Jason MoorePalma16/01/2019 18:13
TW

The Balearics has always been demanding a better funding deal from the central administration in Madrid. We pay far more in taxes to Madrid than we receive in return. Successive governments have blasted the central administration on numerous occasions. One of the reasons why the controversial tourist tax was introduced was because Madrid was not "splashing the cash". In those days the centre-right Partido Popular was in power and the socialist-led Balearic government wasted little time in making political capital from the fact that Madrid's PP government was discriminating against the islands when it came to funding.

But all this changed when the PP was toppled by the socialists of Pedro Sanchez. All of a sudden the governments of Madrid and Palma were talking the same language and in fact Balearic President Francina Armengol is a friend of Sanchez. She promised a better funding deal and everything appeared to be rosy: until the budget for this year was announced this week. Funding for the islands is not going to increase and its not going to stay the same either; it is going to fall by eleven per cent. This is quite a major drop and it has left Armengol with egg on her face. The funding fall is even more serious for the local socialist party because there are elections this year. So what next? The Balearic president is now going to have to defend a reduction in spending when she was talking an increase.