Editorial: A new era

The last Partido Popular government insisted that government debt had to be cut and embarked on a major round of spending cuts. The new regional government led by the Spanish Socialist Party (PSOE) has said that they will not increase the debt but they will not curtail their spending plans. In other-words they will be spending rather than saving. One senior PSOE figure said that if a new school was needed then it would be built, heralding the end of austerity in the Balearics. It must be remembered that the Balearics still has an important debt mountain which the previous administration were allegedly seeking to reduce. But I must admit the end of austerity will be welcomed locally. Cuts, cuts and more cuts have been the order of the day for the last four years. The new government appears to be willing to spend, spend and spend and they have already taken aim at visiting tourists with  their controversial tourist tax. But, this coalition government appear to have learnt their lesson and will not be rushing into the controversial levy. Also, they want to have everyone aboard before they introduce it. Properly planned and executed the tourist tax could be a success as long as tourists are kept informed and realise that the money is being used to improve the island they love. So the end of austerity is on the horizon. It is rather refreshing but at the same time rather concerning, we need to balance the books before we can start spending.