The delegate of the Government in Cantabria, Eugenia Gómez de Diego, today regretted the "lack of solidarity" manifested by the Government of Cantabria "both with unaccompanied minors and also with the Canary Islands", and asked the Executive chaired by María José Sáenz de Buruaga (PP) to "break with the policies of Vox".
In a statement, Gómez de Diego has been "very critical" of the "inexplicable" statements of the Social Welfare Councilor, Begoña Gómez, who has assured that Cantabria is "quite stressed" when the autonomous community currently hosts 21 minors. "What will the Canary Islands say, then, that it is accommodating 6,000 minors? ", he wondered.
For the delegate of the Government, these statements "are a sign of the insolidarity of the Government of Buruaga", to which he has asked "a sense of State and courage to break with the xenophobic policies of Vox". "It is paradigmatic that it is VOX that is breaking with the PP and not the PP with the policies of VOX," he said.
After recalling that the PP Government has already refused to allow the Spanish Government to buy the old psychiatric hospital in Parayas – closed for a decade – to rehabilitate it as an international reception centre, "in a project that was going to ensure an adequate reception for people fleeing from war, repression and misery and that entailed an investment of close to 25 million euros, in addition to the generation of direct and indirect employment", Gómez de Diego believes that "it is time for the Cantabrian Government to rise to the occasion and set an example, as well as the solidarity demonstrated by the Cantabros with the reception".
"Humanity, Solidarity and Justice"
"First, for humanity with children and adolescents; and second, for solidarity with the Canary Islands. If Cantabria were in its position, we would also like the rest of the country to lend us a hand," he said.
For all these reasons, he maintains that "the Government of the PP cannot and must not give up giving a supportive and responsible response to the situation of vulnerability that children and adolescents come to our country without adults in their charge and to the urgency of the communities that are border and that, sometimes, as now happens in the Canary Islands, are overcome in their capacities".
Thus, the delegate has stressed that the referral of 347 children and adolescents approved at the Sectoral Conference of Children "is very far from solving the problem". "The fact is that we continue with 6,000 foreign minors in the Canary Islands and we have to give them a solution," he said.
In this way, he has urged the regional executive to "be on the human side" and to position himself in favor of "unblocking" the reform of the Aliens Act that would allow to alleviate the saturation of the centers of the Archipelago. "We have the ethical duty and also the patriotic duty of justice and solidarity. It is unjustifiable in a modern and supportive society such as ours to leave the children unattended and the Canaries, Ceuta and Melilla alone," he said in relation to the break that Gómez de Diego demands with the policies of VOX.