Sánchez announces the creation of a National Public Health Centre by law

Santa Cruz de La Palma, Canary Islands

The Chief Executive started his appearance before the media by sending a message of solidarity to localities that are suffering devastation from the fires, such as the Valencian Community and Aragon. "They have the full commitment of the government and the entire National Civil Protection System to control and extinguish these serious fires, and to recover and rebuild the areas damaged by them".

Accompanied by the Minister for Health, Carolina Darias, and the President of the Canary Islands, Ángel Víctor Torres, the President of the Government of Spain made an institutional visit during which he held a meeting with the President of the Cabildo of La Palma, Mariano Hernández Zapata, and the Government Delegate, Anselmo Pestana, among other authorities, and visited the works on the new road in the northern area, the La Costa road (Tazacorte).

Pedro Sánchez highlighted the eleven months of co-governance and cooperation between all the administrations for the reconstruction of La Palma, and the fact that they are "redoubling their efforts to reduce bureaucracy and speed up procedures". He reviewed the data that support the commitment to the island, including the Government's mobilisation of aid amounting to more than 418 million euros, the ERTES vis-à-vis the economic standstill caused by the volcano, and the nearly 15 million euros to save the plantations and offset the losses of more than 3,000 banana producers.

As part of his commitment to the people of La Palma from day one, Pedro Sánchez announced the implementation of a network for monitoring, measuring and controlling emissions of toxic gases, mainly CO2, in Puerto Naos and La Bombilla, with an investment of 3 million euros over four years to mitigate any harmful effects of the gases that the volcano continues to emit on the population. This, the president stated, is "further proof of the Government of Spain's commitment to the island of La Palma, to its neighbours and to the Canary Islands Government. In these five years of government, the Canary Islands will receive almost 60% more economic resources than in the last five years of the previous administration," he stressed.

General Council of the Judiciary

Pool Moncloa/Fernando Calvo

The President of the Government of Spain has asked the PP parliamentary party "to comply with the Constitution, with the law and with the agreements it has signed" to renew the General Council of the Judiciary, which has been blocked for 1,351 days. "I ask the main opposition party not only to comply with what has been signed, but also to comply with the law and the Constitution", and to abandon its unprecedented attitude of "obstructionism, blocking, and saying no to everything".

He also appealed to the spirit of agreement that was forged at the Conference of Presidents held in La Palma last March. He was referring to the energy crisis we are suffering in Europe due to the war in Ukraine and Putin's energy blackmail, calling once again for "responsibility, solidarity and unity" to comply with our agreements reached in Brussels.

Asked about the recent statements made by the German Chancellor, Olaf Scholz, he expressed his confidence in being able to make the energy interconnection of the Iberian Peninsula with Europe a reality, as "something that the Spanish government has been announcing and demanding from Europe for a long time now. Spain has much to contribute to Europe to reduce its energy dependence on Russia. We have a third of the regasification capacity of the whole of the European Union, and we are a world power in renewable energies," he stressed.

On immigration, after expressing his solidarity with the families of the immigrants who have died on our coasts, the President of the Government of Spain gave a positive assessment of the comparison between this year and last: "There is a downward trend that we have to celebrate, because it means that we are strengthening our position and good work is being done with transit countries, including the work of the Government of Spain to this effect".

Non official translation