The president of the Tenerife Council, Rosa Dávila, stated this Wednesday that the institution is complying with financial “stability” in debt and deficit, admitting a “deliberate” breach of the spending rule to support investments for citizens. These remarks came just minutes before a full meeting in which the corporation plans to approve a financial adjustment plan for this year and 2026, after spending 117 million last year on necessary investments for the island. The socialist opposition describes this as a breach of the spending rule.
“(The excess spending) was completely deliberate. As long as there is money in the Council, we are going to spend it. We deliberately breached the spending rule. That is why we only allocated 33 million to debt. Because the previous government left 210 million euros unspent in treasury surplus,” the president said at a press conference about government council agreements after being asked about this issue.
She also stated that in this process, the island government “has been able to spend, execute, and invest them” to enhance “greater employment capacity and economic generation” on Tenerife. “I go further. Not only has the Tenerife Council done it, but Gran Canaria has also deliberately breached the spending rule,” Dávila argued before the media.
The island president justified the financial decision—in reference to breaching the spending rule—taken by the Tenerife Council in response to what they consider the central government’s attitude, which “has no budget and has not given directions regarding stability and the use of treasury surpluses,” and from where therefore, the spending rules are not made “clear.”
In that context, the president continued, the Tenerife Council made a decision: “Not a single euro should remain in the Council’s coffers. Everything is destined for the citizens. And as long as I am president, we will have very high execution rates,” she stated.
In this sense, she explained that the Economic Financial Plan expected to be approved this Wednesday in full session is “a formality” because, she insisted, the Tenerife Council “complies with stability”: “This Council is stable, in debt, and in deficit.”
“Deliberately, so that the money did not remain in the drawer, in the banks, and unspent, we spent all the money. Yes, indeed, I will say it now in the Full Meeting. We spent all the money deliberately. The 210 million euros that the Socialist Party left unspent, we incorporated as a surplus. This year we had 117 million and have already incorporated 47 as a surplus. And I can already tell you that before the year ends, we will have incorporated the 117 million surplus. And the 33 million, only 33 million, will go to debt,” she indicated.
She continued by stating “if I could spend the 33 million, I would,” the island president hinted. “The money from the Tenerife Council is going to stay in Tenerife, it will not be used to finance Catalonia, nor will it finance defence. It will stay in strategic investments in water, environment, infrastructure, roads, and especially aimed at families,” Dávila defended.
