SANTA CRUZ DE TENERIFE, 3 Apr. (EUROPE PRESS) –
The senator for the Autonomous Community of the Canary Islands, Fernando Clavijo, will question the State Government about the absence of additional measures for the Canary Islands to compensate for the rise in prices and the impact of the war in Ukraine.
The nationalist senator will intervene in the plenary session of the Upper House that will take place this Tuesday to demand explanations from the Government of Pedro Sánchez “for turning its back on the Islands at a critical moment.”
Fernando Clavijo will recall that almost all of the measures contemplated in the Royal Decree Law approved by the Government to mitigate the economic and social consequences of the increase in prices “will not have an impact on the Islands and, therefore, will barely serve to respond to the growth unstoppable inflation and the problem faced by thousands of families to make ends meet and thousands of self-employed and small and medium-sized businesses, entrepreneurs from the Canary Islands, who have not yet recovered from the ravages of the pandemic and have to face a new economic crisis “.
The senator will emphasize the reasons that have led the socialist government and the president “to request the collaboration of political groups, specifically the Canarian nationalists, to attend to the difficult situation that the Archipelago is going through and then not take into account even one of these measures”.
In this context, he pointed out that it is “unacceptable” that the State “want to respond in a homogeneous way to a crisis that is not” to remind us that both the unemployment indicators and the “alarming” poverty data “place the Islands in a moment of greater fragility than other continental territories and, therefore, requires tailor-made responses”.
In the same way, he pointed out that the increase in fuel prices has a special impact on a territory where the price of fuel, tax-free, is the highest in the State, a situation that is aggravated in islands such as El Hierro, La Palma and La Gomera, as well as, he insisted, “is decisive in the price of air and sea tickets and in the transport of goods”.
In the senator’s opinion, the only specific measure included in the 160 pages of the War Response Plan and which is aimed at the 80% discount on inter-island transport “is not only insufficient, but also does not take into account the reality of the Archipelago “.
Clavijo will propose to the Executive of Pedro Sánchez that he attend to the situation of the Islands “before it is too late and if he really does not want a more impoverished Canary Islands”.
In this context, he will insist on the need to adopt specific measures to deal with the rise in prices and the impact of the war on family economies and on the economic fabric.
The Canarian nationalists transferred to the Executive, prior to the approval of the Royal Decree Law of the Response Plan to the consequences of the war, a document with thirty additional economic and fiscal measures to deal with the impact of inflation and the war.
This document included, among other measures, the reduction of airport taxes, the direct discount of between 30 and 50 cents per liter of fuel, measures aimed at alleviating fiscal pressure and compensating for price increases, and specific proposals for sectors such as primary and industry of the Archipelago.