Assurances were made in parliament today that the 2017 budget will be approved in a timely manner and that there had been no pressure placed on the culture ministry with regard to the budget for the IB3 broadcaster.
Ruth Mateu, the culture minister, defended the independence of IB3, after the Partido Popular deputy and former public administration minister, Manuel Lafuente, havd questioned the legality of actions by the leader of Podemos, Alberto Jarabo. (Montse Seijas of Podemos last week deepened the crisis within Podemos by alleging that the production company with which Jarabo had previously been associated was benefiting from IB3 contracts.) Mateu told Lafuente that his party "doesn't understand that there is no interference by the government in IB3". She added that if Lafuente has legal complaints, then he should make them and not engage in demagoguery.
Seijas has been suspended from Podemos by the national organisation, as has the speaker of parliament, Xelo Huertas. This matter naturally cropped up, with another PP deputy, Antoni Camps, describing the suspension as a "Stalinist purge". Huertas and Seijas were not willing, he said, to have the same "submissive attitude as the rest".
Camps questioned whether the crisis with Podemos will allow the Balearic budget to be approved. Catalina Cladera, the finance minister, said that the government was under no pressure on the budget. It had been designed through dialogue, consensus, pacts and agreements with the aim of "improving citizen satisfaction and welfare".