“The General State Budgets show that Sánchez neither cares about nor deals with the reality and problems of Lanzarote and the Canary Islands”. This was expressed this Friday by the island president of the PP, Astrid Pérez, during the press conference together with the national deputies of the Popular Parliamentary Group, Guillermo Mariscal and Auxi Pérez, who assured that “Sánchez's only priority is to stay at all costs in the Moncloa armchair with concessions and agreements tailored to the separatists”.
The PP affirms that "this budgetary deficit that the formation is trying to correct with the presentation of ten amendments or proposals for improvement for an amount of 15,300,000 euros and that focus on social matters; environmental conservation; reinforcement and protection of our borders; freight transport, and water supply".
The national deputy, Guillermo Mariscal, highlighted that these are “bad” budgets for the Canary Islands with an “average investment of 100 euros less than the national average”, which represents a “clear breach of the REF”, which places the islands on equal terms with the rest of the territories. Furthermore, he insisted on the serious problem of government non-compliance, in clear reference to the 70 million euros that Minister Reyes Matoro promised for the Canary Islands within the Tourist Resilience Strategy, of which, as of August 31, only barely 20 million euros had been authorized.
For the Populars, the clearest example of Sánchez's “blindness” is the migratory pressure suffered by the island, and in general the Canary Islands, and that these budgets do not contemplate. For the island president, Astrid Pérez, they are a “lost opportunity” that the Popular Parliamentary Group is trying to correct with two amendments that total 5 million euros aimed at reinforcing the protection of borders and increasing the personal and material resources of the Civil Guard and the National Police.
“The problem is not so much that the Government does not listen to the PP, but that it does not listen to the associations and unions of the National Police and Civil Guard, nor to the citizens of the island, normalizing a situation that is unsustainable”, Pérez stressed, who considers it intolerable that in the final stretch of the year we continue without the SIVE and with a tent camp that does not meet the appropriate conditions to care for immigrants and that, on top of that, is called a center.
Amendments presented by the PP
The list of territorial amendments also includes 400,000 euros for the soup kitchen recently launched by the Arrecife City Council with its own resources. “Our objective is to maintain, improve and complete this service with other multidisciplinary programs for their socio-labor integration”, explained the mayor of the city.
In the proposals relating to the eighth island, there is 1,000,000 euros for water supply and storage infrastructure on the island of La Graciosa and a transfer of 5 million euros to the Autonomous Community for a Comprehensive Rehabilitation Plan for the urban center of Caleta de Sebo, which allows promoting actions of urban harmonization, sustainability of homes and improvement of public spaces.
In environmental matters, 600,000 euros for the closure and landscape restoration of the Argana landfill, one of the most degraded areas of the municipality where its elimination and the recovery of the space are imposed, and 500,000 euros for the cleaning and conservation of the Charco de San Ginés and the seabed, affected by the discharges generated by deficiencies in the sanitation network. Also in the capital, two other important projects are focused, such as the urban transformation of the Altavista environment with 1,000,000 euros and a financing proposal of 1.5 million for the restoration of the José Ramírez Cerdá Park, which together with the Plaza de las Palmas, are two of the spaces in which it is urgent to intervene.
Finally, the PP leaders wanted to highlight the amendment of 300,000 euros, as a subsidy for the maritime transport of goods between the islands of Lanzarote and La Graciosa. According to the island president, the residents of Caleta de Sebo cannot pay up to 30 or 40% more in the shopping basket, compared to Lanzarote, because a solution is not given to the compensation for the transport of goods¨.
"It is, in short, about reducing the enormous exponential increase suffered by products and services destined for the eighth island, and thus mitigating the effects of triple insularity and, even more so, in the current economic context", they conclude.
