The Canarian People's Unity coalition (UPC) has defended this Wednesday the need to progressively raise the interprofessional minimum wage (SMI) to 1,800 euros to guarantee healthy food and implement support measures for the primary sector to combat the rising cost of the shopping basket in the islands.
The UPC's lead candidate for Congress in the province of Las Palmas, Luis Campos (Nueva Canarias), stated in press declarations that "eating healthy cannot be a luxury for Canarians" and warned that the rising cost of food forces many families in the archipelago to choose between "eating healthy or paying rent, water, and electricity."
Campos affirmed that the shopping basket in the Canary Islands "has increased by 40% since 2021" and pointed out that the archipelago registers wages "15% below the state average," in addition to having "more than 700,000 people in a vulnerable situation."
The candidate linked this situation to the increase in health problems such as obesity and childhood diabetes and called for specific measures to promote the consumption of zero-kilometer products and support local farmers and ranchers.
"From Canarian People's Unity, we will propose a series of measures when we are in Congress and the Senate, when we are in Madrid. Fundamentally, to try to ensure that wages are decent, and for that, to continue increasing pensions and the interprofessional minimum wage so that people can make ends meet," he stated.
Among the coalition's proposals, Campos highlighted that educational centers, hospitals, and nursing homes should prioritize "fresh and healthy" foods from Canarian producers.
"Today, in the Canary Islands, many people do not eat healthily, and that affects their health," he said, indicating that the measures they propose would prevent the population from feeding themselves "fundamentally on ultra-processed products."
For her part, the number 2 candidate for Congress in Las Palmas, Iratxe Serrano (Podemos), called for intervention in the distribution chain and the market, with the aim that "producers can receive a fair price for what they produce, both in the agricultural and livestock sectors, and on the other hand, that these products reach the consumer at reasonable prices."
Serrano has criticized the high cost of the shopping basket and has pointed out that "we pay a fortune, as if every week were Christmas".
"That makes it, in a way, impossible for people to acquire essential products that are fundamental for nutrition," she insisted.
Asked by journalists what they consider a decent salary, Serrano argued that the SMI should be "at least around 1,800 euros," and specified that this increase should be applied progressively.
"We have to look at budgets, we also have to do a whole study, but obviously that has to be the minimum figure to be able to live," she assured, pointing to the situation of employed people who, despite having income, "do not make it to the end of the month".
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