Santa Cruz de Tenerife (EFE).- The President of the Government, Ángel Víctor Torres, has asked in his first institutional speech after the elections, the one on Canary Islands Day, “resistance to those who want to weaken the state of the autonomies and the self-government that It has cost us so much to achieve”, as well as “firmness before those who do not believe in equality between men and women”.
He has also called for not going backwards “in the social shield, since we have managed to advance in dependency, housing, in the protection of the most vulnerable, education, digitization and in our economy.”
“The Canary Islands have come back like no other community and we have reached historic employment figures,” he remarked.
The president has also advocated for a sustainable future and balanced development for the islands.
“For a long time, luckily, we no longer only look at the immediate future and we propose our projects for those who have to come later, so that they can find habitable islands and with all the possibilities of economic growth,” Torres said.
He considers that for this it is necessary to face “this great challenge that is climate change, so that they can live in a space with more clean energy and where sustainability is applied in all areas of our lives.”
“I hope climate change denialism doesn’t get the better of it. That our potential as leaders in renewable energies is not diminished”, said Torres.
The Canarian president has alluded to the Canarian Agenda for Sustainable Development 2030 and has hoped that “the path we have begun with this agenda so full of the future will not be undone.”
In his opinion, “determination is needed in the face of those who blame the weakest for all ills, and courage and courage in the face of intolerance.”
“I am sure that I speak on behalf of the majority of the Canary Islands and that the majority of the parliamentary arc that we will have during the next four years feel this way,” said Torres, on the occasion of the delivery of the Canary Islands Awards and Medals de Oro de Canarias of 2023, which recognize the work or trajectory of people or entities of the archipelago.
The 2023 Canary Islands Awards have honored the Spanish Association Against Cancer in the Canary Islands in the Altruistic and Solidarity Actions modality; in the Communication section, the journalist Pepe Alemán, and in the International section, the Coordinator of the NGO for the Development of the Canary Islands.
In addition to the Canary Islands Awards, the Government of the Canary Islands has awarded 14 Canary Islands Gold Medals.
Among those recognized with these medals is the recently deceased writer from Gran Canaria Alexis Ravelo; the newspaper and the workers of Canarias 7; the gymnast from Tenerife Ana Bautista, and the Fundación Canaria Doctor Manuel Morales, from La Palma.
The 2023 Canary Islands Gold Medal is also the Biology professor Luis Herrera Mesa, a native of La Gomera, and the company that manages the San Roque hospitals in Gran Canaria, as well as the doctor from the Canary Islands Health Service, María Teresa Cotonat, known as the pediatrician of El Hierro.
Likewise, the Ni Fu Ni Fa Philharmonic, from Santa Cruz de Tenerife; the murga Las Revoltosas, from Lanzarote; and the Los Nietos de Kika Afilarmónica, in Gran Canaria, share the Gold Medal, which will also be received by journalist from Tenerife María Luisa Arozarena, who was director of Radio Nacional de España in the Canary Islands for fourteen years.
Rebeca Rodríguez Francés, a native of Fuerteventura and patron of the Maritime Rescue vessel Salvamar Tenerife; the Felo Monzón Secondary School, in Gran Canaria, and La Parranda Marinera Los Buches, in Lanzarote, complete the 2023 awards.
On behalf of all the winners, Pepe Alemán thanked the recognition with these Awards and Medals to people “who honor our islands and make us feel proud of who we are, of our identity, and of this insularity open to the world that for me is the best we have.”
Likewise, he recalled that the Canary Islands Awards were born when Jerónimo Saavedra was president of the Canary Islands as a response “to the need to put an end to the remains of the old confrontation between the two Canarian provincial capitals from which neither took advantage.”
Alemán has expressed his “hope that the inter-island feuds will subside and only sporting events will remain for a relief from day-to-day tensions.” EFE