The Council of Mallorca will require five years of residency to access social aid

PalmThe Consell de Mallorca will finally require a minimum of five years of legal residence to be eligible for social aid included in the package intended to alleviate the economic effects derived from the war in Iran. Initially, the island institution had planned to set this requirement at three years.

According to sources from the Consell, this modification allows for the unblocking of a part of the aid that had been stalled and is expected to be approved shortly in an extraordinary plenary session, still without a defined date.

The residency requirement will affect the nine million euros allocated to the Institut Mallorquí d’Afers Socials (IMAS), responsible for managing social aid. This allocation is part of a global package of 21.7 million euros from treasury surpluses, which will likely be approved with the support of the PP and Vox.

The political party Vox has celebrated having “conditioned” the measures and having managed to raise the required residency period. The insular vice-president, Pedro Bestard, has defended that the measure responds to the principle of “national priority” and has assured that “Spaniards” must be “benefited” in the current context.

On the contrary, sources from the Consell have distanced themselves from the idea that this aid should be exclusive to Spanish citizens, and have recalled that a limitation of this type would violate both the Constitution and European regulations. In this regard, they have compared the measure to other similar existing requirements, such as the three years of residence to access guaranteed social income or the criteria for accessing public housing, which in some municipalities reach five years.

A package of aid under review

The announcement of these measures dates back to the general policy debate held at the end of March, when the president of the Consell, Llorenç Galmés, advanced an initial package of 84 million euros to face the impact of the conflict in the Middle East.

Subsequently, the government team withdrew a first proposal for a credit modification from the April plenary session to introduce technical improvements and expedite its processing. Now, with the changes incorporated —including the tightening of the residency requirement—, its approval is expected to resume in the coming days.

Apart from these aids, the Consell has already activated other measures, such as the approval of an additional 12.6 million euros and the mobilization of 53.5 million euros in public works investments. In total, the global package to face the effects of the conflict will approach 88 million euros.