Resounding success for the self-employed in Las Palmas: A slap in the face to the woke employers' associations

Despite the absence of the official employers' association, the Canary Islands Confederation of Employers (Confederación Canaria de Empresarios), along with ATA and Cecapyme, Las Palmas experienced one of those days that will be etched in the collective memory of a sector that, despite bearing disproportionate burdens, never gives up. Official support for the 2030 Agenda and the woke plans targeting family businesses have been utterly undermined.

 

The self-employed of southern Gran Canaria—that silent army that sustains entire neighborhoods, that opens its shutters before sunrise and that competes unevenly against large corporations and a voracious bureaucracy—managed this Sunday to support an unprecedented victory in Las Palmas in their struggle against what many are already calling a “fiscal hell”.

 

 

The demonstration called for early this morning in the main shopping streets of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria's Triana district exceeded all expectations. What began as an almost impromptu call to action on social media transformed into a cohesive movement of restaurant and bar owners, shopkeepers, taxi drivers, transport workers, designers, street vendors, and other professionals who, through sheer persistence and frustration, finally forced the authorities to listen.

 

The key to success lay in unity. There were no party affiliations. There were no staged speeches. Only testimonies from those who have spent years enduring increased fees, delayed refunds, automatic penalties, and a tax system that demands as if everyone were a large corporation. 

 

The reactions were immediate. Shops in Triana erupted in applause on the street. It was the first time in years that they felt their struggle was having a tangible effect.

 

Success, however, doesn't erase reality: the tax system remains stifling and uncertainty persists. But the message has been sent. The self-employed in Las Palmas demonstrated that, organized and fearless, they can shift the tectonic plates of an administration that seemed immovable.