Agencies/Now Plus.| The president of the Cabildo de Tenerife, Pedro Martín, confirmed yesterday the agreement of the insular government (PSOE-Cs) with the PP to approve the budgets for next year in plenary session next Friday.
In a statement released by the Cabildo, its president pointed out that “the Island cannot remain paralyzed” for not having approved budgets, given that “it would cause great damage to Tenerife”, hence the “reach out” to all the opposition groups, which have finally borne fruit with the PP.
Martín appreciated that the “ideological differences” between the two parties have been overcome and “political partisanship” has been parked to carry out a “powerful budget” for the benefit of Tenerife.
The agreement includes, broadly speaking, the commitment to the trains to the north and south of the island (discarded during this mandate by Pedro Martín himself) and a set of strategic investments for Puerto de la Cruz.
From the Cabildo they emphasize that an extended island budget has “important limitations” that would reduce by half the more than 938 million euros initially planned in the draft budget for the year 2023. In practice, they indicate, this would mean that the contribution to the IASS for dependency care could not be carried out, and the same would happen with the ring of social policies, gender violence, care for migrant minors, network of supervised flats or the amounts corresponding to the Socio-sanitary Infrastructure Plan, in addition to the credits earmarked for scholarships.
In this line, they insist that the credits for investments that are currently being executed, for large works such as the TF-1 or the TF-5, should be suspended. Likewise, any registered subsidy would be left without the corresponding credit in the extended budget and this includes transfers to city councils for carrying out investment actions or actions in social, cultural, sports, environmental matters or hydraulic infrastructures.
Likewise, subsidies for agriculture, livestock and fishing would be left without budgetary credit, such as subsidies in favor of the island slaughterhouse or animal protectors, among others.
The subsidies to sports clubs, as well as the sponsorships of the big clubs, would not have the necessary credit in a budget that is extended and the contributions to the Insular Water Council for the actions that are carried out in hydraulic, purification infrastructures would be equally affected. and water desalination in Tenerife; the renewal of the bus fleet and the various agreements on transportation and contributions to the Insular Board of Music, TEA and Auditorium, among others.
Accusations and criticism
From Podemos Canarias they have shown discontent and its general coordinator, Laura Fuentes, assured that Martín “has just lost the 2023 elections”, because “the people who voted for him trusting in the change will not forgive him”.
Fuentes accused Pedro Martín of having chosen to “hand over” the insular Corporation to the right after having reached an agreement with the PP to carry out next year’s accounts.
The coordinator of Podemos indicated that it is confirmed again that they are budgets “full of cement, made to measure with Cs and applauded and supported by the PP, and they say a lot about how progressive the PSOE’s vision for Tenerife is.”
For its part, the Canary Islands Coalition (CC) presented last Monday an amendment to the entirety and 30 partial ones for a value of 102 million euros, arguing that they seek to “adequately address the problems that Tenerife is facing and for which the PSOE has not provided a solution”.
Said modifications, explained the nationalist candidate for the presidency of the Cabildo, Rosa Dávila, “are not only an amendment to the budgets, but also to the management of Pedro Martín.”
The 30 amendments presented by CC-PNC constitute, according to the formations, a “disapproval of the PSOE budget and a redistribution of funds, to really allocate them to recover the political, social and economic weight that the Island has lost this legislature.”