The Council stops part of the 84 million aid due to technical errors and sparks opposition criticism
The institution withdraws 17.5 million euros from the announced package due to the impact of the war in Iran while it reviews the requirements, including the three years of residency.
PalmThe Consell de Mallorca has decided to halt, for the moment and for technical reasons, a portion of the aid package to address the economic effects derived from the war in Iran. This amounts to 17.5 million euros that the government team had planned to incorporate into this year's budget through a credit modification charged to the remainder.
This item was to be debated in this Thursday's plenary session, but it has finally been withdrawn from the agenda. As reported by Última Hora and confirmed by Consell sources to Europa Press, the institution has opted to conduct a technical review of the document because there are "improvable" aspects.
The intention is to correct these issues to facilitate more agile access to aid and approve the credit modification in an extraordinary plenary session as soon as possible.
This aid is part of the 84 million euro package announced last week by the president of the Consell, Llorenç Galmés, as part of the measures to address the economic impact of the conflict in the Middle East.
A part does go ahead
Despite the withdrawal of this item, the April plenary session will indeed debate another incorporation of surplus, in this case of 25.5 million euros. Of these, 13 million will be allocated entirely to the social shield to face the war escalation.
Criticism for improvisation
The decision has generated recriminations among the main opposition parties, who accuse the government team of having acted hastily. “It was a surprise, because this morning we had an informative commission and they announced that they were withdrawing this point from the agenda because they had to finish a series of reports... the haste,” stated the spokesperson for MÉS per Mallorca, Catalina Inés Perelló. The eco-sovereigntist warned that these 17.5 million will take longer to arrive because either “they were not well justified” or the government team “has nothing done”.
Along the same lines, the spokesperson for the PSIB, Catalina Cladera, lamented the withdrawal “in an improvised manner” and attributed it to a “lack of planning and sensitivity”. The socialists have called for a new proposal for a social shield that is “real, complete, and inclusive”.
Furthermore, the PSIB has questioned the overall content of the package announced by Galmés. According to their statement, 60% of the 84 million correspond to municipal investments that were already foreseen in the 2026 budgets.
Of the remainder, only the 17.5 million now withdrawn had been specified in specific measures, an amount they consider “totally insufficient to face the social situation”.
The Minister of Finance defends himself
Rafel Bosch, Treasury advisor for the Consell de Mallorca has assured that this Wednesday has been a very positive day for the Mallorcans, as various aids have been secured to alleviate the effects of the war. Regarding the allocation of 13 million, he highlighted that they are "a first step of protection, a social shield for the price increases that residents in Mallorca will have to face in the coming weeks.
On the other hand, regarding the withdrawn item, he has remarked that they have made this decision to "study the files a little better". "We have had to do it in a bit of a hurry due to the circumstances, but it must be taken into account that there has been Easter in between and public holidays," he defended. In this regard, he has remarked that this freezing of budgetary items will allow for "improving the files so as not to leave things ambiguous and to avoid subsidies arriving later". Furthermore, he also added that the figure of millions allocated to this item could increase, thus exceeding 30 million euros.
The three-year requirement, up in the air
One of the points included in the justification report for the credit modification was the requirement for beneficiaries to prove three years of legal residency. Currently, the Consell has not clarified whether this requirement will be maintained or modified during the technical review.
The measure has been especially criticized by the PSIB, which considers that it "smells of racism" because it excludes part of the most vulnerable population. "There were aid worth nine million euros that excluded people for the mere fact of not complying with a minimum of three years of residency, a measure with a clear discriminatory whiff," denounced Cladera.
The socialists attribute this approach to the "influence" of Vox in the government team and point out that the pressure from social entities could have been key in the withdrawal of the point.
Perelló also pointed in this direction and suggested that the decision to halt the credit modification could be linked to this requirement.
