After several weeks of negotiations, the Balearic Government of the PP has moved forward with its proposal for a spending ceiling for the 2025 Autonomous Budgets thanks to the abstention of Vox, which this Monday announced its position after extracting the commitment from the Popular Party that they will not agree to the distribution of unaccompanied foreign minors proposed by the central government, as well as the implementation of other measures to fight against “irregular immigration and occupation.”
The Balearic Parliament has approved, with the votes of the 25 PP deputies, the Formentera parliamentarian Llorenç Córdoba and the former Vox deputy Xisco Cardona, a spending limit set at 6,562 million euros that the conservatives have described as “historic.” Faced with this, the opposition has accused the Government of “dressing up” its numbers, which it considers “unsustainable” and aimed at “injecting more resources into the real estate sector and the policy of rentism.”
During his speech in the plenary session, the Minister of Economy, Finance and Innovation, Antoni Costa, defended next year’s figures, stating that, since the PP governs the islands, the spending ceiling has increased by 615 million of euros. “Fortunately, the Balearic Islands are an economically dynamic Autonomous Community that grows year after year thanks, essentially, to the services sector and, above all, tourism,” he stressed, going on to champion the measures that the Executive has approved at an economic level since the beginning of legislature.
Among other initiatives, Costa has made special mention of the tax reform carried out by the Government, highlighting, in line with one of the mantras most repeated by conservative parties, that “it is possible to lower taxes and increase social spending.” which has generated boos from the opposition bench. In this sense, he has referred to the partial elimination of the Inheritance and Donation Tax, a measure that the Marga Prohens Executive approved via emergency decree against the warnings issued in this regard by the Independent Authority for Fiscal Responsibility (Airef). , state entity in charge of evaluating public accounts.
He has also referred to the exemption from paying the Wealth Tax for those who own less than three million euros – the limit was previously 700,000 euros -, with which the islands plan to stop collecting between 60 and 70 million euros. For the year 2025, the elimination of the Property Transfer Tax (ITP) on the purchase of the first habitual residence for those under 30 years of age, as well as the reduction of the regional income tax section.
The PP: “These are the second Budgets of change”
Costa has highlighted that the spending ceiling is the “previous step to the approval of the second budgets of the change” and has stated that, “far from the noise and confrontation”, the Government “has focused on providing solutions to the main problems of the population and to fulfill the objectives set with the support of other formations”, in reference to those of Santiago Abascal. The spokesperson for the regional Executive has also stated that, “despite being in a minority”, the PP Government is a “guarantee of stability”. He also thanked Vox’s parliamentary spokesperson, Manuela Cañadas, for her “predisposition to negotiate and reach agreements”, and stressed that “guaranteeing the tranquility of citizens is a wise decision.”
The councilor has assured that the 2025 accounts will allow us to continue improving, among other issues, the provision of essential public services and promoting housing policies. Meanwhile, in the section dedicated to the sources of income of the Autonomous Community, Antoni Costa has once again referred to the urgent need to start the debate on the reform of autonomous financing. “We cannot wait another minute,” he stressed. Likewise, in the chapter on own taxes, he has insisted that the proceeds from the Sustainable Tourism Tax (ITS) – some 148 million euros – will be used to modernize mature tourist areas, environmental policies and, “for the first time, to combat intrusion and illegal tourism offers.”
At one point in the debate, when Costa was making his last reply before the vote on the spending ceiling, and while the spokesperson for the PSIB-PSOE, Iago Negueruela, accused him from his seat of agreeing “with turncoats”, the councilor, from the tribune, has ended up responding: “You have no right to call them either turncoats or hosts.” At the end of his speech, he apologized to those present for the tone used. He has also asked the left not to try to block the processing of the regional accounts and to make constructive contributions and has reiterated the will of the regional Executive to lead a broad front with all political forces, economic and social agents and civil society to face future negotiations.
For his part, Negueruela has criticized that with the numbers presented the PP is moving towards a model “based on the injection of more resources into the real estate sector and the policy of rentism,” and that is why “only real estate companies support it.” “They try to maintain a cycle that they know will not last, and they do it by distorting the numbers and deceiving the public.” In this regard, he has asserted that the collection of the wealth tax “is inflated by at least 20 million euros”, since he has accused the Government of “presenting 200 million euros more because it has not used the European funds, which are not capable of managing.”
The PSIB: “When European funds fall, cuts will come”
“And when European funds fall, that will be when the cuts come, because this is not sustainable,” he warned, emphasizing that part of the revenue that the Balearic Islands expect to have in 2025 will be of a transitory and non-structural nature. In this regard, Airef asserts that, although this circumstance means provisionally reaching a surplus situation, it should not push public administrations to cut taxes or rely on their fiscal policy on accounts supported by more fickle funds. “Airef is saying: ‘Be careful, do not remove permanent taxes in exchange for extraordinary EU revenues.’ You, on the other hand, talk about them as if they were permanent,” he criticized, addressing the popular ones.
The socialist has stressed that the numbers announced by the PP “are only directed at rentiers”, given that “no worker will benefit”. “They do not want inspections to be carried out in the summer, they do not include any measures against job insecurity, no word for the workers. Nothing in terms of innovation, transformation, professional training. More brick and more income, yes,” added Negueruela, who has also criticized that the spending ceiling goes ahead with the abstention of Vox under the pretext of “since I already have two turncoats, let them do it for us.” . Among them, he referred to the president of Llorenç Córdoba, denounced for alleged crimes of bribery, prevarication, embezzlement of public funds, negotiations prohibited to officials and influence peddling “while Prohens meets with him to agree on the spending ceiling.”
“It is, therefore, the turncoats who break the tie vote. Is this the democratic quality you are referring to? “Let some turncoats mark the Government’s roadmap?” he slipped.
Along these lines, the spokesperson for Més per Mallorca, Lluís Apesteguia, has stated that, “once again”, the PP has deployed “the discourse that money is better in the pockets of citizens, as if pockets maintained schools. or they built hospitals, or as if all pockets were equally full.” The eco-sovereign leader has defended his negative vote on the spending ceiling by being contrary to the fiscal policy of a “conservative neoliberal party”, as he has referred to the PP, as well as the fact that the measure has been negotiated with Vox.
Meanwhile, Podemos spokesperson, Cristina Gómez, has accused the Government of “devoting itself to favoring the ‘millionaires’ of the Balearic Islands”, among other measures through the progressiveness of the tax rate applied to inheritances of less than 700,000 euros, situated at 1%, a percentage that gradually rises to 20% for assets of more than four million.
#approves #turncoats #spending #ceiling #Balearic #Islands #rejecting #distribution #migrant #minors #Vox #demanded
