The Palma City Council’s budgets for 2025 are in suspense if Pedro Sánchez does not pay the 28 million free EMT, because The City Hall does not have sufficient resources of its own to meet this million-dollar outlay.
In fact, the central government only took charge of 20 million this year, with Cort paying the remaining eight million, for which he was forced to request a loan and thus be able to deal with this imbalance in his accounts.
But eight are one thing and another are the 28 that it costs to maintain the total free public transport of Palma, as has happened in the last two years, although until now The City Hall did not collect any of the 20 million promised by the Sánchez executive for this year.
Last year at the same time and given the indecision of the Sánchez government as to whether or not to maintain the subsidy for free public transport, the president of the EMT and councilor for mobility of the PP, Antoni Deudero, announced that bus travel would again be subject to charges in 2024. It wasn’t going to be completely free, but the bonuses would be maintained. to users who really need it, such as young people, the elderly and the economically needy, thus leaving the door open to a free bus service for under-16s. Then, Debero corrected the situation when the state subsidy was maintained.
But today, Palma City Council finds itself in the same situation, with the aggravating circumstance that after two years of completely free public transport, THE The people of Palma have become accustomed to not paying for this service. And ending this free service has a political cost that a minority municipality like the PP of Palma must take into account before making a decision.
And even more so if we consider the success of the initiative since, according to the latest data from the Department of Mobility, the 100% bonus on public transport for Palma citizens has resulted in a 17.3% increase for EMT passengers between January and June of this year compared to the same months in 2023.
To this we must add that this is a question where The left opposition is ready to engage in all possible demagogy. In fact, during the first municipal plenary session of the new political course scheduled for September 26, the question will already be on the table for debate.
The only Podemos councilor in Palma City Hall, Lucie Muñoz, presented an initiative in which he urges the government team to commit to maintaining the 100% bonus for public transport in 2025 “and to seek the necessary funding for this either with European, state, regional or own funds»underlines the sole advisor of the Mixed Group.
While it is true that the public transport bonus was financed both in 2023 and 2024 by the general state budgets “and it would be desirable for it to continue like this”, he stresses, “we consider that free transport must be maintained as a public policy given its social, economic and ecological importance even if it must be financed from own funds, that is to say It is the people of Palma who pay with their taxes and not all Spaniards.
But Muñoz does not address these issues, nor whether or not it is sustainable for taxpayers’ money, but rather focuses on the fact that this measure has been very well received by citizens, “it has meant a dynamization and activation of the EMT and public transport in the city and has led to a reduction in the use of the car and the polluting emissions it produces and if we, the institutions, make things easier, people leave their cars at home.
For this reason, the advisor assures that Sustainable mobility “must become a right” and a pillar of the welfare stateas health or education already are. This is why the 100% bonus in Palma’s public transport, implemented in recent years, must be the way forward and become the norm.
“This is an essential measure,” he adds, “not only for social justice, but also as a clear commitment to sustainable mobility that mitigates the effects of a climate crisis that is already present and to which we must urgently respond with reasonable and energetic measures.”
