The Minister of Tourism and Employment of the Canary Islands Government, Jessica de León, has received threats and attacks against her home and car due to the Law on the Sustainable Management of Tourist Use of Accommodations, also known as the Holiday Rental Law, which was approved by the regional parliament on 12 November.
This was stated by the Canarian Vice President and Minister of Economy, Manuel Domínguez, on Wednesday, in a statement to Radio Centonia Fuerteventura carried by Europa Press in which he added that this is an issue that the Minister herself does not like to know.
He noted: “I know you don’t like me saying this but I have to report it. We reported it where it needed to be done, logically, and the police were attentive to the whole situation because it was not an isolated case.”
Dominguez particularly emphasized the fact that there were threats wishing the death of both the Chancellor and President Fernando Clavijo. He said: “This is what we received, but why? Because selfishness, personality, and ‘what’s mine’ are what prevail in such situations.”
Here, the president of the Popular Party of the Canary Islands and De León’s colleague in the party also stressed that he must publicly condemn this situation because it is “unacceptable”, because politicians can make mistakes, but the only goal that the regional government had was to “help” the citizens and be able to “reorganize” the main source of income in the archipelago, which is tourism.
The law was passed by rejecting the opposition
For its part, the Parliament of the Canary Islands approved on November 12 the law regulating holiday rentals with the rejection of opposition groups – PSOE, NC-bc and Vox – which also objected to the discussion of 24 “voice” amendments proposed by the quartet.
Subsequently, the Minister of Tourism, Jessica de Leon, admitted that it was a rule that was “difficult to comprehend, difficult to explain and difficult to administer” to process and was appreciated by the work of the CC, PP, ASG and AHI “for being in the public interest and not being held hostage in this Parliament by political tactics”.
In the Canary Islands, 44.6% of holiday homes are in the hands of individuals, while 55.3% of them and 55.5% of places are managed by foreign entities or owners, rather than by small local owners.
Therefore, with this rule, it will not be possible to create new holiday homes for five years, until city councils have a municipal planning that explicitly enables them, and will be able to decide how, where, when and how many holiday homes are allowed in their municipality, by regions or cores, always ensuring that these decisions do not affect the quality of life of residents.
Under this legislation, 90% of homes must be used for residential use, while only 10% may be for holiday use, and city councils will have a period of six months to implement the corresponding inspection plan.
From now on, it will no longer be possible to use officially protected housing for tourism purposes, while one of the most important novelties in the new regional law is that it bans pseudo-hotels, buildings in which all the houses are holiday homes.
In addition, the rule also stipulates that new homes may only be used for tourism ten years after their construction.