It is undeniable that in Spain and in the Canary Islands there are still many problems, that there is still much to be done. We have spent four years of very hard but necessary economic adjustments and we all deserve, after so much effort, to reap the rewards.
There is much to be done. But the foundations have been built, solid foundations, without cracks. The Popular Party has not built castles in the air, it has been building a more settled nation in the last four years, in accordance with the reality that surrounds us. Of course, as I say, the road has been very hard, but it is worth it. Little by little the unemployment figures are reduced, exports rise, school absenteeism decreases, families acquire greater spending power and companies begin to have greater confidence in their investments.
A path that is also beginning to be paved for Lanzarote. Because never before, in 15 years, has Lanzarote received more direct investment than that made by the Government of the Popular Party in these four years. 96 million euros that are divided into aid to growth such as the payment plan to suppliers, more than 37 million that the Spanish government has allocated to pay small and medium-sized entrepreneurs on our Island, and in works that are already being executed and that are a reality, which have been destined to the expansion of the Port of Los Mármoles, the Arrecife ring road, or those that are underway, such as the Dredging of Los Clícos and the tourist modernization of Puerto del Carmen. These are all palpable examples of the sensitivity of a Government with our Island.
To continue with this path of investment and projection of the future, the Government that has been led by Mariano Rajoy has needed people who know how to transmit the realities of each piece of our nation, such as Lanzarote. Of committed people who work for their land and know how to transmit the true and most urgent demands.
That has been precisely the work that the popular people of Lanzarote have been doing in Madrid; especially the dedication of Oscar Luzardo and Francisco Cabrera, aware of every project to the minute, presenting initiatives, making the appropriate arrangements and touching the appropriate authorities to unblock any inconvenience and show with facts the true needs of Lanzarote.
The commitment of both has not waned and we must be proud of the work of their management during the last four years as representatives of the interests of the people of Lanzarote and their fulfilled objectives. A work that we must not despise because both Lanzarote and the Canary Islands will continue to benefit from the action of the Government that has been piloting Mariano Rajoy and that has ahead, from the next 20D, an even more promising future to continue consolidating the alternative of a party that has brought change thinking about the stability and well-being of citizens.
The popular people of Lanzarote are working on the electoral campaign convinced that the citizens will know how to value on December 20 the work that the Popular Party has carried out during this legislature at the head of the Government of Spain. That citizens will know how to put black on white and will make a positive balance of the last four years, that the effort of all has been worth it but that there is still much to be done, much to undertake, that the takeoff has only just begun.
We ask the citizens, once again, to listen to us. May they have a broad vision, may they be objective, may they value the situation of four years ago and the current one, may they appreciate their own effort and may they know that, despite the difficulties, the Government of Mariano Rajoy always has the needs of the Island very present. The Popular Party is today and the future, but now the commitment is of all Spaniards, of all Canarians, of all Lanzarote residents.
Astrid Pérez, President of the Popular Party of Lanzarote
