Finance

PP in Palma suspicious of "confiscation" of town hall surpluses

As with other town halls, Palma has a healthy surplus. | Joan M.M.

Majorca Daily Bulletin reporterPalma26/05/2020 11:51

The Partido Popular at Palma town hall has raised a motion for this week's council meeting which calls on the mayor, José Hila, not to allow the national government to use exceptional powers under the state of alarm, "or other legal subterfuges", to appropriate the town hall's savings. Stating that this would violate an article in the law for government and the Constitution, the PP is insisting that the ruling administration "defends the interests of the town hall and the citizens of Palma". The party has "well-founded suspicions" that the Spanish government is studying the confiscation of local authorities' 2019 surpluses as well as bank savings.

Julio Martínez of the PP says that the PP will demand that, in the event that any amendment to local authority autonomy and finances is proposed, this amendment should be considered and validated by Congress. The state of alarm, he adds, "does not interrupt the normal functioning of state powers". Referring to an April agreement between the government and the Spanish Federation of Municipalities and Provinces, the PP wants compliance with that agreement. This established that no changes would be proposed to Congress without their first having been agreed with local authorities.

Martínez stresses that town halls cannot act as a lifeline for a government which, since June 2018, has been unable to gain approval for some general state budgets. The government, he claims, "has been more intent on propaganda than on serious and rigorous management of the resources of all Spanish people, has denied town halls and regional governments the income they are entitled to under law, such as the unpaid IVA (VAT) settlement of December 2017, and has managed the great 'achievement' of increasing Spain's public deficit for the first time since 2012".