The Balearic president, Marga Prohens, has saved next year's budgets, but in return she has had to pay a high price: to accept all the demands put forward by Vox, a party that is not part of the Balearic Government but which conditions the governance of the community. Prohens is more tied to its partners after the representative of Formentera, Llorenç Córdoba, announced that he will not systematically support the PP in Parliament. This leaves the Balearic president with fewer deputies than the left and in the hands of Vox. So far it was enough for the far-right party to abstain and now it may need a positive vote.
Among Vox's demands, there is the inclusion of a 20 million euro item to launch a pilot plan for language choice at all educational levels of education next year. This measure accelerates the review of the Balearic linguistic model in relation to the Catalan language, which until now had been the vehicular language in education.
The budgets had already incorporated another amendment by Vox to increase the budget of the educational inspection to be able to ensure "the absence of ideological intrusions and indoctrination in the classrooms", as the amendment states verbatim.
The other major amendment that the PP has had to accept is the abolition of wealth tax for taxpayers with assets below three million euros. The limit was now set at 700,000 euros. The Ministry of Economy calculates that 70 million less will be brought in, but the effects will not be felt until the budgets for the year 2025, which is when the tax corresponding to the previous year is settled.
Prohens has also had to eliminate an item of 400,000 euros for direct aid to trade unions and business organizations, one of the great battlehorses during the negotiation with Vox. New tax reliefs have been incorporated for the owners of homes that rent them, and others for expenses for care of dependents.
The transfers of Marga Prohens to Vox come when not even six months have passed since the election of the Balearic president. The change in parliamentary majorities has left the PP's hands more tied by its members, who at the beginning of the legislature and from Vox have hinted at the possibility of demanding entry into the Government again, something that for now the president he refuses The Balearic Islands is the only community where Vox is not in the Executive following the regional pacts signed after the May elections.
The spokesperson of the PP in the Balearic Parliament, Sebastià Sagreras, acknowledged yesterday that his party does not have an absolute majority and admitted "with humility" that the negotiation with Vox was essential.
The opposition parties, which had offered their vote to Prohens so that she would not depend on Santiago Abascal's party, yesterday regretted the submission of the president to the demands of her government partners. The spokesperson of the PSOE, Iago Negueruela, denounced the "complete surrender of the President of the Government, Marga Prohens, to Vox".
