Sergio Rodríguez urge al Gobierno de España a abonar los 100 millones comprometidos en la Agenda Canaria para devolver el valor patrimonial a los afectados.
The island president defended the motion presented by Coalición Canaria in the Ordinary Plenary Session of the Corporation urging the national government to fulfill the commitment made to the people of La Palma.
The president of the Cabildo de La Palma, Sergio Rodríguez, demands that the Government of Spain pay the 100 million euros to cover the value of what was lost by the people affected by the eruption of the Tajogaite volcano that occurred in 2021. Rodríguez supported this motion presented by the Coalición Canaria Group in the island institution during the last Ordinary Plenary Session held on Thursday, April 10.
The highest representative of the La Palma Corporation recalled that this amount was committed within the Canary Agenda agreement to be able to return the affected individuals the patrimonial value of what was lost, emphasizing that the Cabildo’s government, entirely made up of nationalists, «always defended that those who lost their properties under the lava should recover the value of what was lost at the time of the eruption.» He points out that never before in the constitutional history of the country had such a catastrophe been faced, so it is understood that the only way to address the damages caused was through reconstruction «without conditions,» he emphasized.
Sergio Rodríguez argued that this stance was not shared by all political parties but that, despite this situation, «the Cabildo de La Palma, hand in hand with the Government of the Canary Islands, is meeting the needs of the affected people and the entire community with actions for the common good such as the recovery of Puerto Naos, neighborhood roads, or public spaces, among others.»
The island president also noted that to achieve this goal, the national political party supported the investiture of the current president, Pedro Sánchez, and the 2023 budgets on the condition that the Canary Agenda be respected, which includes a series of multi-year payments of 100 million euros, with the Government of the Canary Islands adding another 50 million euros annually to advance in the payment of the lost value to all those affected.
Rodríguez reiterated that the government of the Cabildo de La Palma and the Canary Islands Executive stand by the people, as reflected in the resolution that guarantees «the restitution of the value of the lost assets, since we cannot return their life prior to September 19.»
In this regard, the president recalled that there have been «repeated and constant requests made by the Minister of Presidency, Public Administrations, Justice, and Security, Nieves Lady Barreto, as well as the President of the Canary Islands, Fernando Clavijo; the deputy in Congress, Cristina Valido, and the senator Pedro Sanginés to the Government of Spain in order to meet the needs of the people of La Palma and close stages in the island’s reconstruction, which involve returning the value of what was lost to the affected individuals so that they can move forward with confidence and a clear direction towards a future that is not only their own, but that of La Palma as well, because our progress depends on the people who shape our territory staying here and moving forward together.»
For all these reasons, Sergio Rodríguez defended this motion in the Corporation’s Plenary to urge the Government of Spain to fulfill the commitment made by its president and transfer the 100 million euros committed for the year 2024, as well as to request assurances about the commitment for 2025, «of which we only have more uncertainty.»
