Dialogue and European funds for the future of the Balearics

The Balearic Islands are "a leader in tourism"

President Armengol of the Balearics and Spain's employment minister, Yolanda Díaz

President Armengol and Spain's employment minister, Yolanda Díaz, at the El Económico forum on Friday. | Pilar Pellicer

Majorca Daily Bulletin reporterPalma06/11/2021 12:11

At the fifth El Económico Forum, held at Palma's Palacio de Congresos on Friday evening, President Armengol observed that the forum's slogan of "the force for dialogue" was wholly appropriate. Her government "has made dialogue a way of working". "Only by making joint decisions is it possible to move forward. It is the only way." After six years of government, its mark is one of "the capacity for political, institutional and social pact".

The president said that the Balearics, of all Spain's regions, had suffered the steepest drop in gross domestic product. But the regional government has worked hard and jointly with island councils as well as with the Spanish government to bring about recovery. The crisis has been approached "differently from any other crisis", and this has been thanks to dialogue and to the "social shield" adopted by administrations.

Armengol referred to the fact that the Balearics have received 855 million euros from the Spanish government, money that "has gone to the businesses that have suffered the worst and which have needed it the most". This is an amount equivalent to a quarter of the region's non-financial budget, and it was delivered to companies "almost immediately".

By way of conclusion, the president stated that the Balearic Islands are "a leader in tourism and will continue to be". But in addition, the government "is making a commitment to the circularity of the economy, to the quality of tourism and its jobs, to economic diversification, and to biomedicine and health research".