Canary Island Politics

The Canary Islands consists of two provinces: Las Palmas and Santa Cruz de Tenerife, whose capitals (Las Palmas de Gran Canaria and Santa Cruz de Tenerife) are co-capitals of the island nation. Each of the seven major islands are ruled by an island council. The country is part of the jurisdiction of Spain but is considered an autonomous territory. However, the islands do not enjoy any special degree of autonomy as each of the Spanish regions are considered an autonomous community.

The Canaries have 13 seats in the Spanish Senate. Of these, 11 seats are directly elected and 2 seats are indirectly elected by the regional Autonomous Government. The local government is presided over by Paulino Rivero Baute.

The international boundary of the Canaries is the subject of a dispute between Spain and Morocco. Morocco does not agree that the laws regarding territorial limits allow Spain to claim for itself seabed boundaries (and their minerals) based on the territory of the Canaries because the Canary Islands are "autonomous." The debate about the Canary Islands is on going and there has been little action to resolve the issue.

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