Las Palmas de Gran Canaria (EFE).- The Canary Islands Coalition and the Popular Party closed their agreement on Tuesday to form together the new Government of the Canary Islands, a pact that could be joined by the Agrupación Herreña Independiente (AHI) and the Agrupación Socialista Gomera ( ASG).
The agreement does not yet establish the government structure or the distribution of positions, beyond the functions of president and vice president, which will fall to Fernando Clavijo and Manuel Domínguez, respectively, but it does establish a distribution of areas: Economy, Finance and Tourism the PP will manage, and Health, Social Welfare and Territorial Planning will be directed by the nationalists.
Tax reform and European funds
It also includes a government program without watertight compartments. In this regard, Manuel Domínguez has remarked that the two parties take as priorities promoting a tax reform, applying a “profound change” to public health and replacing the policy “of the check for everything and for everyone” with measures that help the canaries “to get by on their own”.
“I think that citizens have punished governments of watertight compartments where nobody knows what they are doing. The problems that we are going to face in the next four years are important here. And the challenges are going to be important: we are talking about the crisis that seems to be looming, about the absolute non-execution and management of the Next Generation funds, about the waiting lists, about education and professional training…”, Fernando added. peg.
To one seat for an absolute majority
The second and third political forces in the elections on Sunday May 28, CC and PP, respectively, add up by themselves 34 of the 70 deputies of the Canarian Parliament (19+15), more than they could gather in any other pact the winner of the elections, the PSOE, with its 23 seats and the five of its partners from Nueva Canarias.
To achieve an absolute majority, Clavijo and Domínguez are counting on the fact that AHI will join their agreement (formation that until these elections was part of the CC structure), which would contribute the 35th seat, and they are negotiating to obtain the support of the ASG leader, Casimiro Curbelo, government partner of Ángel Víctor Torres in the last four years, whose three deputies would make the Executive no longer depend on the party that completes the autonomous Chamber, Vox (4 deputies).
“The PP and CC have a road map of where we want to take the canaries, we know the problems. The Canary Islands are no better than four years ago”, added Clavijo.
Clavijo and Domínguez hope to formally sign this agreement in an act to be held later this week.
The understanding between the two parties also provides that a PP deputy will preside over the Parliament of the Canary Islands, although Manuel Domínguez has insisted that, to date, he does not have “any blue notebook with the names” of the person who will assume that responsibility nor of the future advisers of the Government.
VAT reduction
The government agreement reached between the Canary Islands Coalition and the PP in the Canary Islands includes tax reductions such as the “selective” reduction of the IGIC (equivalent to VAT on the islands) from the current 7% to 5%, the 99% discount on Inheritance Tax and Donations and the suppression of the fuel tax in La Palma, La Gomera and El Hierro.
To these tax reductions, the future Government of the Canary Islands will add “zero rate” for the first two years of activity of the self-employed, deductions in the 2023 personal income tax still to be specified, bonuses for people “who need it most” and tax incentives for “those most affected” by the crisis.
The pact, called by its signatories “agreement for the improvement of the quality of life and modernization of the Canary Islands”, also establishes the distribution of areas between the two partners of the Government, in which Fernando Clavijo (CC) will be the president and Manuel Domínguez (PP) Vice President.