From Fitur to Berlin: Prohens shoots up spending on institutional trips

PalmaPresident Marga Prohens has multiplied spending on institutional travel in relation to the last term of Francina Armengol. This is evident from the response that the Government sent to various parliamentary questions from the PSIB. According to this data, the head of the Executive has made 25 trips this legislature, of which 14 have been outside the Islands, with an accumulated expense of 151,841.55 euros. While in the previous legislature (marked by the pandemic and the mobility restrictions it entailed), Armengol made 33 trips, 12 outside the Islands, which cost 98,173.95 euros. According to the data that the PSIB made public in the last plenary session of Parliament, the main difference between the two presidents is that Prohens travels with a much larger entourage.

According to the parliamentary group's documents, the most notable expense is the trip to the International Tourism Fair (FITUR) in Madrid in 2025, for which the Government spent 26,049.9 euros, alongside the 9,604.21 that Armengol's last trip cost. At that time, 29 people accompanied Prohens (with an expense of 21,479.78 euros), in addition to her cabinet (the director and the heads of the Protocol Secretariat and the Press Secretariat). At the World Travel Market (WTM) in London in 2025, the president's trip represented an expense of 20,389 euros compared to the 9,576 of Armengol's last trip to the same location, in 2022. On that trip, the head of the Executive mobilized eleven companions.

Prohens also exceeded Armengol's spending on her visit to the International Tourism Exchange (ITB) in Berlin in 2024. It cost 18,600 euros, compared to 11,286.9 for the previous Government. The figure also increases regarding the trips of the head of the Executive to Brussels to participate in the Committee of the Regions. In 2024, Prohens made the trip for 3,997.73 euros. The figure increased to 7,809.65 euros for the same trip, but spending one more night there, in October 2025, and it cost 6,683.28 euros in December 2025 (also for two nights). In contrast, Armengol's trip cost 1,931.9 euros in 2019. In the same vein, the expense of the informational snack at Europa Press (in Madrid) represented 3,906.33 euros of public money for the president's team. Compared to the 1,632 euros that Armengol's cost one year earlier. In February 2024, the president and several councilors also attended the ABC Forum in Madrid, which resulted in an expense of 4,366.52 euros.

In last Tuesday's plenary session, the PSIB deputy, Mercedes Garrido, brought these figures to the table. During the control session of the Government, the socialist reproached the second vice-president and Minister of the Presidency, Antònia Estarellas, for these expenses. "The spending containment of this Government is the same as the tourism containment," Garrido retorted. To which Estarellas responded by accusing the deputy of posing a generic question and then detailing the data orally. "You were not interested in me giving an answer," she lamented.