On Monday, the parliamentary spokesperson for Més in Mallorca, Miquel Ensenyat, called for the introduction of a temporary "Covid tax" on companies that have increased their profits through public contracts to combat the pandemic.
Ensenyat argued that the richest should "help pay the bill for the coronavirus crisis". Més will be proposing a motion for parliament to urge the Spanish government to create an "excessive profit rate" derived from the pandemic. As an example, he mentioned large pharmaceutical companies which have received "heavy injections of public capital to rapidly develop vaccines against Covid-19".
There could be exceptions to this tax, Ensenyat added, provided that companies can show that excess benefits are allocated to investment in innovation, which serves to create employment, or to improving salaries.
"The creation of new taxes is always more effective and fairer (than social cuts), because they are born out of the principle of progressivity and equality." In this regard, he referred to how Partido Popular governments "cut social rights in order to rescue banks, those most responsible for the 2008 crisis".