In a meeting held in the insular institution, the different political formations have agreed to agree on initiatives in favour of the citizens of Mallorca, first in the Consell and then in the Congress and Senate, to claim state investments in infrastructures.
The president of the Consell de Mallorca, Llorenç Galmés, accompanied by the councillor of Territory, Mobilitat I Infrastructures, Fernando Rubio, has met today with the deputies and senators of the Balearic Islands. Galmés has proposed to them to make a common front before the State and to claim in Congress and the Senate the 230 million euros of the road agreement that corresponds to Mallorca to invest in road infrastructure and sustainable mobility. A road agreement was signed in 2007 and on 14 December 2021, after some modifications, the previous government of the Consell de Mallorca agreed to pay off the part executed until 2 October 2020. This left 228.5 million euros pending payment.
TDB keeps you informed. Follow us on: Facebook, Twitter and Instagram
President Galmés asks the senators and deputies of Mallorca for a common front to claim the 230 million of the road agreement from the State
At the meeting, which was attended by José Vicente Marí, Sandra Fernández, Miquel Jerez, Maria Salom, Joan Mesquida and Martí Àngel Torres of the Partido Popular; José Hila, of the PSOE, and Vicenç Vidal (Més), President Galmés asked them to make ‘a common front, regardless of political colours, in favour of the citizens of Mallorca, who suffer the comparative disadvantage of the investments in infrastructure that other autonomous communities receive. This is the case of the 6,000 million euros that Madrid invests in suburban trains in Catalonia, compared to the 230 million euros that Mallorca is claiming and that the Spanish government denies us.
During the meeting it was agreed, among all the political groups, to promote initiatives, first in the Consell and then in Congress and the Senate, so that Mallorca receives the necessary state investment to improve infrastructures and promote sustainable mobility.
In this sense, Galmés pointed out that these bribes are not for building large infrastructures; the aim is to ‘improve the island’s road network without consuming territory, and thus be able to guarantee the fluidity of traffic, the modernisation of infrastructures and the safety of users’. In this sense, the president of the Consell de Mallorca has indicated that the aim is to ‘invest in the modernisation of our roads, as the Consell is doing with the plan for access to Palma, making an effort with its resources’.
Chronology of the road agreement
The central government and the island institution signed the road agreement in 2007. After some modifications, on 14 December 2021 the previous Consell government team agreed to pay off the part that had been executed up to 2 October 2020, leaving 228.5 million euros pending payment.
Among the works pending execution are essential infrastructures for mobility and the improvement of accesses to Palma, such as section I of the connecting road, the bypasses of Inca, Artà and Campanet, and the Sencelles ring road. To all this must be added the 45 million of the Civic Roads Plan, the 30 million to build park-and-ride lots and the 160 million of the Palma Access Plan. Specifically, the updated amounts of all the programmed actions could exceed 300 million euros.
In March 2023, the Spanish government closed the door to negotiating road agreements with the island councils of the Balearic Islands, stating that these investments should be charged to the insularity factor of the Balearic Islands’ special regime. In a letter sent to the Minister of Transport, Óscar Puente, President Galmés expressed his disagreement with the central government’s response, explaining that ‘the allocation of the insularity factor should be used to finance new public investment by the central government in the Balearic Islands and thus compensate for the disadvantages of insularity, but never to include the amounts pending from the road agreements’.
It should also be remembered that the Government of the Balearic Islands has sent the Consell de Mallorca 30 million euros from the insularity fund so that the island institution can carry out its projects. However, these bribes are insufficient to be able to improve Mallorca’s road network, according to President Galmés.