SANTA CRUZ DE TENERIFE, 30 May. (EUROPE PRESS) –
The President of the Canary Islands, Ángel Víctor Torres, presided this Monday over the institutional act for the Day of the Canary Islands, in which the delivery of the 2022 Canary Islands Gold Awards and Medals took place. In the ceremony, held at the Guimerá Theater in Santa Cruz de Tenerife, Torres pointed out that the winners in this 2022 are “an example for a prosperous people that fights and advances”.
Ángel Víctor Torres highlighted the important work of the winners this year with the highest distinction awarded in the Autonomous Community: Carla Suárez Navarro, “an example of struggle, fair play and equality”; Elsa López Rodríguez, “a writer of enormous artistic quality”, and Manuel J. Lorenzo Perera, “another reference whose research work has been essential to rescue and spread our traditions”.
He also conveyed his recognition to the ten people and entities that received the Canary Islands Gold Medals, which this year went to: Radio Televisión Canaria, Club Deportivo Tenerife, National University of Distance Education (UNED), Rosa María Aguilar Chinea, Cooperativa Agrícola from the North of Gran Canaria, Miguel Velázquez Torres, Club Maxorata de Lucha Canaria and Radio Lanzarote.
For Torres, this institutional act has “remarkable and happy” differences with respect to last year’s ceremony, because today “the Guimerá Theater is full and the mask that lived with us in the last edition does not separate us. We touch the longed-for normality and that means that, without forgetting the hard moments lived, today the reality is seen in a different color”.
The president, in his speech, has claimed the leadership role that the Canary Islands must play in Europe when they celebrate 40 years of autonomy, “four decades of self-government, decentralization, management for the Canary Islands and in the Canary Islands; of effort and sweat of men and women who gave the best of themselves to walk in democracy and in freedom”.
“Now is the time to take a decisive step and demonstrate our maturity. It is time to reclaim our leading role as a leader in the new Europe that is beginning to be written; to put aside regrets and take action in a determined manner”, the president stated during his speech at the institutional act for the Day of the Canary Islands, which took place at the Guimerá Theatre.
Ángel Víctor Torres wanted to recall that the Spanish Presidency of the European Union will begin in July 2023 and will coincide with the Canarian Presidency of the Conference of Presidents of the ORs. In this sense, he emphasized that the Canary Islands, with his position, “can and must lead the new relationship of the outermost regions with Europe”.
“A DECISIVE ROLE”
According to Torres, “we want to play a decisive role in the commitment to green transformation, sustainability, biodiversity and clean energy, and for this we are going to have extraordinary European funds. We have better conditions than anyone else for development of the blue economy and offshore wind. We also aspire to be the spearhead of more sustainable tourism”.
Likewise, he stressed that the Canary Islands “aspire to be the spearhead of more sustainable tourism”, hence a “decisive” proposal has been made for the future European Tourism Agency to be installed in the Islands. “Our experience and the data – we are the region with the most overnight stays in Europe – back us up”, remarked the president.
Ángel Víctor Torres also referred to the forthcoming Ministerial Conference on the Digital Economy of the OECD, a meeting that will take place in the Canary Islands next December, in which representatives from 60 countries will participate and where the Canary Islands “will show that they bravely look to the future”.
As Torres explained, “if we want to have a better future and become an economic, tourist, environmental, social justice and equality benchmark, the Canary Islands must have a roadmap: which is none other than the 2030 Canarian Agenda, which marks milestones and obligations: fair employment, less poverty, environmental commitment, equality. Objectives to achieve yes or yes and as soon as possible”.
He also stressed that the Canary Islands have to stay on the path that has led to unemployment falling below 200,000 people for the first time in 14 years, and that, thanks to the recent labor reform, more than Half of the contracts signed in the Islands are indefinite.
“The Canary Islands now have good prospects for growth,” said the president, who admitted that there is still a long way to go. “Without triumphalism, because there is still excessive poverty to eradicate, unemployed people to protect, young people who need certainties for their future and basic needs to cover,” he said.
In this regard, Ángel Víctor Torres expressed his “firm conviction” that any progress and economic improvement that occurs in the Canary Islands must be at the service of the social majority, essential basic services and the most vulnerable people.
“LA PALMA WILL GO AHEAD”.
During his speech, the president of the Canary Islands made special mention of the island of La Palma and was convinced that “it will come out ahead”. “We must continue to respond to the palm population that suffered the worst consequences of the volcanic eruption. We will do it together with the efforts of all administrations and civil society, and with an unprecedented mobilization of resources,” he said.
Likewise, he acknowledged that the people of the Canary Islands, and especially the people of La Palma, “have been able to face the most difficult moments with strength, resistance and solidarity; rowing towards the shore of those islands that we want to build from learning and with humility in the face of what It comes unexpectedly.”
In closing, he indicated that after the experience with the harsh adversities of these years, “the only way to walk and prosper is with unity, and always looking for solutions for the most immediate present and
betting decisively on the future, without regrets or complexes, for the future”.
Thus, he promised to continue working and striving “to achieve all utopias.” “That much-needed future, those islands that our sons and daughters inhabit. In peace, in democracy, in social equality, with more opportunities, with greater justice, with a firm gaze on the horizon, in achieving a better Canary Islands.”
