This Monday, the Lanzarote parliamentarians of the Canarian Nationalist Group have publicly announced the content of the amendments that, if approved, will add 16.7 million euros to the projects worth 116 million euros included in the draft General Budget Law of the Autonomous Community for the year 2024 for the islands of Lanzarote and La Graciosa.
At the press conference, which was attended by the island secretary of CC Lanzarote, Migdalia Machín, the mayors of CC (Olivia Duque and Jesús Machín), the different spokespersons in the town councils of the island and various public and organic positions of the party, the president of the Nationalist Group, David Toledo, and the deputies Oswaldo Betancort and Cristina Calero, explained the details of the work carried out.
“To understand a budget, you have to know where we come from. The money that the Pacto de Las Flores led by the PSOE has stopped investing in the years 2020 (13,087,165 euros), 2021 (34,254,925 euros), 2022 (44,154,289 euros) and 2023 (56,783,972 euros) has been increasing year after year until reaching 148,280,351 euros in Lanzarote and La Graciosa, allowing that money to be returned and affecting other islands”, said David Toledo.
He also explained that this is the main reason why “both the PSOE with Dolores Corujo at the head, and the mayor of Yaiza, Óscar Noda, have tried to use all kinds of lies and tricks, shooting aimlessly, without even understanding or reading the budget, much less waiting for the amendment process to arrive”.
Health and Housing
The National Organization Secretary of CC also emphasized that “for us, the citizen comes first. Placing it at the center of the system is the fundamental aspect of our policies. That is why the items linked to Lanzarote are based on people”.
Thus, he explained that the Lanzarote parliamentarians in their amendments have focused on the health of the people of Lanzarote and listed investments for the Playa Honda Clinic, economic items for works at the José Molina Orosa Hospital, reforms at the Mala and Tahíche Health Center, the reform and expansion at the Playa Blanca Health Center, reform at the Day Hospital and Psychiatry of Lanzarote, the Drafting of the Project for the Argana Alta Health Center (vital, the largest neighborhood in Arrecife and does not have a Health Center), the San Bartolomé Health Center, etc.
“This government is already fulfilling commitments, the hemodynamic unit is a reality and the radiotherapy bunker will be soon”, he added.
In terms of housing, he recalled, there is a significant problem in Lanzarote, given the shortage of it, and announced that Lanzarote is the island with the highest investment of the eight with almost 14 million euros for the construction of public housing.
Social and Education
In the same line as Toledo, the national parliamentarian Cristina Calero has insisted that these are budgets focused on people. “The main objective of the Government of the Canary Islands throughout the Canary Islands, but especially in Lanzarote, is to reduce waiting lists both in dependency and disability and for this it is essential to have assessment teams in the non-capital islands, that is, that they do not have to move from Gran Canaria or Tenerife”.
Another of the issues that Calero highlighted is that after the approval of the Social Services Law, the creation of the catalog was also approved but it was not provided with economic amounts. “We had a catalog that did not work as it should, so now we are quantifying the cost of the services to be able to apply it”.
You have to think that a service in Lanzarote and La Graciosa does not have the same cost as on a capital island. “That is why it is essential to have that cost quantified in order to provide the coverage that the most vulnerable families need, that is, to consolidate the social shield”, she said.
In addition to the generic bags of European Funds that Lanzarote will have on a multi-year basis for four years, “we amended a total of 9 million euros that will be mainly allocated to dependency and disability, but we will also have other types of services in attention to diversity and the fight against gender violence”, said the parliamentarian.
Part of the budget allocated to the Tahíche Residence for the Elderly is also recovered, Calero pointed out. “One of the shortcomings we have had in the past legislature has been the lack of planning and infrastructure and in order to offer a service we need that infrastructure”, she said.
In terms of Education, she pointed out that “we had the Educational Infrastructure Plan that the previous government left stored in a drawer and this has meant that absolutely nothing has been done in Lanzarote in four years. Neither a new educational center has been projected nor has any type of work been carried out”.
“Regardless of the political color, what we intend with these amendments in education is that most of the municipalities of Lanzarote have that roadmap in education again”.
Thus, emphasizing that education is one of the fundamental pillars of the Welfare State, Cristina Calero insisted that CC also has a wide variety of projects. Among them, a new institute for Playa Blanca, a new project for the CEIP of Titerroy, reforms in CEIP la Garita and CEO Argana, in the CEE Nuestra Señora de los Volcanes, the Pancho Lasso School of Art, IES Las Maretas, CEIP El Quintero, CEO Costa Teguise and the School of Fishing.
Primary Sector, Water and Roads.
In his turn, the national parliamentarian and president of the Cabildo, Oswaldo Betancort, stressed that “water is a fundamental aspect to fight for. It is such a big problem that it cannot be quantified, therefore there is an Additional Provision to the Budget Law Project that says that there will be the necessary financial credit, which does not compromise the budget of the autonomous community, to address the water emergency in Lanzarote and Fuerteventura”.
This will mean, Betancort insisted, that “everything that endangers the integral water cycle is covered by this emergency. Something really historic”.
He also recalled that “the inaction of the previous island government caused the loss of 14 million euros to improve irrigation in the northeast of Lanzarote, but now the Cabildo has already requested the transfer of two desalination plants from the Government of the Canary Islands, with which to face the water emergency situation, and that are already in operation with a capacity to desalinate 5 million liters of water daily, which has greatly alleviated the supply crisis that the Island has been suffering”.
To this emergency aid will be added next year the items that the Government of the Canary Islands has contemplated in this matter, such as the 7 million euros that will provide medium and long-term solutions regarding the deficit of infrastructure for the production, storage and distribution of water; as well as one and a half million to undertake irrigation infrastructure; and another million and eighty thousand euros to improve the conduction lines of the Lanzarote 1 desalination plant.
These investments will be added to the 90 million euros contemplated in the Action Plan for the Improvement of Infrastructure of the Integral Water Cycle of Lanzarote and La Graciosa designed jointly by the Water Consortium, the Island Water Council and Canal Gestión Lanzarote.
Regarding the primary sector, Oswaldo Betancort pointed out that Lanzarote's agriculture generates landscape - especially viticulture - and its development is closely linked to environmental criteria. “Proof of this is the Protected Landscape of La Geria and the imminent approval by the Cabildo of the Special Plan, which we are going to submit first to public consultation, because we believe in citizen participation and more in issues as important for the Island as the regulation of this unique space in the world”, he said.
Therefore, an amendment has been introduced to the Budgets of the Autonomous Government of 2024 to include an item endowed with 500,000 euros, aimed at 'Increasing productivity in La Geria'.
He also informed that the Government of the Canary Islands must be the transmission belt in Brussels so that Europe pays the POSEI aid, in two periods of the year, to have the funds more quickly. “The sector needs to have financial muscle and liquidity to carry out its production, in really difficult times. And that is why we have considerably increased the financial sheet of the subsidies, going from 100,000 to 2 million euros in aid already in this same 2023”.
He also spoke about the fishing sector, for which he announced that work is already underway on the preparation of an investment plan that includes infrastructure in the ports of Lanzarote and La Graciosa, the promotion of the promotion and consumption of local products and the commitment to the training of new generations that renew the activity in the main fishing centers of the Island.
In relation to the roads, Oswaldo Betancort insisted that CC focuses on providing services. “The Government of the Canary Islands contemplates in its Budgets an amount of 17 million euros” and recalled that the nationalists continue to bet on the burying of the LZ-2 as it passes through Playa Honda.
Other items that stand out in this section are the 7.3 million euros contemplated for the connection between the LZ 2 and the LZ 3; the almost 4.2 million for the duplication of the LZ 40, the 2.6 million euros in two items destined to the improvement of the LZ 1 in its Guatiza-Órzola section, and the million fifty thousand euros for the work of the underpass in Playa Honda of the LZ-2 that is already being executed.
“People are tired of talking about money and not executing projects”, he said.
La Graciosa
La Graciosa has a budget for itself, it is our eighth island. More than 3 million Euros. And there is an item of 600,000€ for supply.
In addition, the people of La Graciosa will benefit from a part of the 1.5 million euros contemplated for the 'Planning and Tourist Infrastructure in Lanzarote and La Graciosa', as well as the 117,000 euros destined to the 'Beautification of the port of Caleta del Sebo'.
“But if there is an item that stands out for the Eighth Island, it is the 3.1 million euros that the Government of the Canary Islands will allocate, through European funds, for the 'Implementation of solar panels, charging points, digital technology, etcetera', which contribute to the sustainability of the territory of La Graciosa”, said Betancort.
Island model, sustainability
It is also important to point out, explained the parliamentarian and president of the Cabildo, that Lanzarote and La Graciosa will have no less than 57 million euros of European funds for the transformation of the energy model. “A resounding example that Coalición Canaria is committed to real sustainability and not to fireworks”.
Coalición Canaria fights against Climate Change and defends the Environment with facts, and that is why the largest item contemplated in the Autonomous Budgets for Lanzarote next year is the 25,260,000 euros that will be allocated to flood the Island with charging points for electric vehicles, as well as for the transit to that clean source of energy of the almost 500 taxis that circulate through Lanzarote.
“But, in addition, the Government of the Canary Islands contemplates in the environmental section and the fight against Climate Change to invest another three million euros in the implementation of clean energy in our Island, of which 1,599,000 will go to the Timanfaya National Park and 1,360,000 to Infrastructure and equipment for care focused on the person”, he informed.
Conclusions
As a conclusion, David Toledo took the floor again to emphasize that “we are going to fight for Lanzarote to be the fourth island in investment”, adding that “although it is true that by population we should be the third, we understand and have decided among all that La Palma needs a very important injection of money. Many people from La Palma lost their homes, and the solidarity of the people of the Canary Islands, of Lanzarote, is with them”.
The nationalists have recalled that now is when the amendment process opens and CC Lanzarote is already working to improve the draft budget and design more and better projects for the island that are fundamental. “In any case, it is not about painting items for painting, you only have to see that the previous government painted a lot and stopped investing 148 million euros. We want to paint what we know we are going to spend”, Toledo insisted.
Finally, the three parliamentarians have agreed when pointing out that “this will be a year of drafting projects so that in the following ones we can materialize them”.
And, they assure, if there is something vital for the Government to allocate money, it is that there are projects, “but we have found that in the last four years, those who governed the Cabildo, instead of dedicating themselves to managing, dedicated themselves to an absurd war against political formations, media, cultural and business agents”.