The president of the Government of the Canary Islands, Fernando Clavijo, pointed out this Saturday that "the internal debate of the parties should not be confused with the government programs" and indicated that his did not include the tourist tax, but "yes review the taxation to redistribute wealth".
Fernando Clavijo, who as general secretary of the Canarian Coalition (CC) attends this weekend the VI Island Congress of the formation in Tenerife, has declared to the media that "obviously" in the Canary Islands there is a problem of distribution of wealth, which he assures "has worsened" after the pandemic and the four years "of the flower pact".
Clavijo, whose party remained in power in the islands for the last 30 years, with the exception of the four years of the flower pact, has assured that he has detected that "the rich are richer and the poor are poorer", adding that wealth is redistributed through wages.
The Canarian president has indicated that the political organization that "began to insist on the need for higher wages and more decent and stable jobs" was the Canarian Coalition and that he himself said at Fitur, in January 2024, that "either salaries or taxes were raised, before the demonstrations against the tourism model".
It was also before "some who did promise it (the tourist tax) and took it in their electoral programs did not keep their word," Clavijo stressed.
Thus, he assured that the Canarian Government has been in this work and "not in vain" the hotel agreement of La Palmas has already been closed and the one of Santa Cruz de Tenerife continues to be negotiated after a pre-agreement of a 6% salary increase that the unions considered insufficient, and therefore the negotiation continues, he added.
He also pointed out that "it is evident that there are certain natural spaces that for their preservation" and sustainability require a taxation that leaves wealth to be able to maintain them. Meanwhile, he has confused the fact that in Lanzarote you pay to access the Art, Culture and Tourism Centers with the payment of a tourist tax or ecotax and has assured that on the island "it has been applied for years".
Regarding the tourist tax "we are talking about something else and we as a party debate things, which may seem strange to some but in CC people have freedom to speak and express their opinion and, once we agree and close the texts, we defend them and transfer them to the electoral programs," he said.
Clavijo also indicated that in November CC plans to open "a deep reflection" on the Economic and Fiscal Regime because it is evident that, although it has served, in the pandemic it was also evident that "there are mechanisms that did not work as they should have worked".
Regarding the tourist tax, the Secretary of Organization of CC in Tenerife and president of the Island Council, Rosa Dávila, has indicated that it will be debated in a presentation on the challenges of the island and one of them is the tourism model.
The tourist tax is implemented in practically all of Europe and what CC of Tenerife proposes is a reflection to lay the foundations for a regenerative, conscious tourism "that values our land and our people", Dávila added.
