Almost three years after taking office as president, almost all the promises that Mariano Rajoy made to the Canary Islands in the investiture debate have evaporated or been broken by the adjustments that the Government has applied to some territories more than others. Next Wednesday I will again ask Rajoy to justify in Congress the breach of his commitments.
It is the second time in this legislature that I have asked him the same question. And I fear that, far from acknowledging that he has failed the Canarian society, he will once again choose to hide part of the reality with grandiose expressions or using euphemisms to disguise the measures that his Executive is adopting in the territory most affected by the crisis.
Seven were the promises that Rajoy made to the Canary Islands in the investiture debate. Almost three years have passed and he has not fulfilled a single one. On the contrary. Some have been devastated by the tsunami of government cuts, others have been cut off and others have gone in the opposite direction to what he promised us then.
Rajoy guaranteed us that his commitment to the Economic and Fiscal Regime of the Canary Islands would be "total, full and absolute" and that he would not only fulfill it but also improve it. Far from formalizing his promise with the cornerstone of the economic and fiscal system of the Canary Islands, his Government has further widened the gap between investment in the Canary Islands and the state average. The latest example is the draft 2015 Budget Law that is being processed in Congress. For this reason, we have had to present amendments worth 1,085 million euros to correct accounts that place us at the bottom of state investments. He has also failed to provide the compensation that corresponds to us through the REF to face the extra costs of water, energy and communications.
He told us that he would maintain the same policy in the rehabilitation of tourist spaces. However, he eliminated this project with a stroke of the pen in the first budgets approved by his Government without offering explanations or a sensible justification to the sector on which the Canarian economy depends. Instead, other similar projects have appeared in the state accounts in the Mediterranean, such as the tourist infrastructure plan for the Costa del Sol.
He assured us that the POSEI was very important and that his commitment to Canarian agriculture was very clear. However, his Government has done the opposite and aid to the most sensitive sector of our economy is more than insufficient. This same week, the Secretary of State for the Environment said that he will not budget state aid for this program in 2015.
Rajoy said that he agreed with the extension of airport taxes and anticipated that his policy in this area would be different in the Canarian airports. Only a few days after taking office, his Government decided not to extend the tax break. And, of course, there has been no specific tax policy for the Canarian airports. And now we are moving towards a privatization of 49% of AENA's capital without the certainty that the State will be able to continue to safeguard the general interest when its decisions are questioned by the new partners.
He then told us that he was going to propose the fifth freedom for the Canarian airports. Almost three years later, we have no news of a measure that would be key to fulfilling our aspiration to be a communications hub between continents. Instead, senior officials from the Ministries of Development and Industry have traveled to different countries to close alliances with different companies to use Barajas as a hub in their operations with third countries.
He made us believe that he would subsidize the transport of bananas to compete equally with bananas. And what he has done is lower the subsidy for the transport of goods, which affects agricultural and industrial products, thereby reducing their competitiveness in the market. The banana is still not on that list and the commitment that the State will cover 70% of the cost of transporting agricultural goods originating from or destined for the Canary Islands and the rest of Spain, as established in Article 3 of Royal Decree 170/2009, is now very far away.
He said that he would carry out an infrastructure plan, a coastal plan, a road plan and an employment plan. Plans of which there is hardly any trace left. Only in the road agreement have 628 million euros disappeared in this legislature and with them hundreds of small companies have been affected and thousands of jobs have been lost.
He tried to calm our concerns by assuring us "that he would treat those who are unequal in an unequal way." Unfortunately, this has not been the case. In the language of the Government, the same word can mean two different and contradictory things. And his determination to mitigate the negative aspects with the emphasis on the supposed positive advances always clashes with the stubborn reality. And I fear that Rajoy will return on Wednesday to hide the truth with euphemisms so as not to recognize that his policies in the Canary Islands have been ruinous.
Ana Oramas, deputy of Coalición Canaria
