The President of the Parliament of the Canary Islands, Gustavo Matos, has called for unity among all the political forces represented in the House against racism and xenophobia, in view of the latest episodes that are being experienced in the islands and especially this past weekend.
Matos has announced that this Wednesday, at the beginning of the plenary session - the last of the year and where the Draft Law on the General Budgets of the Autonomous Community for 2021 will be put to a vote - there will be an institutional pronouncement by the Parliament against racism and a call for the values of coexistence and tolerance.
The president recalls that the Canary Islands is "an emigrant people that knows well the pain of leaving their land and family in search of a future." An example of this that the Parliament has very recently refreshed with the publication of a book is the odyssey of the Telémaco, where 171 Canarians emigrated clandestinely to America "with the same objective for which these people arrive in the Canary Islands: to live with dignity."
Matos stressed that the men, women and children who are arriving on the coasts of the archipelago from the African continent "do so in desperate situations, fleeing from hunger, poverty, war or disease." The also president of the Conference of Regional Legislative Assemblies of the European Union (CALRE) emphasizes that these people "do not want to reach the Canary Islands, but Europe", and hence the call for unity that Matos has made in recent weeks to the EU institutions.
The example of Órzola
Gustavo Matos points out that the recent images that the migratory phenomenon has left us, such as that of a child traveling from Africa to the Canary Islands hidden in the blade of a rudder for weeks, "allow us to get an idea of the extreme situation in which these people find themselves."
The president also recalls the accident of a small boat, on November 24, in the north of Lanzarote, where its 36 occupants fell into the sea. At least eight of them died a few meters from the shore and 28 were rescued alive by the residents of Órzola.
"These people who threw themselves into the sea without thinking to save lives risking their own do represent the Canary Islands, they do make the eight islands proud. Those who do not represent the Canary Islands are that noisy minority that gathers to insult, berate and try to spread a message of hate," he says.
Matos appeals to institutional responsibility, respect and tolerance. He insists on the need for the Canary Islands to continue to set an example of solidarity and harmony.