The Balearic Minister of Economy, Finance and Innovation, Antoni Costa, has branded the PSIB Balearic socialist party ‘cowards’ for not defending the increase in the Sustainable Tourism Tax (ITS) - tourist tax - in the Sustainability Pact Committee.
In Tuesday’s plenary session of parliament he also called for the fulfilment of the objectives set by the government in the fight against tourist overcrowding. ‘In high season, spending grows twice as fast as the number of tourists. The Balearic economy is beginning to transform,’ he said. The minister responded to Socialist MP Llorenç Pou, who accused the regional government of now renouncing the ITS increase.
The issue of the ITS was later the subject of an appearance by the Minister of Labour, Public Service and Social Dialogue, Catalina Cabrer, at the request of the Socialists, who accuse the regional government of failing to comply with the agreement reached after the General Policy Debate in relation to the tax increase.
Llorenç Pou accused the Government of convening the Social Dialogue Committee for this Wednesday, three months after the parliamentary agreements, because the minister was due to appear. Pou accused the government of turning the Sustainability Pact into ‘Balearic Islands 2030’ instead of a forum for agreeing on measures to reduce tourist pressure. The Socialist MP criticised the government for not sending the agents participating in the Round Table a document with the issues to be discussed. ‘This Round Table is a farce,’ said Pou.
For the socialist, it makes no sense for the regional government to attend the committee to respect a proposal - the increase in the ITS - which, in his opinion, it no longer believes in. Cabrer, for her part, accused the PSIB of trying to exert power when it does not having any. ‘I’m not going to the pact, but I want them to study my measures, but only those that interest me,’ said the minister.
The minister regretted that the PSIB had abandoned the pact and recalled that there had been meetings to discuss the coastal reorganisation law, the draft agricultural law and improvements in working conditions, in which the fate of the ITS had already been discussed.
For Cabrer, the problem with the PSIB is that ‘they are not in charge’. ‘They want it to be done but they don’t want to participate,’ said Cabrer, who believes that the Socialists ‘are not clear about what they want to do’. On Wednesday, the minister once again invited the PSIB to the Pact meeting to explain its proposal.
Pou criticised, however, that the Committee was not convened to discuss the ITS increase within three months of the agreement. In her reply, Cabrer explained that on 15 December, the Social Dialogue Committee was convened to present the proposal and call a meeting of the Sustainability Pact. “They didn’t want to be there, so don’t now act as if you know everything. You’ve missed a lot,’ she concluded.
Regarding the statements made by the vice-president and spokesperson, Antoni Costa, that the ITS increase is no longer necessary, Cabrer pointed out that the government is not giving up on the project, although he recalled the need to take the context into account. “If they came, they could listen and participate,” he said.