SANTA CRUZ DE TENERIFE, Nov. 9 (EUROPA PRESS) –
The President of the Government of the Canary Islands, Ángel Víctor Torres, has endorsed this Wednesday the fulfillment of the objectives of the ‘Reactive Plan’, signed in May 2020, given that the economy of the archipelago “has been reactivated” despite the health pandemic and the volcanic eruption on La Palma.
In an interpellation requested by the Nationalist Group, its spokesman, José Miguel Barragán, has accused the Executive of “ignoring” the signatories since they have not even responded to a request for a meeting from their group.
Torres has underpinned his argument on the record numbers of Social Security affiliates, with more than 854,000 people, and the best unemployment rate in the last 15 years, apart from the fact that he started with the objective of capturing some 1,040 million and in the end more than 3,000 million were achieved.
He highlighted “everyone’s contributions” to help relaunch the archipelago and, in this sense, commented that the plan “has been a success.”
The president has underlined that there have been seven meetings to take stock of the execution of the plan and indicated that “not even in the best dreams” would it have been thought in 2020, in the midst of a pandemic, that the Canary Islands would have the current economic indicators this year.
It has also highlighted that one of the main criticisms made about alleged breaches of the REF, the one referring to the tax differential for cinema and other audiovisual productions, was resolved after a negotiation between the regional government and the central government and a satisfactory final agreement, in October 2021, which has allowed, for the first time in history and on a permanent basis, to set the 80% spread.
Torres also believes that the boost given by the ‘Reactiva Plan’ also translated into a greater commitment to sustainable development on the islands, a commitment that has resulted in the approval of the Canarian Agenda 2030 (strategic framework) on the 2nd of December 2021 in Jameos del Agua (Lanzarote), a document that concerns the whole of society and that transcends the governments of the day, as it includes measures not only of an economic and environmental nature, but also of equality, the fight against poverty or civil rights .
He has also asked to “resume good manners” in the Chamber for which Barragán is disfigured to reproduce “private conversations” in reference to “those are Olivera’s things” that according to the nationalist spokesman, the vice president, Román Rodríguez, commented to a deputy of his group ‘outside the micro’ in the Budget Commission.
Barragán has criticized that the ‘Reactive Plan’ “does not appear” in the 2023 regional budgets and the Government’s “contempt” for the signatories, in line with the attitude of Román Rodríguez himself in recent weeks.
He has said that “forms are important” in politics and they hope that a follow-up commission will be convened “to discuss the substance” of the plan given that the information provided by the Government –three pages– is insufficient.