Lanzarote has a flag that does not fly on the masts, but is recognized in every daily gesture of those who inhabit it: respect for its environment, its identity and a way of life that has managed to resist the passage of time. We are a Biosphere Reserve, yes, but not as a title to show off, but as a way of understanding the world. It is not just about preserving a landscape, but about sustaining a way of life.
We are experiencing moments of enormous ecological and social tension. While tourist arrivals grow uncontrollably and hotel places multiply, we feel that something is slipping out of our hands. That the island runs the risk of losing what makes it unique. But we also know that Lanzarote has never given up. This land has been able to forge an unwritten pact with its people. A pact that is renewed in each whitewashed house, in each farmer who cares for the land and the sand, in each fisherman who knows the secrets of the sea, in each young person who decides to stay to build a decent future here.
Within the framework of World Environment Day (June 5), which this year has the motto "Beat Plastic Pollution", and World Oceans Day (June 8), which is celebrated under the motto "Awaken new depths", the Socialists of Lanzarote remember: Lanzarote is not only a landscape paradise: it is also a fragile, vulnerable territory that needs courageous and coherent decisions to survive the effects of climate change and the overexploitation of its resources.
These international slogans remind us of two urgencies that fully affect us: reducing plastic pollution that chokes our beaches and ravines, and caring for our oceans, a source of life, food, work and culture.
It is not enough to commemorate. It is time to act. And act coherently. Because it makes no sense to talk about sustainability while more tourist beds are approved or ecological limits are ignored. Because the island cannot be protected without involving all sectors: from institutions to visitors, from education to business.
From the PSOE of Lanzarote we work for a political agenda that places sustainability at the center. We are committed to a just ecological transition, to tourism that respects the rhythms of the island, to a responsible use of water, to sustainable fishing that protects our seabed, to an economy that is not based on land speculation but on the value of what we are.
But no transformation will be possible without the people. We need an active, conscious citizenry that defends its island as it has always done. That knows that protecting Lanzarote is much more than a political option: it is a matter of dignity and that dignity characterizes the people of Lanzarote.
The future of Lanzarote is not written. But it can be written with courage, with tenderness, with memory and with justice. There is no time to lose. The time to act is now.
Because protecting Lanzarote is protecting its soul. And whoever defends his soul, defends his right to continue being.
