Prohens rules out early elections: "They cannot be called for opportunistic reasons"

PalmThe President of the Balearic Government, Marga Prohens, highlighted the "stability" of her administration and stressed that early elections "cannot be called for political opportunism." This was the Balearic president's response to questions from the media, posed this Wednesday at an event commemorating November 25th, following the previous day's parliamentary session, in which the possibility of early elections in the Balearic Islands was suggested.

Prohens argued that elections "aren't announced, they are called," even though "some people see it as a game," she criticized, referring to the speech given by the PSIB spokesperson in Parliament, Iago Negueruela, who claimed he "wasn't afraid of the ballot box." To support her argument, she noted that both presented budgets had been approved and the Parliament had given the green light to several laws and decrees, while several others were still being processed. She emphasized that, "despite the parliamentary noise," the Government has a "clear" roadmap and is "calm." Furthermore, the president stressed that she had fulfilled her "obligation" to present the new spending ceiling and passed the responsibility to the opposition after their initial rejection of allocating "an additional 600 million euros for the challenges facing the Balearic Islands."

Prohens also countered with the rhetorical question of why elections aren't being called where "they should be called, which is the Spanish government," an institution which, in her opinion, is paralyzed by the lack of a budget and the rejection of some of the initiatives presented in the Congress of Deputies. In this regard, she argued that the situation in the Balearic Islands is "very different" from that of the national government, which she accused of "violating" the Constitution by not having presented a draft budget during this legislative session. She also stated that the Prime Minister, Pedro Sánchez, isn't calling these early elections because "he knows the right wing would win," and she described this as an "attack" on the rule of law and a "stab in the back" of the Constitution.

At the same time, Prohens has distinguished herself from the political situation in Extremadura (where early elections have been called), since in that region the last approved budget is from 2024.

Regarding the negotiations over the spending cap, she criticized the "ideological agenda" and said they "have nothing to do" with the budget limit. Thus, she emphasized that with the registration of the deficit target in Parliament, the "counter in progress"Therefore, the Government now has 15 days to negotiate them and has extended a hand to the various parties, but especially to the PSIB and Vox, with whom it has stated that it will try "until the end."

"They can bring as many recorders as they want"

Another issue Prohens was asked about during the press conference was the intervention by Vox spokesperson Manuela Cañadas, in which she suggested they would attend negotiations with the Government with recording devices due to alleged breaches in the application of the Balearic Law on Strategic Residential Projects. In response, Prohens stated that "they can bring as many recording devices as they want," emphasizing that this law is "public" and has the "legitimacy" of the Parliament (it should be remembered that it was approved by a Vox majority). "If it doesn't reflect what Vox was asking for, they should have voted against it," she pointed out. From her perspective, Cañadas is interpreting the law in a way that "is not in the law," which demonstrates a "lack of understanding" of the legislation approved by her parliamentary group. "Yesterday, the Vox spokesperson asked for interference in municipal autonomy, which is a basic principle enshrined in the law, which gives municipalities deadlines and tools to develop transition areas," she argued. The president of the Balearic government also expressed her pride in this law, which is "the result of an agreement between both parties," and drew a parallel with the issue of the use of Spanish as a language of instruction in schools.