The Council lowers the garbage fee while the Intervention warns that the Tirme system is "unbalanced"

PalmaThe 10% reduction in the waste treatment fee approved this Wednesday by the Plenary of the Consell de Mallorca has been, in part, overshadowed by the tough political debate over the Tirme concession. The PSIB and Més per Mallorca have reproached the president of the institution, Llorenç Galmés, for maintaining a model that, in their opinion, continues to favor the concessionaire despite the warnings issued by the control bodies of the Consell itself.

The agreement approved by the PP and Vox sets the urban solid waste treatment fee at 103 euros per tonne, 10% less than the previous year. The island government has argued that the reduction will alleviate the cost borne by the municipalities and has attributed it to the improvement in the economic situation of the system, also favored by the new regulation that allows the rejection fraction from Eivissa to be transferred to Mallorca and by the economic compensation provided by the Balearic Government.

The Minister of Finance, Rafel Bosch, has defended that the tariff reduction fulfills the commitment acquired by the island government this legislature and has assured that it will contribute to alleviating the cost borne by the municipalities for waste treatment. According to the Consell, the reduction is possible thanks to a subsidy of 50 million euros linked to the transfer of the rejection fraction from Eivissa to Mallorca, financed in part by the Government with 25 million euros for the pilot plan and with 13 million more from the waste prevention and management fund. The opposition, on the other hand, has focused on another issue: the model used to calculate this tariff.

Catalina Cladera, spokesperson for the PSIB, stated that both the General Intervention and the General Secretariat of the Consell have issued "critical reports on the methodology used to review the Tirme tariff". According to the socialists, the control bodies question essential aspects of the system and recommend reviewing it because it presents structural deficiencies.

Among the observations that the PSIB attributes to the Intervention are the updating of the value of investments using the CPI, a practice that it considers incompatible with accounting principles and with the regime of public concessions. It also assured that the report questions the annual tariff regularization mechanism, as this would have disappeared from the Sectoral Master Plan for Waste of 2006, but would have continued to be applied during all these years.

The socialists have also emphasized the Intervention's criticisms regarding the use of estimates instead of real accounting data to calculate the annual regularization, as well as observations related to certain financial operations within the Tirme group and doubts about the concessionaire's ability to meet the obligations to revert the facilities at the end of the concession.

Based on these considerations, the PSIB calls for a comprehensive review of the tariff methodology, an independent audit, and a strengthening of the control mechanisms over the concession.

For its part, MÉS per Mallorca had already criticized the waste management model promoted by the Insular Government and had warned that the tariff reduction does not solve the system's fundamental problems. The eco-sovereignists have reproached the institution's government for continuing to favor a model that, in their opinion, "benefits Tirme" while the Council leaves open questions about the concession's operation. In fact, Catalina Inés Perelló, spokesperson for MÉS per Mallorca, has described a system that even the Council's own Intervention questions as a "very bad deal" for the islanders.

The Galmés government, on the other hand, has defended that the approved review allows for a reduction in the cost of waste treatment for municipalities without compromising the sustainability of the service and has presented the tariff decrease as a sign of management efficiency.

The Council demands responsibility for Sunday's police actions

The plenary also approved a motion from MÉS per Mallorca condemning the police charges recorded during Sunday's demonstration against tourist overcrowding and calling for political responsibility for the actions of the National Police force.

The initiative demands the resignation of the government delegate in the Balearic Islands or, failing that, his dismissal, in addition to the Minister of the Interior assuming political responsibility as the highest authority of the State security forces and corps.

The agreement also condemns the assaults reported during the police operation, including the one suffered by photojournalist Xavi Hurtado while covering the protest, and calls for an investigation to clarify the circumstances of the operation and determine political and operational responsibilities.

During the debate, MÉS councilor Biel Payeras argued that Sunday's mobilization, with tens of thousands of participants, represents "one of the most important social movements that Mallorca has experienced in many years" and assured that institutions "cannot ignore the message that came from the streets".

Payeras maintained that the incidents occurred when the National Police prevented the demonstrators from reaching Les Voltes to attend the reading of the manifesto and demanded explanations about who ordered the police operation. "When there is a police operation, there are commanders, there are orders, and therefore, there are also political responsibilities," he stated.

The ecosovereignist spokesperson also warned that the debate should not be diverted to public order issues to avoid facing the causes of social unrest. As he argued, the mobilization responds to the housing crisis, tourist pressure, and territorial limits. The motion also claims the right to peaceful protest and freedom of information, following the assault reported by the photojournalist during the demonstration's coverage.