President Francina Armengol will tell Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy tomorrow that it is "outrageous" that the Balearic budget for 2016 should have a deficit ceiling of 0.3%, which will be "impossible" to meet. She is to demand a higher deficit and will also inform Rajoy that the Balearics will end the financial year with a 1.5% deficit, 400 million euros over the 0.7% mark which has been ordered by Madrid.
Armengol says that the 2016 budget will need to show a 0.3% deficit or else the accounts will be annulled by national government, but it will be a budgeted figure that will not be complied with because the regional government is not prepared to continue with cuts to public services initiated by the Partido Popular.
An improved financial deal that guarantees the people of the Balearics the same opportunities as those of other Spaniards is what Armengol will be looking for from Rajoy. The demands made regarding the deficit are "cutting the throat" of a region hit by the PP national government and by an increasingly seasonal economy which needs a reform of the financing model and a special economic regime.