Marga Prohens, a Partido Popular member of Congress for the Balearics, said on Thursday that taxpayers who were on the ERTE furlough scheme last year should not have to make an income declaration this year.
At a press conference accompanied by a PP senator, Maria Salom, Prohens demanded an end to "punishing" citizens. People who had two providers of income, even though one of them was the state employment service, are required to file tax returns.
This is a situation, she argued, that has arisen from national and regional "incompetence". Unemployment figures, she added, are being "masked" by ERTE. Prohens then directed her comments at the Balearic government's social dialogue table, which "only serves to hide the absolute lack of dialogue". "It has become more of a photo opportunity than genuine negotiation."
Since the start of the pandemic, the motto in the Balearics has been "no work, no health". It should now be, Prohens stated, "no health, no economy, no dialogue, no responsibility, no authority". She argued that the "Negueruela" method had failed, as the Balearics are "the last in terms of vaccination, the region where GDP has fallen the most and the one that is suffering the most economic consequences".
With regard to the closure of bar and restaurant interiors, Prohens observed that, after a year of health crisis, "the government's only option is prohibition". "They have taken a liking to prohibition."