The Canary Islands have been left out of the curfew imposed in the country between 11:00 p.m. and 6:00 a.m., and, with them, the two islands that I am honored to represent in the Senate: Lanzarote and La Graciosa. But that is not all. Germany and the United Kingdom have lifted the recommendation not to travel to the Canary Islands due to the COVID-19 pandemic. So we have, on the one hand, that the Canary Islands are an exception to the new state of alarm agreed by the Council of Ministers, and, on the other hand, the reopening to tourism of the two main issuing markets to the Islands.
How fortunate the Canarians are, some will say, while others will wonder where the mystery is. Luck? Sun insurance? Do we live in one hour less? Diet based on bananas, mojo and wrinkled potatoes? Our only certainty is that the epidemiological data in our Archipelago are better, for the moment, than those registered by other autonomous communities. For that reason we have earned the trust, for now, of the Spanish, British and German governments, which allows us to face with hope the rest of autumn and winter in terms of tourism, which is what feeds the majority of Canarians.
The climate, perhaps? Perhaps the island status and the distance from mainland Spain? Maybe the great Benito Pérez Galdós keeps us in his centenary? Surely, many factors explain that the Canary Islands are, for the moment, in a different situation from most of the country, and one of them is a regional government of progress led by the socialist Ángel Víctor Torres. The recipe? Serenity, prudence, common sense, unity, dialogue, consensus, transparency, public health ahead of the economy so that it can be reactivated with guarantees, institutional loyalty, truthful information…
With these ingredients, it is most normal that the representative social and economic agents in the Canary Islands - unions such as UGT and CCOO and employers such as CEOE and CCE - and the island councils have supported the decree law of the Government of the Canary Islands that will enable anti-COVID control of tourists arriving in the Islands, whether foreign or national. The objective is to ensure that tourists stay with maximum health security and upon presentation of a certificate at the tourist establishment proving that they are not infected by the virus that causes COVID-19.
Therefore, part of our momentary secret lies in the Canarian responsibility, the all in one led by public institutions and representatives, as well as civil organizations of all kinds, followed by health personnel, trackers and the population as a whole. But, in the middle, there are a multitude of exemplary initiatives that it is not possible to list here, but among which is the Covid-19 Prevention Team of the Cabildo de Lanzarote. More than 50 public information officers are touring all the municipalities of Lanzarote and La Graciosa, to raise awareness among citizens about the main security measures that protect us from the coronavirus.
By bridling the pandemic, for the moment, it has also been possible to program the recovery through the design of the Plan for the Social and Economic Reactivation of the Canary Islands - Plan Reactiva Canarias - which has been approved by the autonomous Parliament without any votes against, with the support of two opposition parties and the abstention of the third, the PP. We do not know what the future holds, but there is no doubt that this is the path of Canarian responsibility: together and united.
Fco. Manuel Fajardo Palarea, PSOE senator for Lanzarote and La Graciosa.
