was managed to the point that Frontex "will not be permanent." It therefore asked that the borders be controlled by the State and that an effort be made in that regard.
In short, in this meeting, according to the PSOE, there has been "a clear rapprochement of programmatic positions and therefore there are bases to be able to affirm that there are conditions for a political agreement between CC and PSOE to be carried out," said the socialist spokesperson.
Barragán agreed that it is a "difficult and complicated" negotiation but that the PSOE "is making an effort because we respect the majority of Canarians."
NON-NEGOTIABLE PRESIDENCY
"CC knows that the presidency of the government is non-negotiable because there is a great distance in the number of seats between the PSOE, which has 26, and Coalición Canaria, which has 19, and I believe that what the citizens of the Canary Islands have wanted is for there to be a government of change in the Canary Islands," he asserted.
José Miguel Barragán, for his part, stated that for Coalición Canaria the agreement with the PSOE "is difficult" and to overcome the "distrust" it has of the socialists "they have to offer an agenda of issues of interest to the Canarians."
He pointed out that the National Political Council of CC meets this Thursday in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria in the morning, and from there the decision to look for another formula, the agreement with the PP, to form a government could already come out. In the elections of May 27, the PSC obtained 26 deputies, CC took 19 and the PP 15.
ACN Press
