Palma.The National Plan for Infrastructure, Transport and Housing (PIVI) covering 2012 to 2014 isn't allocating any money at all to the Balearics, Majorcan Socialist (PSM) Coalition spokesmen Antoni Alorda and Antoni Verger reported yesterday. The Plan, approved at the start of this month by the Cabinet, is destined for reforms on already-existing high speed train services on the mainland. The money, said Alorda and Verger is being spread out amongst most regions of the country.
Both men urged Balearic President José Ramón Bauzá to put his foot down with Central Government, not just over the lack of promised funding for the Manacor to Arta railway, but over other essential subsidies for the region. It's an insult to the Balearics, Alorda claimed. The PSM believe that the train project on Majorca remains less than half finished either because of the incompetence of the Transport Minister, Gabriel Company, or because he just doesn't want to go ahead with the project.
Alorda said that the Balearic government has a legal right to the outstanding 300 million euros worth of Central Government money because an agreement was signed to that effect covering the costs of the railway project between the Balearics when Socialist coalition leader Francesc Antich was in power, and Central Government's former Socialist Prime Minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero.
Of the 443 million euros which were promised, only 143 million have been received by the Balearics. Verger, who held the post of Transport Director during the previous Balearic government, said the Islands have the right to take Central Government to court if necessary.