The Minister of Territorial Policy and Democratic Memory, Ángel Víctor Torres, assured this Tuesday that contact with the President of the Canary Islands, Fernando Clavijo, is "permanent" and has expressed his willingness to receive him this week if he travels to Madrid to address his proposal for the decree law on the distribution of migrant minors.
"The relationship and contact between the Minister of Territorial Policy and the presidents, in this case of Ceuta and the Canary Islands, (...) is permanent. I spoke with him this morning, with Mr. Clavijo, and we are willing to sit down and continue looking for solutions," Torres defended at the press conference after the Council of Ministers.
He said this in response to statements made by Clavijo in Santa Cruz de Tenerife in which he said that he continues to be "filled with perplexity" by the "lack of response" from the Spanish Government to the proposal of the decree law, which was transferred "more than 20 days ago."
The minister pointed out that on December 17 he received a WhatsApp message from Clavijo in which he attached "a draft for an exceptional measure for the distribution of unaccompanied minors," which they both discussed in a "personal meeting" in the Canary Islands that took place 48 hours later.
"We have a meeting in which I convey issues of the draft and tell him that it has been transferred to the legal services of Territorial Policy and other ministries for analysis and assessment," Torres commented.
The head of Territorial Policy and Democratic Memory has insisted that he has held "several conversations" with Clavijo during Christmas and has reported that he sent an email to the Secretary General of the Presidency and his head of service in which he indicated that he saw Clavijo's proposal as "possible".
Torres has expressed his doubts about the legislative mechanism to promote it, whether to do so via decree law or through a bill to shield it from a legal point of view.
And he stressed that the Government continues to negotiate with Junts for the modification of article 35 of the Immigration Law, the "definitive solution" proposed by the Government to solve the distribution of migrant minors.
