The spokesperson for the Socialist Parliamentary Group, Sebastián Franquis, and the island secretary of the PSOE of Lanzarote, Dolores Corujo, have denounced this Monday the “marginalization” of the Government of the Canary Islands towards the citizens of Lanzarote and Fuerteventura for excluding the islands from the fuel bonus that comes into effect this week in La Gomera, La Palma and El Hierro. The socialists consider that it is a “discrimination and grievance”, in addition to accusing the autonomous Executive of creating a “third insularity”.
The socialist leaders, accompanied by the deputies of the Socialist Parliamentary Group for Lanzarote and Fuerteventura, have accused the autonomous Executive of “consolidating a Canary Islands at three speeds” due to the “unprecedented” discrimination that Lanzarote and Fuerteventura are suffering in the political history of the Canary Islands, and have recalled that the Government of the Canary Islands has not included these two islands in the fuel bonus for “political reasons” and not economic ones, since this measure would only represent an investment of 25 million euros.
The socialist spokesperson, Sebastián Franquis, has stressed that they support the bonus in the so-called Green Islands, but that "there is no economic reason to justify this denial" by the Government of the Canary Islands to the fuel bonus of 20 cents per liter also in Lanzarote and Fuerteventura, because the Budget of the Canary Islands has grown by 1,120 million euros for 2024 and, therefore, they have resources for it. “There is no response from the Government, and what is more worrying, what we see is the complicity, the absence and the looking the other way of the president of the Cabildo of Lanzarote.”
Franquis has referred to the creation of a “triple insularity” by the Canarian Government and announced that the Socialist Parliamentary Group will present different parliamentary initiatives to extend the same measure to the islands of Lanzarote and Fuerteventura, as it has already done with a Non-Law Proposal in the Plenary of the Regional Chamber. “Fuerteventura and Lanzarote also have the same difficulties in the cost of fuel, with a difference of approximately ten euros above the cost of that fuel in the capital islands.”
For the socialist spokesperson, the Government of the Canary Islands has to assume its powers with its own funds to combat the costs of insularity. “We are very concerned about the way this Government has of understanding the Canary Islands, creating that triple insularity and marginalizing Lanzarote and Fuerteventura. We believe that it is a reasonable measure, which is fair in economic terms and especially in social terms, because these islands have the lowest income in our community.”
The study to study the price of gasoline
In addition, he has criticized the study announced by the Canarian Government for the future implementation of the bonus in Lanzarote and Fuerteventura. “No study is necessary, what they have to do is ask the citizens how much difference they pay in gasoline compared to the capital islands of Gran Canaria and Tenerife.”
Both Franquis and Corujo showed their “satisfaction” because the president of the Cabildo of Fuerteventura, the nationalist Lola García, has demanded that the CC and PP Government that the eastern islands receive the bonus for the acquisition of fuel as occurs with El Hierro, La Palma and La Gomera, and they asked about the position of the nationalist deputies of Lanzarote and Fuerteventura in the Parliament of the Canary Islands
The island secretary of the PSOE of Lanzarote, Dolores Corujo, also referred to the “stupefaction and indignation” that has meant that the president of the Cabildo of Lanzarote, Oswaldo Betancort, has voted against the application of the discount on fuel for Fuerteventura and Lanzarote, and asked the reason why the Government of the Canary Islands, “the right-wing government” of CC and PP, has “discriminated and humiliated” these two islands.
