The deputy for the province of Las Palmas and general secretary of the PSOE of Lanzarote, María Dolores Corujo, intervened this Monday in the Tourism Commission of the Congress of Deputies to focus on something that, as she stressed, "some deliberately hide" when talking about the housing crisis in the Canary Islands: the competence is regional and so it is stated in the Canary Islands Statute of Autonomy, which attributes exclusive competence in housing matters to the Autonomous Community.
"If we ask anyone who has the powers in healthcare or education, everyone answers the same: the autonomous communities. The same thing happens with housing. The difference is that in housing there are those who prefer to sow confusion rather than assume their responsibility," Corujo pointed out.The deputy was especially critical of Coalición Canaria, Partido Popular, and Vox, **to whom she accused of practicing "self-government à la carte":** "When it's time to boast about Canarian identity, they wrap themselves in the Statute. When it's time to govern, they look to Madrid and ask them to solve what is their responsibility. Do they want to renounce self-government? Do they not want to govern their territories? Or is it that they only believe in co-governance when someone else has to do the hard work?"
“They have no model: they block the Housing Law and the stressed areas”
Corujo recalled that the Government of Spain has approved a State Housing Law that is already being applied in other communities, while in the Canary Islands CC and PP refuse to use the available tools. "They do not want to apply the Housing Law as it is being applied in Catalonia or the Basque Country. And, furthermore, they prevent city councils from declaring tense areas, despite the fact that everyone knows the drama that rents represent today in the islands," he denounced.
The deputy summarized the "contradiction" of the right and far-right in a forceful way: "In the Canary Islands, they hold the key, but they come to Madrid to protest because the door is closed. It's impossible to take seriously someone who demands solutions while blocking the very measures that could start to change things."
Lots of talk and almost no money of our own
Corujo also lashed out at the Canary Islands government's "lack of budgetary commitment" to public housing: "For a discourse to be minimally serious, there is a very basic condition: that it be accompanied by a budget. And, in public housing, what the Canary Islands government contributes is almost nothing. Practically all the effort in public housing in the Canary Islands is financed by transfers from the Spanish government. But then they come here to demand as if they had no responsibility or a single instrument in their hands."In this regard, he reproached CC, PP, and Vox for using the housing crisis "as political ammunition against the Government of Spain" while evading responsibility to their own constituents: "What they are doing is opposing the Government of Spain from the Government of the Canary Islands. And that has a price: every time they try to blame Madrid for something that is a regional responsibility, they are de facto admitting that they have no model of their own or that they do not dare to implement it."Corujo concluded by insisting on the central message of his speech: "It is worth repeating as many times as necessary: housing competence is regional. Whoever governs the Canary Islands today has the responsibility, the tools, and the obligation to act. What they cannot do is hide their inaction behind a microphone in Madrid."