"This is not an issue that affects the Canary Islands, this is an issuethat affects Spain." This is how the Minister of Industry, José ManuelSoria, ended his speech in the interpellation that I raised lastWednesday in the Congress of Deputies about the oilprospecting authorized by his department to the company Repsoloff the coasts of Lanzarote and Fuerteventura. This sentence summarizes ina very graphic way the position of a cornered Government that,in an exercise of dialectical juggling, is capable of denying evena reality as objective as the geographical one to silence the oppositionmajority of the Canarian society to this project.
The same party that removes two islands from our archipelago in itselectoral program also tries to make us believe that the waters thatsurround us have absolutely nothing to do with the Canary Islands. Thatis to say, we are the only Archipelago in the world with Islands, butwithout sea. Nothing strange in the speech of a politician who assured that theGreenwich meridian passes through the Canary Islands and that now, in a newpolitical pirouette, tries to convince us that the sea that surrounds us does notis part of our territory.
When I listened to the minister in the Congress of Deputies I could notavoid remembering the statements that his party colleaguesfrom the Balearic Islands and Valencia have made about the prospecting. I could notavoid remembering that poetic speech by González Pons in2010 in which he said that "citizens fear the oil slick and notto see the lunar eclipses over the sea again" or the forcefulness of theBalearic president, José Ramón Bauzá, when he challenged the Government of theState assuring that its oil "is tourism and we will not allow,never ever, prospecting to be authorized in our sea."
The same ones who consider oil incompatible with tourism in the Balearic Islandsassure us that, in the case of the Canary Islands, it is a source ofwealth, a unique opportunity that we cannot renounce inany way, that no country in the world would say no to energyfossil fuels and that with the unemployment rate that exists in the Canary Islands we have no otherway out and we must give in whatever the consequences.
All this maneuver elaborated jointly by Repsol and Industryis a fallacy. We, despite their efforts, are loadedwith reasons to continue saying no. And we say no because with theexploitation of oil we assume all the risks and, in return,we do not perceive any benefit. We say no because we are notwilling to put at stake the physical future of our land, northe vital future of more than two million Canarians and futuregenerations.
We live in a land of extraordinary natural wealth. And that isour true treasure, the green and blue gold. Not black gold. Butour opposition not only has to do with the protection of ournature. In the event of an accident, it would also affect a vital resourcesuch as water. In the event of a spill, we would leave more than 200,000inhabitants of Lanzarote and Fuerteventura, in addition to the population offloating tourists, without drinking water for an indefinite period.
We also say no to oil because our main activityis tourism. A spill like the one that occurred in the Gulf of Mexicowould sink the economy of a Community like the Canary Islands and would be adeath blow to the main economic engine of the Canary Islands.
Shamelessly, they take out of the hat unreal figures on the number ofjobs that this activity would generate and try to buy oursilence in exchange for promises of millions of euros. Despite theevidence, they raise doubts even about the support that the opposition to oil has in the Canary Islandsand assure that the social majority is in favorof fossil fuels. The answer we nationalists offer isthat the State Government authorizes a consultation with the Canarian people.
The minister constantly took refuge in the fact that prospecting does notnecessarily involve exploration. And he lied again.
Article 9.2 of the Hydrocarbons Law says that "the granting ofa research permit confers on the holder the exclusive rightto obtain exploitation concessions, at any time during the termof validity of the permit, on the same area"
The Canary Islands has experienced different migratory processes caused byfamine, drought, the cochineal crisis or the failure of othermonocultures. And we cannot allow there to bea new migratory process caused by a crisis linked tooil because, at this time, we Canarians no longer havethe resource of other lands that welcomed us, such as Venezuela, norcan we allow a land and a sea to be contaminated and destroyed.
As the poem "The Suitcase", by Pedro Lezcano, said, it is otherswho must pack their bags so that we Canarians are not the ones whohave to emigrate in the event of a crisis caused bya disaster on our coasts. It is others who must leave.
Those who sell the land that is not theirs
let them take the suitcase.
Those who put death in the future
let them take the suitcase.
Let them take the suitcase,
let them take the suitcase forever.
Ana Oramas, Deputy of the Canarian Coalition
