Canary Islands: Barriers, Headquarters, and Symbols
Barrier Islands
- Regional Barrier: 3% of valid votes.
Barrier Island: it was 15% of the valid vote.
These two barriers were in the Primitive Statute. An island had to have 15% of each island or 3% of the regional vote, which the latter had already passed for the barrier islands, but all had to have 15% on each island.
In ’96, the 15% barrier rose to 30%, and the 3% increased to 6%.
The first barrier status of the Canary Islands was twofold:
- A regional 3% barrier: an atypical barrier because it is applied to a constituency. It was calculated as follows: all the votes for a party in the Canary Islands are added, and if those votes are at least 3% of the valid vote, they would pass the barrier. This method can help the major parties. In the reform of ’96, this barrier was raised to 6%.
The second barrier is an island barrier, which works island by island and is more rational as each island is a constituency. The first proposal was 15%, and 20% was applied in the original statute. This means that a party in each island that has to pass the barrier must have 20% of the vote. The reform of ’96 raised it to 30%. Much like the reform of ’96, a third barrier was also established, which is also atypical. The third barrier is that the winning party on an island passes the barrier regardless of the vote.
Institutional Headquarters and Symbols of the Canaries
It is the physical place where the institution resides. The city where the headquarters is located is called the capital. The Canary Islands have two capitals, Las Palmas de Gran Canaria and Santa Cruz de Tenerife, which is unusual as there is usually only one capital. Therefore, the Canary Islands have a shared capital.
There are two institutions under the Parliament: the auditor’s accounts and the Deputy Common.
- The Court of Auditors has 5 members and is a collegiate body. The members are called auditors. It is the body that audits public accounts in the Canaries. Budgetary control can be done before and after the expenditure.
- Deputy Common is a person, a single Judge Canaria, and is the only institution based outside of the larger islands. It is located in Santa Cruz de la Palma but has offices throughout the islands. It is so named because in the old regime it had something, it means defender of the people.
- Advisory Council of the Canary Islands: is a joint council because it depends on parliament and government. It consists of 7 directors and is based in Laguna. It issues opinions at the request of Parliament and the Government on whether the Acts of Parliament or the Government agree with the constitution or not.
- Delegation of the Government: the delegation of the State in the Canary Islands by the Spanish government. Each autonomous region has a delegation. The headquarters of the delegation is in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, and Tenerife is the sub-delegation. Each community has a delegation. On each island, there is a representative peripheral island that depends on the government delegate.
Symbols: Flag, Coat of Arms, and Anthem
The flag and emblem are part of the statute, as is the anthem. The flag of the Canary Islands is represented by the colors of the union of the two islands (yellow-blue-white). Each port has a flag of registry. In the nineteenth century, Madrid assigned the colors to the flags: white and blue to Tenerife (corresponding to the letter M) and yellow and blue to Gran Canaria (corresponding to point K).
The Athenaeum was a blue flag with 7 white stars arranged like the map of the islands. Green is the color of the fiscal unity, and Cubillo gives it as the Canaries being African. Wearing green means changing the color because the blue is not visible, so they wear light blue.
- As for the shield (it’s in the statute as the flag), it is the traditional shield, and some call it the coat of dogs. The statute tells the story of the Romans when they arrived and saw so many dogs, so they put them on the shield.
- The hymn is not in the statute but is an Act of Parliament of the Canary Islands. Benito Cabrera wrote the lyrics to the Anthem of the Islands. Each community has its own coat of arms and anthem.