The full Parliament of the Balearic Islands is scheduled to debate this Tuesday on the Spanish sovereignty of Ceuta, on a day when the Council of Ministers is expected to give the green light to a new decree with various initiatives in housing, which several social groups have dubbed "Maricarmen decree," in reference to the elderly woman evicted last Wednesday in Madrid.
This issue will reach the hemicycle through a non-legislative proposal (PNL) registered by Vox, in a session where the deputies will also address matters related to health, housing, tourism, and migrations.
The parliamentary day will begin with the control session of the Govern, very focused on health policy. The Minister of Health, Manuela García, will have to answer several questions from PSIB deputies about the management at Son Espases Hospital, the state of health care in Eivissa, or the working conditions of nurses. In addition, MÉS per Mallorca will ask García about the linguistic rights of patients.
The housing block will include two issues raised by PSIB deputies Verónica Llufriu and Més per Menorca Joana Gomila, related to official protected housing in Menorca and the rising cost of the real estate market. Subsequently, MÉS per Mallorca will question the Govern regarding the difficulties in accessing housing.
The debate on migrations will return to Parliament with the initiative of the deputy from the Mixed Group Llorenç Córdoba, who will demand that the contingency capacity be set by each Insular Council, a proposal to which the president Marga Prohens will have to respond. In turn, Vox deputies Sergio Rodríguez and Patricia de las Heras will request explanations from the Minister of Families, Social Welfare, and Dependency Care, Sandra Fernández, regarding the protection system for unaccompanied foreign minors.
In the economic sphere, the spokesperson for MÉS per Mallorca, Lluís Apesteguia, will confront Prohens about the impact of inflation on household economies, while PSIB deputy Marco Antonio Guerrero will demand an update of the Govern's aid program to mitigate the consequences of the War in Iran and the Middle East.
The meeting that the GOB and Terraferida held last week with Prohens has left a kind of political 'hangover', interpreted very differently by the groups in the Parliament. The PP valued the meeting as "positive" because it was agreed that there should be "limits", while the opposition defined it as a "failure" for "not listening" to entities that, in their view, embody a "social outcry".
In this context, tourism will again be one of the axes of the plenary with another PNL promoted by MÉS per Mallorca, which aims to specify what measures the Govern could apply to reduce the influx of tourists arriving in the Islands through the airports.
In parallel, the spokesperson for the PSIB, Iago Negueruela, will also debate with the president of the Govern on this issue, questioning the policy of the regional Executive regarding the allocation of tourist places.
Other points on the agenda that will capture the attention of the deputies will be the electricity supply, the situation of the university system, and the sustainability of natural resources in Eivissa.
The Govern will adapt state measures against inflation
In the same Council of Ministers in which the "Maricarmen decree" could be approved, another package of measures is expected to be approved to contain the inflation caused by the rise in fuel prices.
The deputy spokesperson for the PP in the Parliament, Marga Durán, recalled at the press conference following the Board of Spokespersons last Wednesday the set of proposals promoted by the PP at the state level to cushion the effects of the price increase, with which they estimate that each citizen could save around 100 euros monthly.
The deputy has pointed out that the Govern will closely follow the first decisions made by the Government of Spain to address this situation, will evaluate their scope, and, above all, whether they represent "a real relief for families". She also emphasized that Prohens has already indicated that, once those measures are known, the regional Executive will study how to complement them within its competencies.
Among the proposed initiatives are a reduction of VAT on food, on the electricity bill, and the deflation of personal income tax, with the aim that citizens can have about 100 additional euros each month, which they could allocate to the shopping basket, to pay bills, to fill the fuel tank, or to have a little more leeway at the end of the month.
Regarding the PNL of Vox to claim the Spanish sovereignty of Ceuta, after the massive entry of migrants into the autonomous city last July, the deputy of Unidas Podemos (UP), José María García, described it as a "political anomaly" for the Balearic Islands, given that "nobody" disputes the Spanishness of that territory and, in his view, it represents a "precious time" that is dedicated to talking about this issue instead of focusing on housing, mobility, or the environment.
In the same vein, the deputy of Més per Menorca Josep Castells expressed himself, who recalled that a few plenaries ago another similar initiative from the PP was addressed and joked about the possibility of the Parlament creating a permanent commission on Ceuta to stop bringing this type of proposals to the plenary.