The first visit by a Lehendakari to the Canary Islands, led by Imanol Pradales, has left a deep sense of unease among a large part of the Basque business community with interests in the archipelago, especially in southern Gran Canaria. Despite the fact that the island has been the driving force of business relations between the Basque Country and the Canary Islands for decades, the official program of the Basque leader has ignored any stop on the round island. While in the offices, people talked about quantum science and migration cooperation, in southern Gran Canaria, businesspeople from strategic sectors criticized the institutional vacuum. For them, this absence leaves out the true epicenter of the Basque-Canary economic relationship and fuels the feeling that political photo ops are being prioritized over contact with the real economy.
Anger runs through key sectors: from aquaculture and Basque-based tourism in southern Gran Canaria to the Gran Canaria Island Council's cooperation with the Basque Culinary Center or the influence of shipyards like Zamakona. "It's inexplicable, even though Real Sociedad B was playing against UD Las Palmas last Friday, that a collaboration protocol with the Canary Islands is being signed without taking into account the business reality of Gran Canaria, which has historically been the meeting point with the Basque Country since the crossbowmen were crushed by the Guanches during the Castilian Conquest," say industry sources consulted by this newspaper.
Despite the business noise, Pradales and the president of the Canary Islands, Fernando Clavijo, took advantage of the meeting to showcase their institutional harmony. Both signed a general collaboration protocol in strategic areas such as research, innovation, aerospace science, astrophysics, quantum technologies, healthcare, the audiovisual industry, and tourism. Vocational training, the blue economy, and internationalization along the Atlantic axis were also included. "All of this is here in Gran Canaria, and much of it in Fuereventura, where Jandía has a Basque name," said the same business leader. Both leaders emphasized the value of "useful, responsible, and dialoguing" politics in the face of "populism" and the tensions plaguing Spanish politics. "The Basque Country and the Canary Islands will continue to act responsibly until the Spanish government does its homework," Pradales stated.
