TW
0

STAFF REPORTER

THE Partido Popular (PP) in opposition in the Balearic Parliament has put forward a draft proposal to stop Central Government cutting certain discounts that island residents are currently entitled to in their air fares to and from the mainland.

The proposal was presented yesterday by PP spokesman Antoni Pastor and Balearic MPs Mabel Cabrer and Cristobal Huguet. The three are also calling for an urgent meeting of a cross-party air transport service monitoring committee to express the Balearic government's strongest disapproval of the measures favoured by Spain's Minister for Public Works, José Blanco.

Pastor has apparently asked the Balearic President Francesc Antich that he not only makes his rejection of the discount cuts known to the Minister but that he also makes it clear that the rejection is based on the grounds of Blanco's proposal not being in the interests of the Balearic people.

Mabel Cabrer, who was regional Transport Minister in the previous Balearic government, said yesterday that it was “scandalous” that at a time of “full economic crisis” Central Government should be threatening to remove one of the “fundamental rights” of the people of the Balearic Islands.

The PP also pointed out that the 50 percent discount on inter-island flights and connections with the mainland is a compensation agreed under the national constitution, the regional statutes, and under the “Balearic regime” - a law acknowledging the financial disadvantage of people living in the Balearics by virtue of their being an island community.