OPPOSITION Partido Popular (PP) Parliamentary spokesman, Antoni Pastor, yesterday slammed ruling Balearic President Francesc Antich for the lack of interest he has shown in coming forward and explaining details of next year's budget both to Parliament and the Balearic people.
After Socialist coalition representatives rejected last week's call by the PP for Antich to explain his decision to forego consensus with the opposition on 2011 figures and instead prolong the already-approved budget for this year, Pastor alleged that the regional government was hiding not just the true level of its debt but also what public money was to be allocated for spending by the Health and Education ministries.
Ahead of today's Parliamentary debate on the as yet unresolved budget row, Pastor said that the current government's only solution to increasing its income and bringing down public debt was to tax wealthy earners, a strategy he described as an error. It would be better, said Pastor, for the government to instead reduce its public spending.