The political formations PSOE of the Canary Islands and Nueva Canarias in Lanzarote have shown through a press release their support for the demonstration Canary Islands has a limit, called for Saturday, April 20. Lanzarote and La Graciosa deputy for Nueva Canarias-Canarista Bloc (NC-BC) and island president of the formation, Yoné Caraballo, appeals to the "spirit of 1991 and 2003" to plan an environmentally sustainable and economically fair future, while the permanent leadership of the PSOE Canarias, together with its island leaders, have agreed that their own public officials and militants should freely decide their attendance.
From Nueva Canarias they allude to following the example of the conejera island of the late last century, with the approval of an Island Territorial Planning Plan of Lanzarote (PIOT), which traced the path for the tourist moratorium to be approved in 2003 by the Government of the Canary Islands.
A week before the demonstrations called by organized civil society in favor of putting limits on the current tourism system, Caraballo wanted to express on behalf of the island executive of NC-BC in Lanzarote and La Graciosa its full support for them and its rejection "of a developmental model without limits that degrades our territory".
Meanwhile, the PSOE highlights that it "deeply respects and shares" the motivations of these mobilizations, always betting on sustainable tourism that respects our territory. A committed tourism, "not only with quality but also with the progress and well-being of the Canarians, through the redistribution of wealth and collective bargaining to improve the salaries and conditions of the workers".
From Nueva Canarias they make a call to the society of Lanzarote and La Graciosa to join this call that says "is making history even before it is done, given the ability it has had to penetrate the public and political debate." This expresses, continues Caraballo, "the great discontent that our society has with the current model and the desire that exists to change it".
Therefore, from NC-BC they believe that it is important to remember the recent history in terms of territorial planning and containment of growth, taking advantage of the fact that the debate is open and a "new" attempt to draft the Island Plan of Lanzarote is expected, as announced by the conservative Government Group of the Canarian Coalition (CC) and Popular Party (PP).
"In 1991, the social and ecological claim was combined with the figure of Manrique as a reference, with a height of political and institutional views that captured the feeling of the population in favor of a sustainable model that preserved our natural heritage, the territory and the cultural idiosyncrasy, moving to a standard that put a stop to unlimited growth and ordered the tourist activity in Lanzarote", says Caraballo.
"A decade later, in 2001, this spirit was transferred to the autonomous level where the Government of the Canary Islands presided over by Román Rodríguez elaborated the most ambitious law in history in terms of sustainability, Law 6/2001 on urgent measures in Territorial Planning and Tourism of the Canary Islands, popularly known as tourist moratorium, which culminated with the approval of the guidelines for the organization of Tourism in 2003", recalls Caraballo, who sees "similarities in these two facts with the current context" and sees it necessary to "understand what happened in the past to look at the successes and not make the same mistakes".
Errors, continues the deputy, "such as continuing with a model of unlimited development where growing for the sake of growing prevails over quality, demographic limitation and improvement in the redistribution of wealth".
"We are at a turning point where we must plan together a more sustainable Lanzarote and La Graciosa with social justice, and this not only questions the tourism industry and the political class, but ourselves as a people. The question is, are we willing to change our habits, our behaviors, our way of consuming and living in the current system?", asks Yoné Caraballo.
In this way, the socialists of the Canary Islands show their commitment, "with responsible and coherent approaches with our electoral program. Like the tourist tax, which a few days ago we formalized as a parliamentary initiative, and other proposals that we will be announcing soon". While highlighting that "we believe it is time to take this step. The time for decisions".
