PALMA
THE leader of the Balearic centre right opposition Partido Popular, Rosa Estaras, yesterday threw down the gauntlet to the Balearic President, urging Francesc Antich to call an early election.
The PP has been warning the left-wing coalition government for weeks to sort its internal problems out for the good of the Balearics or go to the polls and yesterday, Estaras upped the pressure telling Antich in parliament that, unless he can install some order in his bickering and divided coalition government, he has got no option but to call a snap election.
The government is split and squabbling over a number of key issues from hospitals to tourism and golf courses and the PP maintains that the government's primary concern right now should be trying to help the region confront the credit crunch.
Since the coalition member Majorca Union Party suspended one of its rebel MPs after he was embroiled in a building scandal, the coalition has lost its automatic parliamentary majority and Estaras said yesterday that, after 20 months of power, the six-party coalition clearly is not working and is losing the confidence of the electorate and its own members.
The main problem is that the parties, not the president, are running the Balearics, she added.
President Antich hit back, rejecting the idea of calling a snap election and challenged Estaras to call a vote of no confidence.
He said that the government is stable and united in its actions to confront the credit crunch and ease the consequences of the recession.