The second debate for Pedro Sánchez's truncated investiture has, unfortunately, confirmed the inability of the major parties, so accustomed to majorities, to do things differently and set the example that citizens expect from us.
We have lost a valuable opportunity for understanding, for a common embrace in that common house that is Congress.
But we, the Canarian nationalists, do not resign ourselves to the impossibility of reaching an agreement, and that is why we have encouraged the rest of the political groups to work, as soon as possible, to achieve it.
We arrived at the debate knowing that there was not a sufficient majority to form a Government, which is what we would have liked, but it was - and still is - necessary to take a step forward so that in this time that remains until May 2, common sense prevails.
We owe it to the generations born in democracy who are the future of this country. We owe it to the citizens who are still without a Government and, out of responsibility, decorum and vision, we owe it to ourselves.
We must not forget, not for a second, that while we do not agree within the Hemicycle, outside, people continue to have problems to solve. Because the crisis is not over for small businesses, nor for the self-employed, nor for pensioners, nor for families.
In a situation like this, it is good to keep in mind the example of the Canary Islands. Our recent past is made of sacrifices, but we have been able to overcome years of hardship, emigration and cyclical crises and look forward with hope.
We have always been supportive, because we know that the survival of a people can only be built on the foundations of generosity.
That example is what we would have liked to have presided over those sessions, because it was necessary to urgently break with a past of cuts and with the policies that have led us to this situation of deadlock.
After four years of absolute majority and absence of social dialogue, citizens have voted for a more plural parliament. And they have not been wrong. Those who, to this day, are incapable of reaching an understanding are mistaken. That is what distances us from the hearts of the people.
To continue, at this point, without a Government, is not only a collective failure, but it is an example of what has been called 'old politics'.
And to that, the Canarian nationalists, we have said 'no'. We have said 'no' to intransigence and the inability to dialogue; to those who speak from rancor and resentment; to the populism of those who confuse Congress with a television set; to inequalities and job insecurity. We have said 'no' to those who always said 'no' to us for four years.
And, for those same reasons, we have said 'yes' to an agreement, which, with all the improvements that can be introduced, takes into account the Canary Islands and their needs, which guarantees the equality of the inhabitants of this country, wherever they live, and addresses the citizen clamor that calls for institutional and political regeneration. An agreement that includes and recognizes our singularities and recovers the rights that had been eliminated: specific employment plans, improvement of bonuses on airline tickets and the transport of goods, equal financing, anchoring of the REF to the Constitution, provision of agreements to be more competitive, attention to our countryside and our fishing, revision of non-contributory pensions...
With our support for the investiture of Pedro Sánchez, we have said 'yes' to those who, despite the difficulties, have done their job, to those who have put aside their differences to look for common ground.
We have said 'yes' out of responsibility, for the present and the future, because it is time to think about the citizens, before the acronyms.
We have said 'yes' because this country, because its people, because the Canary Islands cannot wait any longer.
Our affirmative vote does not tip the balance, but it has the value of a sincere and very necessary gesture: that of being the first to take a step so that dialogue is possible; that of encouraging the rest of the political forces to abandon immobility, partisanship, and join that understanding that we wish to take place before we are forced to new elections.
Ana María Oramas González-Moro, Deputy of the Canarian Coalition in Congress