The new political year opens with numerous circumstances of enormous complexity, diverse expectations, and unknowns in the Canarian, state, and international spheres. From the new model of regional financing to the approval of the Community and State Budgets. Also, the permanent media and political tension, as well as the judicialization of the latter. Not forgetting the migratory phenomena and, also, the advance of the extreme right in Europe - as in the recent elections in several Lander in eastern Germany - and in the world - very attentive to what happens in the US presidential elections - and its consequences. And, in addition, with the continuation of the war conflicts in Ukraine and in occupied Palestine.
Although the economy and employment are growing, and inflation is being contained, the noise and tension hide these positive realities. In the state sphere, the new model of regional financing appears as one of the most determining challenges. With the influence on this of the modifications agreed between PSOE and ERC for the investiture of President Illa, a “singular financing agreement” for Catalonia that, if applied, would imply a substantial modification of the common regime of which all autonomous communities are now part, except the Basque Country and Navarre.
From Nueva Canarias-Bloque Canarista (NC-bc) we do not oppose bilateral agreements as long as these do not compromise the interests of the Canarian citizens. Observing, in addition, that any agreement must have political viability in the Cortes - something not simple in the case at hand - and legal viability compatible with the Constitution. Pointing out, also, that the Canary Islands must follow very closely any change in the model of regional financing that could end up affecting it. We will continue to demand that the financing for the Archipelago respect the current exclusion of tax revenues from the Economic and Fiscal Regime (REF), in force since 2017 and anchored in the Statute of 2018, as well as interterritorial solidarity and the fiscal co-responsibility of all nationalities and regions.
On the other hand, and in relation to the condonation of regional debt, an issue that raised much controversy a year ago, we demand that this affect all communities and the global debt and that applying the same criterion of 20%, as to Catalonia, will represent a reduction of 1,980 euros per inhabitant. To the Canary Islands, with something more than 2.24 million inhabitants in 2021, it would correspond to a reduction of 4,385 million, as we demand from NC-bc, as concluded by the Fedea study and as approved by the Parliament of the Canary Islands in February at the proposal of NC-bc.
Public accounts
Regarding the public accounts for next year, those of the Canary Islands - the result of the imprudence and recklessness of the current Budget, as well as the tax cuts imposed by the Government of the two rights - will barely grow and will be accounts in which adjustments and cuts will be increased, affecting public services, social policies and support for economic sectors. The non-financial spending limit approved at the end of July by the Government of only 303 million more than the current ones, the budget increase will only serve to face the mandatory salary increase of public workers and budget deviations in health. Education will continue to decline with respect to its participation in GDP. And the rest of the public and economic policies will suffer adjustments and cuts.
In the case of the General State Budgets for 2025, at this time its approval is not guaranteed at all and its extension is more than likely. Especially, but not only, because of the blocking role that Junts per Catalunya can play, one of the three parties that celebrates a congress in this quarter of the end of the year, together with ERC and PSOE. Congressional events that can mark changes in the strategies of these political formations and determine the next period in state politics, generating greater legislative and institutional instability.
Migration and minors
Regarding the migratory phenomenon, there was until now a high level of consensus in the Archipelago, both within the Canarian Pact for Immigration and in the Parliament of the Canary Islands. Demanding the reform of article 35 of the Immigration Law (organic law 4/2000 on the rights and freedoms of foreigners in Spain and their social integration) to guarantee the distribution of unaccompanied minors who arrive on the islands so that they can be cared for with the utmost dignity.
The blocking of the PP, Vox and Junts in the Congress of Deputies at the end of July frustrated that possibility. And since then CC and its Government have dedicated themselves to whitewashing the responsibility of their partner, the PP, directing all their artillery against the PSOE and irresponsibly playing with minors as a weapon of political struggle, very much in the style of what the extreme right does throughout the world.
Of course, we must be very demanding with the Government of the State, demanding, among other things, the transfer of facilities to adequately accommodate minors or more economic aid. But it is serious and irresponsible, as Clavijo and his party do, to exclusively hold the State Executive responsible when it was the PP who, with its negative vote, prevented the processing of the bill that was born from a proposal of the Government of the Canary Islands endorsed by Canarian society.
Housing and developmentalism
The Canary Islands have other very relevant challenges for the next period. Among others, those related to policies aimed at enabling access to decent housing, today an unattainable dream for many families. The decree law approved by the Government of the Canary Islands has demonstrated its absolute ineffectiveness. From NC-bc we are convinced that the construction of social housing of public promotion is essential for the most vulnerable sector of the population, but also responding to the needs of workers with low and medium incomes, as well as young people who have so much difficulty in their emancipation.
Proposing, also, the adequate control of vacation rentals, the limitation of the purchase of homes by foreigners without roots in the Islands and the development of a safe rental program that facilitates the exit to the market of a part of the 210,000 empty homes of the Islands.
On the other hand, the call for attention that the citizen mobilization of April 20 meant, alerting about the dysfunctions of the tourist model, has been systematically ignored by the Government of the Canary Islands. An Executive, that of CC and PP, that insists on a developmental model that impacts on infrastructures and public services, on energy and water consumption, on water purification and on waste treatment, as well as on collapses on the roads and on the growing difficulties in accessing housing.
In NC-bc we insist on limiting tourist growth, both traditional and that of vacation rentals. In the rehabilitation of tourist cities, the modernization and renovation of the accommodation plant, training and employment, decarbonization and digitization of the sector. With an islandized moratorium and a final ecotax. Elements that should be part of a great Canarian Agreement for sustainable tourism.
A new course, as can be seen, that opens with many issues on the political agenda that directly impact the lives of the citizens of the Canary Islands. And in which, in the institutions where we govern or in which we exercise as opposition, we will continue to defend the interest of the social majority. From a self-centered and fully sustainable economy that contributes to improving the well-being of the entire population of the Islands. From the full equality of women in all areas. From solidarity and the rejection of racism and xenophobia. We will do so from unequivocally progressive and Canarian approaches and trying to expand that space with the incorporation of new people and groups.
