Santa Cruz de Tenerife (EFE).- The president of the Canary Islands, Ángel Víctor Torres, gave his last speech to the legislature on the state of nationality on Tuesday, in which current affairs have led him to include a mention of ” mediator case” at the end of its balance of four years, in which progress has been made towards “a better Canary Islands”.
From the rostrum, the president of the Canary Islands has made a party announcement: as the executive cannot appear in the case because the “Meditor case” does not imply a detriment to the public coffers, it will be the PSOE that will appear as popular accusation in this case of alleged corruption that affects the former socialist deputy Juan Bernardo Fuentes and the former general director of livestock Taishet Fuentes, from the same party.
The president has indicated that the “Mediator case” refers to “individual” responsibilities, so that the fact that the alleged individuals involved belong to an organization or institution does not mean that this institution is corrupted, he has claimed.
“Whoever breaks the law, let them fall, but do not drag themselves gratuitously, falsely and vainly to any institution on our land”, Torres has settled.
The president mentioned this issue at the end of a speech that he read for an hour and thirty-six minutes, in which he made a general assessment of the legislature and the actions of the coalition government that he has presided over, formed for PSOE, Nueva Canarias, Sí Podemos Canarias and Agrupación Socialista Gomera.
“A better Canary Islands is real today”, but “the best is yet to come”, assured Torres, for whom the Canary Islands are “a more sustainable land” and also “more feminist and egalitarian, proud of its strengths and far from regretting” , and whose “basic pillars” are health, education and social rights.
The executive “has given stability” in a “complete and complex” legislature, characterized by consensus, the search for agreements and unity in the face of adversity, he has assured.
Stability, which “should be normal” but which in the Canary Islands “is an exception”, is one of the values that the Government has fostered, according to Torres, who has proclaimed the will to continue this pact.
This government has defended the Canary Islands “without complexes”, and thus has obtained the most important economic funds that “have never come from the Government of Spain”, as well as the powers in costs, he said.
In the social aspect, he has announced that the Government has commissioned a study on wealth in the Canary Islands, with a view to promoting a fairer redistribution.
In addition, with this government, the cliché that “when the left governs, jobs are lost” has ended since there are more workers affiliated with Social Security than ever and 50,000 fewer unemployed than before the pandemic.
He also highlighted that for the first time in history there are nursery schools from zero to three years old that offer free public places, with funds provided by the Government of the Canary Islands.
“More hospital beds have been enabled in 2022 than in the last 10 years and they will begin to be operational in the coming weeks,” the president announced.
Regarding housing, he stated that after 10 years, public housing is being built in different municipalities.
Among the laws approved as a result of consensus, the Social Economy Law, the Cooperatives Law, the Culture Law, the Youth Law and the Citizenship Income Law and the Trans Law stood out.
Also in a social key, the president announced that 80,000 people will begin to collect Citizen Income from March, which completes a legislature in which with the Minimum Vital Income there were already 28,253 benefited families.
The “social shield” has worked and also the catalog of social services is imminent and the deployment of the Dependency Law has been unblocked, he said.
In parallel to the social shield, employment and economic activity have taken off after the pandemic, and Torres has calculated that tourist income on the islands could exceed 20,000 million euros in 2023.
Not only tourism has good expectations, because “The Canary Islands is now an ambitious land, of talent, of proposals, and this race for innovation has no turning back,” said the president, who announced that the Governing Council will approve this week ” the first chip strategy carried out by an autonomous community” with which it is intended to capture 500 million euros from the Perte Chip.
In energy transition, he has proclaimed that wind energy has grown by 164 megawatts, a third more than it was in September 2019, and has recalled the approval of the Climate Change Law, a commitment for a more sustainable and decarbonized world.
The Chira Soria project and photovoltaic self-consumption, which has gone from 9 to 59 megawatts since 2019, are other advances highlighted by the president.
You have also mentioned the future Circular Economy Law and the Biodiversity Law as projects that the executive intends to develop.
The commitment to public education, with the door open for education from zero to three years, the reduction in school dropouts and the advancement of Dual Vocational Training have also figured in the balance of Torres, who with respect to immigration has trusted the approval of the asylum and migration pact of the European Union in 2023.
“Looking back”, the change during the current legislature has been more profound “than we could have been aware of”, the president concluded. EFE
