Catalina Cladera, the president of the Council of Mallorca, insisted on Friday that no one will have to pay a toll in order to drive to Soller or anywhere else in Mallorca.
Cladera was responding to the ruling by the Balearic High Court which annuls the Council's 2017 decision to eliminate the Soller Tunnel toll. She said that the Council respects the court's ruling but doesn't share it. An appeal to the Supreme Court in Madrid is now being studied.
The president argued that the Council had been "within its rights" to eliminate the toll and stressed that "there will be no going back". All means will be sought in order to prevent there being a toll.
The court's view was that the Council had not justified the reasons for getting rid of the toll. An argument of the "public interest", the court observed, conflicted with the fact that the same institution had previously maintained the toll also for reasons of public interest.
The elimination of the toll was contested by the company which operated the toll system and tunnel, Globalvia, which had sought 31 million euros compensation from the Council for ending the contract. The Council paid 17.4 million euros.