PSOE has promised, if it forms the next national government, to push for flat-rate tariffs for inter-island flights in the Balearics and the Canaries, while also improving the scheduling, frequency and tariffs for air and sea routes with the mainland. These provisions have been approved as an item in the party’s manifesto for the general election on 20 December.
PSOE, according to this electoral programme, will seek to ensure the flat rates in order to strengthen the cohesion of island territories, while it will work on a transport strategic plan to include measures to compensate for the costs of insularity. The party will, therefore, be in favour of “the right to mobility” for the people of the Balearics and the Canaries, to be developed from improvements to air and sea connections.
Its draft manifesto, raised in October, had already referred to a commitment to this strategic plan with “consistent and measurable” objectives, covering commercial transport, safety and security, market regulation and enhanced co-ordination with the regional communities of the Balearics and the Canaries. Members of PSOE in the two island regions have been to the fore in promoting these measures.
The manifesto has also rephrased references in the initial document to councils in the Balearics and the Canaries, intending to “clarify their powers” in bringing them closer to island residents.