The Balearic Islands ask the Government to subsidize the trip of Real Mallorca fans to Seville to watch the Copa del Rey final against Athletic Club de Bilbao. The proposal, presented by the PP, was approved this Tuesday in the Balearic Parliament with votes in favor of PP and Vox and amid criticism of populism and electoralism from the left-wing parties, which have abstained from the vote.
The specific proposal asks the Ministry to apply to charter flights the 75% discount that applies to regular flights so that fans from the Island can travel "under equal conditions" to those of fans from Bilbao. Residents in the Balearic Islands, Canary Islands, Ceuta and Melilla have a 75% discount on trips by plane or boat to the peninsula, but this discount applies only to trips on regular lines and hence the request from PP and Vox.
Mallorca has already sold more than 14,000 tickets for the Cup final on the first day they went on sale. This significant number of fans who will travel from the island to Seville has forced charter planes to be chartered since regular flights are not capable of absorbing the demand. The problem is that the price is very high, hence the request that the resident discount also be applied to these trips.
The Balearic president, Marga Prohens, had already sent a letter to Minister Óscar Puente to make the same request, arguing that citizens of the Islands do not have the same possibilities of moving to Seville as those who travel from Bilbao. Prohens asked the minister for guarantees to give equal treatment to fans of both teams. In this way, the petition approved today in the Balearic Parliament aims to be a reinforcement of the president's letter.
The PP spokesperson in Parliament, Sebastià Sagreras, has defended the initiative and has pointed out that many fans will have to pay a high price, up to 1,000 euros between hotel and travel, to be able to travel to Seville. "Mallorca fans deserve to be able to travel to Seville on equal terms," he said. Vox also defended the request due to the exceptional nature of the moment.
Socialist deputy Marco Antonio Guerrero had criticized the proposal, considering it to be an "exercise in textbook populism or a manual of populism." He has warned that, for this proposal to go ahead, the law that regulates this type of discounts should be modified. "Not even with all the will in the world on the part of the minister could it be done," he said. Més per Mallorca and Més per Menorca have regretted that a populist proposal is approved although the PP knows that it cannot prosper. They consider that the PP is deceiving the fans.
