They are final. The budgets that will govern the management of the Government of the Canary Islands during the next year have been definitively approved this week by Parliament. We are talking about the fourth and last budgets of this legislature of the so-called Pacto de las Flores, a further step towards the consolidation of the recovery and progress that we all want for our islands.
These accounts for 2023 demonstrate the solidity of the Executive and the capacity for understanding of the four political forces that form it. A feature to be valued, since it is the second time in 40 years that the Canary Islands is on its way to ending with the same government that began a legislature. The merit belongs to everyone, capable of working in unity in difficult times, but especially to the president and socialist general secretary Ángel Víctor Torres, always an example of dialogue and capacity for consensus.
The economic document supported by the parliamentary majority ensures the capacity of the regional administration to respond to the priorities of the islands, among which social policies and the strengthening of fundamental public services, such as health, education, dependency or housing, have been and will continue to be key.
That line is what has allowed us to begin to reverse the figures that made the Canary Islands a stagnant territory at the tail end of the main indicators. The collective effort, under the leadership of Ángel Víctor Torres, has allowed important advances in these years, such as increasing beds in public health, starting public housing projects forgotten for years, reducing school dropout rates and expanding social rights or improving data in dependency.
In this way, we have managed to have a better Canary Islands than three years ago, but it is not enough. From the PSOE we have insisted on taking these islands to the status that corresponds to them, prioritizing the policies of the people, conquering new rights and working to be able to count on a more economically and environmentally sustainable society.
The Government of the Canary Islands has demonstrated a special commitment to the middle and working classes, with a reduction in personal income tax and tax deductions for studies and more measures that will ensure that 85% of the population in the Canary Islands will benefit from these deductions, which go directly to alleviating the pockets of the Canarians.
The current situation of social and economic progress is the result of that budgetary effort and the political will put into it; with clear examples and with real data that the commitment, soul and heart that we have put into social investment are giving results.
We will continue to look forward, building future and hope, fleeing from the complexes and division that others project. Never partisan interests ahead of the general interest. The socialists are not going to stop until they achieve the Canary Islands that its two million inhabitants want and deserve.
