We all have a more or less approximate diagnosis about the progress we have experienced since we became part of the European Union and the disastrous consequences on our economy and public services due to the budget adjustments imposed to correct the deficit and the bailout of the banking sector. With this scenario, marked by the growing disaffection of citizens towards their representatives and the discredit of all institutions, we are entering one of the most difficult and uncertain but, in turn, most important elections of our democracy.
Citizens feel unprotected, doubly punished by the crisis and by the sacrifices decreed by all countries at the behest of the European troika. Indignation grows in the streets due to the application of an unfair policy that saves banks with sums of millions of dollars and that steals the present of an entire generation of young people whose despair is increasing. And the perception that exists is that the sacrifices, beyond saving many banking entities from bankruptcy, have only served to dismantle social programs and crack the welfare state.
However, before the crisis crept into our lives, we witnessed the good practices that allowed the construction of a more cohesive Europe, with increasing levels of well-being, with a social model forged thanks to progress in fundamental rights, in addition to individual freedoms. And that is the challenge we assume in this electoral process all those of us who believe that our future lies in Europe: to regain the lost confidence and restore the roadmap annihilated in the name of the crisis.
A possible Europe exists, but for this it is necessary to force the change towards the origins of a Union that was progressively built thanks to the sum of everyone's effort. That is the way out that we must find among all political forces, among all governments, to overcome a nightmare that lasts many years and that has been accentuated by the errors made in the diagnosis of the crisis and the policies drawn up to overcome it.
Although discredit and distrust are two common elements that are strengthened in all countries, there are very different scenarios. And beyond the growing border that exists between the North and the South, there are realities, such as the one represented by the Canary Islands, which require, now more than ever, a more specific and supportive treatment from the rest of our community partners for the benefit of all parties. A treatment that also allows us to become a fortress for the rest of the EU thanks to our geographical position.
Hence the need for a political force such as Coalición Canaria in an electoral process in which, unlike the rest of the parties, we will compete with a specific program for the Islands. A program that we are already drafting, in direct collaboration with the citizens to define the challenges and demands that will have to be included in the community agenda.
Coalición Canaria is the only party that guarantees the presence of its own voice that defends in the European Parliament the legitimate rights of the Islands against the multinationals of the PP and the European Socialist Party, whose decisions will be conditioned -as they always have been- by the guidelines and interests that will be marked by their national and European leaders.
These elections represent a unique opportunity to promote, through of its own representation, a work agenda within the European Parliament so that the EU develops the strengths of the Canary Islands through the improvement of the air and sea lines that connect us with Europe, the African countries and with America, the promotion of economic exchange with the countries of our environment (especially West Africa), the use of the rich biodiversity of the Archipelago for the creation of technology-based industries, the development of broadband access throughout the territory of the Canary Islands, the change of the energy-economic model that allows creating employment in our islands, the development of training exchanges throughout the EU, the relaunch of the equal opportunities and social cohesion policies, the strengthening of the research in areas such as astrophysics or the investigation of all the opportunities that derive from the correct management of our ocean.
The elections of May 25 are the most important that the European Union has ever faced due to the uncertain future we face and the advance of populist and xenophobic movements. We are going to vote for the first time for the election of a Parliament that, subsequently, will appoint the president of the European Commission. And we want to be present in a new stage in which the political and economic challenges will be decided to rebuild the EU. Therefore, it is essential that the Canary Islands recover their voice in the heart of Europe to be able to influence without scales or intermediaries in the resolutions of the European Parliament.
Javier Morales, candidate of Coalición Canaria to the European elections