The Partido Popular (PP) group in the Cabildo has accused Antonio Morales of leading a “directionless and northless” government, as well as being entrenched in “clientelism” and “self-promotion”, even though data show a lower economic growth than other islands in the Canary Archipelago despite having the largest budget in history.
On the eve of the debate on the state of the island, the leader of the Populars, Miguel Jorge Blanco, and the deputy spokesperson, Pepa Luzardo, took stock of the first year of the pact between NC and the PSOE -no longer with Podemos, as in the previous eight years-, and argued that despite the greater resources of the Cabildo, around €1,000 million in the last two financial years, they have been “unable to allow for the improvement of the quality of life of the people of Gran Canaria, to transform the island and make it a leader, not only in the Archipelago, but also at a national level in certain aspects.”
“Every year, Mr. Morales sells us in his speeches an island that for us is unreal; where the people of Gran Canaria do not feel represented anywhere; with two parallel paths, on the one hand that of self-promotion and self-satisfaction in government, and on the other, the reality of the Gran Canarian who gets up every morning to work and struggles to make ends meet,” said the PP spokesperson, also criticizing that in the Cabildo there is “a two-headed government, where the president goes in one direction and the vice president wants to emulate the figure of the presidency and has set up his own little empire around him to become a vice president.”
Miguel Jorge stated that it is such a self-satisfied government “that it has not even been able to present a government programme for this term, as they committed to in the agreement they signed”. All that triumphalism, according to the PP councillor, is dismantled by the data, demonstrating that Gran Canaria is gradually falling behind in the regional context”.
Among other figures, he pointed out that in May there were 72,300 unemployed people in Gran Canaria, compared to 71,000 in Tenerife, an island with a larger population. The Active Population Survey, he added, counted 390,000 employed people compared to 423,600 in the other capital island. “If we compare it with the same period in 2023, in Gran Canaria that number of employed people has decreased by 450, while in Tenerife it has increased by 42,670, so we can say that for every ten jobs, nine are created in Tenerife and one in the rest, but Morales will not take this data into account when analysing the state of the island,” he declared.
Regarding unemployment, it stands at 15%, surpassed only by La Gomera, while youth unemployment is the highest in the Archipelago at 34% of the population. The Popular spokesperson also referred to a report from Cáritas highlighting that it now assists 17% more people than in 2019 and that there are currently 30,000 individuals from families who do not make it to the end of the month and are on the brink of poverty due to rising prices and the cost of housing, making it impossible for people to become independent.
Jorge was particularly critical of the Social Policy areas, which he believes is “one of the great failures of Morales’ government”, as he stated that in the last year, no work from the II Social and Health Plan has been completed, nor has any new facility been put into operation despite there being over 2,000 people on the waiting list with recognised dependency.
[–>
“This is a government that has not known, or has not been able, or has not wanted to transform the island, decapitalising the resources of the Cabildo to the detriment of public services and infrastructure,” he concluded.
Subscribe to continue reading
