It is demonstrated, once again, that vision, responsibility and dialogue in politics always bear fruit.
This week the Governing Council of the Canary Islands has approved the regional accounts for 2023, the fourth that the 'Pact of the Flowers' has brought forward, whose four forces have managed, during this time, to bring positions closer and build a common project to finish the legislature together.
During the parliamentary control session last Tuesday, the President of the Canary Islands, Ángel Víctor Torres, stressed that this was something exceptional for the Archipelago, since in recent decades there have been different censures and dismissals in the executives. Although this legislature has not been easy, due to the different crises, of various kinds, that have had to be faced, this pact has demonstrated cohesion and strength to reinforce the Welfare State in the Islands and continue to achieve more and better opportunities for all Canarians.
The Budgets of the Canary Islands Autonomous Community for 2023 are characterized by their marked social character, betting, once again, on public services and policies of progress and equity, according to the current socio-economic context, and having special sensitivity with the families that need it most.
In addition, they represent an impulse to economic recovery, reaching 10,180 million euros. Of these, 7,500 million will be allocated to social policies, which will allow us to have a much fairer community in economic and social terms, with greater equality and with territorial balances for the eight islands.
Likewise, an important effort will also be made in health matters, with 330 million euros more compared to 2022; and also in Education, which increases by almost 200 million, maintaining all the reinforcement professionals incorporated during COVID-19.
In this way, we will continue to strengthen the Welfare State, as we have done in recent years, where we have gone, for example, from 5,000 families receiving the Canary Insertion Benefit to 40,000, thanks also to the Minimum Income; or from the 400 benefits for Dependency processed monthly, to the current 1,000.
All this, accompanied by a fiscal proposal that maintains taxes on high incomes, and that provides for deductions for the middle classes, with the clear objective of governing for the social majority of the Islands and promoting a fairer, more progressive and efficient taxation.
This government of progress has managed to make the Canary Islands one of the leading communities that improve their social parameters, a direct consequence of the social shield developed during the health crisis through the ERTE, the ICO credits, aid to companies and families, and the commitment to basic services.
These are, in short, the accounts that the Canary Islands needs at this time, with budgets that also reaffirm the commitment to the environment, a just ecological transition and those sectors of strategic value such as tourism and agriculture, and that have the support of the state accounts, which also allocate more resources from our Economic and Fiscal Regime (REF), the Comprehensive Employment Plan of the Canary Islands (PIEC) or support for our pensioners, among others, to the Islands.
Now we will begin the parliamentary procedure in our regional Chamber, with a debate that I hope will contain responsible proposals that take into account these Islands and all Canarians.
