Santa Cruz de Tenerife 31 Jan (Europa Press) –
The Socialist Deputies from La Palma, Alicia Vanoostende, Manuel Abronte, and Jorge Gonzalez, have expressed their discontent this Friday, stating that the Government of the Canary Islands (CC and PP) has quietly reduced the fuel assistance on the Island of La Palma “by half” with “nocturnal and malicious intent”.
In a press release, the parliamentarians lamented that after “numerous announcements and demagoguery in 2024”, the fuel subsidy for residents of La Palma has now been cut in a manner they describe as “silent, with nocturnal and malicious intent”.
“It is unacceptable that we are still paying significantly more to fill our tanks in La Palma compared to other islands, with price discrepancies reaching up to 18 Euros per tank. This new subsidy offers a mere savings of about 4.5 Euros for Palma residents, which does not come close to compensating for that difference,” emphasised Vanoostende.
Furthermore, the PSOE parliamentarians from La Palma question whether the next step for the Government of the Canary Islands, composed of both the Canarian Coalition and the Popular Party, will be to abolish this subsidy altogether, considering they had previously championed the aid, asserting repeatedly that they would sustain it, yet within “less than a year, they have halved it”.
“From the Socialist Party, we demand the restoration of last year’s level of assistance. Although, as we have pointed out time and again, this subsidy merely serves as a temporary fix and does not address the root issue, we also request the Government of the Canary Islands and the Cabildo de La Palma to implement medium- and long-term measures to rectify the price disparity between capital and non-capital islands,” they added.
Among these proposed measures is the necessity to evaluate fuel distributors to prevent the establishment of monopolies which could distort pricing, alongside encouraging the installation of additional fuel distributors to promote “healthy competition that results in better services and more competitive prices for consumers.”
