The president's pay will not be increasing in 2016.

The president's pay will not be increasing in 2016. | M.A. CA

Majorca Daily Bulletin reporterPalma10/12/2015 00:00
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Ministers and senior government officials in the Balearics are to have their salaries frozen next year and so not receive the one per cent increase that other civil servants will be getting. This block on a salary rise will mean that they will get less than had been earmarked in the budget for 2016, and it has come about through a parliamentary alliance between the Partido Popular, El Pi and Podemos: together they have voted in favour of a budget amendment proposed by the PP.

The committee which deals with the region’s accounts is back at work after the short holiday break, and this surprise support of the PP amendment was one of the first issues it had to attend to. While Podemos has made a global commitment to support the government’s budget, this does not extend to its automatic backing for amendments, ones that either it or other parties raise. And this is what has happened with regard to the salaries, as it might yet well happen in respect of other budgetary items.

With the one per cent for next year lopped off, President Armengol will next year receive the same as President Bauzá was scheduled to have been paid this year - 65,584.63 euros rather than 66,240.68. Members of the government will now be being paid 57,882.37 next year, while other senior figures in the executive will also be on the 2015 salary level.

The approval of this salary amendment came on the same day as parliament also agreed to pay civil servants part of the extra payment for 2012. Pilar Costa of PSOE said of this move that she was confident that it would be the first on a long list of agreements whereby civil servants will “recover lost rights”. The Podemos spokesperson, Laura Camargo, echoed this in observing that there had been a “criminalisation” of civil servants by the PP government.

Of other salaries, director-generals within government departments will be entitled to 48,738.08 euros next year, although the DG of the IB-Salut health service will receive 53,738.08 euros.