Socialist leader critiques canary islands governance
Ángel Víctor Torres, the Secretary General of the PSOE in the Canary Islands, met this Friday with Socialist mayors and municipal spokespeople from across the archipelago in La Laguna, Tenerife. The meeting served to analyze the start of the political season after the summer break and to address citizens’ top priorities, including housing, education, and social services.
A call for coherent governance
Torres emphasized that the real problems facing Canarian society “are not solved with propaganda or empty announcements, but with effective public policies, resources, and brave decisions.” In this regard, he called on the coalition government of Coalición Canaria (CC) and Partido Popular (PP) to exercise its powers “with coherence and responsibility” instead of “saying one thing and doing the opposite.”
Questioning political alliances
He specifically questioned what he called the “double standard” of Coalición Canaria. “It is not credible to say that Vox is a fascist party and at the same time make pacts with them in municipalities like Teguise, Granadilla, or Arona,” he stated. In contrast, he assured that the PSOE remains firm in its commitment: “We will never govern with Vox in the Canary Islands. We are consistent, and we keep our word.”
Unfulfilled promises and social policy
Torres also recalled that CC and PP promised to lower the Canary Islands General Tax (IGIC) by two points—a pledge he claimed “has become the biggest electoral deception of recent years, as they will not fulfill it during the entire legislative term.” He also highlighted that the PSOE is “the party that won the regional elections, has the highest number of mayors, and is the only one with parliamentary representation on every island.”
He underscored that the organization will continue to exercise a firm and constructive opposition, defending equality, social equity, and public policies that serve the majority. “The Canary Islands need coherence, responsibility, and real solutions, not empty announcements. And that is where the Socialist Party will continue to be, with proposals and hard work,” he added.
The pressing issue of housing
The Socialist leader highlighted that the main concern for town councils is access to housing, criticizing the current regional government for not having delivered “a single housing unit as a result of its management.” He denounced that the high cost of rent is now affecting even teachers, some of whom have had to resign from their posts or live in caravans.
Torres defended the need to designate stressed residential areas and push for effective measures, following examples from other autonomous communities like Catalonia. He also called for the implementation of a tourist tax, describing it as “a fair measure that would allow the over 18 million visitors the Canary Islands receives to contribute to improving our infrastructure, protecting the environment, and strengthening public services.”
Concerns over education and university funding
Torres also denounced the breakdown of the funding program for the Canary Islands’ public universities, a decision that has been questioned by the university rectors themselves. Furthermore, he warned that school dropout rates, which had fallen in recent years, have begun to rise again under the current government. “We cannot go backwards in educational policies because what is at stake is the future of the Canary Islands,” he stated.
