Coalition sour grapes claim from Partido Popular

The Partido Popular's Balearic parliamentary spokesperson, Joan Flaquer, yesterday congratulated Maria Antonia Munar and her Majorcan Union party for having accepted the offer of 46'500 million pesetas from Madrid as part of the National Water Plan. Flaquer welcomed Munar's support, which has caused a rift within the Balearic coalition government, of which the Majorcan Union party is part, because Antich and his government are firmly opposed to the plan drawn up by the Environmental Minister Jaume Matas, president of the PP in the Balearics. Flaquer criticised Antich's “closed” attitude to the Plan devised, in part, to help solve the region's water problems. Flaquer described the coalition's approach to the multi-million peseta offer as “very sad,” claiming that the real cause of objection is that the plan has been devised by Matas. “If the offer of 46'500 million pesetas for water had been made by a socialist Minister, it would have been accepted,” Flaquer said. He added that the decision by Munar's party to reach its own conclusions is another clear sign of the coalition's “partisan vision” for the Balearics. The Majorcan Union party's move is expected to have further repercussions within the coalition.