Asturias will have a tourist tax next summer. The partners of the Government of the Principality, the PSOE and the IU Convocatoria, agreed this Tuesday on its implementation during the meeting they held to evaluate their first year at the head of the Regional Executive.
The new tax will finally have a “voluntary” characterThat is, each city council will decide whether to apply it or not. This position has always been defended by the president of Asturias, Adrián Barbón, because not all municipalities suffer the same tourist pressure.
In fact, the head of the Regional Executive assured in mid-August that “it makes no sense to make those who go to sleep in Yernes and Tameza pay.” Yernes y Tameza is a small town in the central area of Asturias, with about 130 inhabitants.
For his part, From Convocatoria they insisted on the need to apply a regional tourist taxwhich already works in communities such as the Balearic Islands and Catalonia, although they have finally agreed with the PSOE that each city council will make the decision whether to implement it or not.
At the press conference following the coalition government meeting, Barbón stressed that he was a “reason for pride” to be able to develop a sustainable tourism sector in Asturias. Now, the Regional Executive will have to reform the Tourism Law so that the Town Halls that wish to do so can regulate the tourist tax through a municipal ordinance. It should be operational by next summer.
Forum, against the tariff: “Pure demagogy”
After learning of the agreement between the government partners, reactions were not long in coming. Thus, the secretary general and deputy of the Foro Asturias in the General Council, Adrián Pumares, rejected the municipal tourism tax proposed by the government of the Principality. He considers that “it is pure demagogy”.
“As always, the left proposes simple and useless answers to the problems: trying to solve the problems encountered by the most touristic municipalities by means of a tourist tax and Digging into citizens’ pockets is pure demagogy“, he said in statements to the media collected by Europa Press.
For Pumares, Barbón “is no longer only showing signs of weakness in front of the national PSOE: They are showing signs of exhaustion and weakness in their own government.“Neither the PSOE nor its partners are capable of responding to the problems of Asturias, so they resort to the only thing they have left: propaganda and tax increases,” he concluded.
