Nueva Canarias-Bloque Canarista in Lanzarote and La Graciosa (NC-BC) regrets that "as of this Monday, April 1, the citizens of Lanzarote, La Graciosa and Fuerteventura are poorer than the rest of the citizens of the Canary Islands."
This is according to the island president of NC-BC and deputy Yoné Caraballo, who recalls that this Monday the 20-cent discount per liter of fuel comes into effect, which the Canary Islands Government of Coalición Canaria (CC) and Partido Popular (PP) is applying to the so-called "green islands" (El Hierro, La Gomera and La Palma), and which lowers the cost and improves the purchasing power of the residents of El Hierro, La Gomera and La Palma, regardless of their income, in addition to also benefiting tourists and anyone who arrives on those islands.
For Caraballo, who already denounced in the parliamentary process of the General Budgets of the Canary Islands for 2024 that this measure implied discrimination against the "yellow islands" (La Graciosa, Lanzarote and Fuerteventura), "this Monday a resident of the green islands, regardless of their purchasing power, will have gasoline at a reasonable price if we take into account the average price of Gran Canaria and Tenerife. However, in the yellow islands we will continue to have the most expensive gasoline in the Canary Islands when we bear higher rates of social exclusion, lower per capita income and have a larger population, higher GDP and contribute more to the treasury of the Autonomous Community."
According to the Canarian nationalist, "the residents of the yellow islands are poorer than the rest of the islands because life is more expensive. The shopping basket is more expensive; fuel is more expensive; water and electricity are more expensive; and housing is more expensive. In short, an impoverishment that increases thanks to policies that discriminate according to the weight you have in the Government of the Canary Islands and the interests of certain economic and political sectors."
Thus, Deputy Yoné Caraballo asks, first of all, "where are the deputies of CC and PP in the Parliament of the Canary Islands who have not raised their voices or hands to stop this inequality committed by their bosses", and secondly, "where are the economic and business sectors of Lanzarote and Fuerteventura who have not expressed a single assessment of such a grievance."
"While the business and commercial sector of the green islands is already requesting that the bonus be permanent in time and be compatible with the bonus for professional transport, our business fabric has not expressed an assessment in this regard," says Caraballo, who "proposes creating a common front with associations, unions and civil society to stop this attack against equality between Canarians and territorial balance."
In addition, Caraballo points out that "once the floodgates of inequality are open, the next thing will be to reduce personal income tax by 60% for the residents of El Hierro and La Gomera, as the president of the Cabildo of La Gomera, Casimiro Curbelo, has said in recent days."
"I fear that this Government of the Canary Islands will not hesitate to continue opening the gap of inequality between islands while the deputies of CC, including the president of the Cabildo of Lanzarote Oswaldo Betancort, are distracted with nonsense," says Yoné Caraballo.
