The Balearic president, Marga Prohens, manages to save the community’s budgets for next year, some accounts of 7.3 billion euros, after accepting all the demands that Vox had presented through different amendments. Prohens has had to give in to her partners since the support of the Formentera deputy, Llorenç Córdoba, had been left up in the air. That vote was key so that the president had more votes than the left and she could save the budgets with Vox’s abstention without needing an affirmative vote.
The change in parliamentary majorities has forced the president to give up much more than she had initially anticipated. He has had to accept amendments with which he does not agree, especially two very controversial ones: a reserve of 20 million for a pilot plan for language choice in classrooms starting next year and the elimination of all aid to unions and Business organizations.
Other transfers from the PP involve the elimination of the wealth tax for assets of less than three million euros compared to the 750,000 that are now set and tax exemptions for owners for renting housing and for families for caring for dependent people. It is estimated that these measures represent a decrease in income of close to 100 million euros.
Marga Prohens had guaranteed herself the favorable vote of a former Vox deputy who turned away, so Santiago Abascal’s party has announced that one of its deputies will vote with the left against the accounts of the Balearic Government to compensate for his vote. “The governance of the Balearic Islands cannot be in the hands of a turncoat or an alleged blackmailer,” said Vox spokesperson in Parliament, Idoia Ribas.
In parallel, the Formentera deputy has finally announced that he will vote in favor of the budgets, but Prohens has preferred to tie up the support of Vox given the possibility that Francina Armengol’s accounts would have to be extended if her partners finally voted against. Vox has suggested that the president would be more comfortable if Santiago Abascal’s party entered the Government, something that has been ruled out for now. The Balearic Islands are the only community where Vox did not enter the executive after the pacts after the regional elections.
The Balearic Islands are currently without a budget project since they fell into parliamentary processing as a result of the new majority. In the plenary session that begins this Tuesday, the PP’s individual votes must be voted first to recover all the sections that were blocked in committee and that have caused there to be no budgets right now.