SANTA CRUZ DE TENERIFE 12 Nov. (EUROPA PRESS) –
The president of the Canary Islands, Fernando Clavijo, remarked this Tuesday during the Government control session that the General Budgets of the Canary Islands for 2025 are “the most socially-driven” that the autonomous community has ever encountered, in response to criticisms from the PSOE, who assert that these are “pessimistic” accounts, featuring “cuts” to social services.
In reply to a query from the spokesperson for the Socialist Parliamentary Group, Sebastián Franquis, the leader of the Canary Islands Executive sought to clarify that “no budget can solve everyone’s issues” and explained that the provisions for the coming fiscal year “are aimed at planning, which other administrations have failed to do, regarding how we will implement policies across various sectors of the Government of the Canary Islands.”
The president expressed his “wholehearted” agreement with the remarks made by the Minister of the Treasury, Matilde Asián, concerning the “caution” exercised in formulating the accounts, stating that “given the current climate of uncertainty, following two years without General State Budgets, it is exceedingly challenging to develop budgets.”
Meanwhile, Sebastián Franquis questioned whether the removal of deductions due to price hikes, the withdrawal of over 9 million euros from the dependency system in the Canary Islands, or the reduction of 53% of initiatives aimed at combating climate change exemplifies “caution or ideology.” He asserted that this so-called prudence proclaimed by the CC and PP Government “is entirely unrelated” to the economic analysis of the budgets, as “all economic assessments from both international and national organisations conclude that forecasts for the upcoming year are considerably more optimistic than those suggested in these budgets.”
Franquis argued that these budgets are “pessimistic” in nature, with social services undergoing “reductions, increasingly restricted social and productive policies, a lack of social sensitivity, and policies that are fundamentally unjust and utterly indifferent to inequality and poverty,” within an autonomous community where “over a tenth of the populace, amounting to 220,000 individuals, controls 60% of the wealth of our nation.”
He asserted that these budgets, the second in the Legislature, only serve to ensure that “the affluent become wealthier while the impoverished become poorer.” “This is the outcome of their accountability. If they are ultimately affirmed, they will represent the budgets of the grand deceit that this Administration has executed,” he added.
In his response, Fernando Clavijo stated that he places “far greater” trust in the data provided by the minister—a Treasury inspector with an “exemplary” record—than in the assertions made by the PSOE, emphasising that he has not discovered “any data from any international institution that indicates that the Canary Islands economy will grow beyond 3.3%, which is the growth rate anticipated in these budgets.”
The president also refuted claims that these accounts endorse the concentration of wealth, noting that recent reports indicate that the Canary Islands have improved their standing in terms of social exclusion and poverty over the past year and a half. “It is challenging to escape such circumstances, particularly when General State Budgets are absent or the 30 million euros for poverty alleviation or employment initiatives are not allocated.”
Clavijo sought to clarify that these budgets are “the most socially-focused that the autonomous community has ever established,” partly due to the fact that “they allocate the highest funding to Health, Education, and Social Services,” and emphasised that at least the Canary Islands possess such resources. “If you attribute these descriptors to us, what would you say about your own Government? Is the absence of budgets beneficial for the economy, for society, or for economic activity? What is that? That is irresponsibility,” he asserted.
