As La Voz de Ibiza reported a few days ago, the total gratuity of public transport in Ibiza is getting closer to its end. This has been ratified this Tuesday by the Minister of Housing, Territory and Mobility, José Luis Mateo, in the plenary session of the Parliament. Mateo has insisted that the continuity of the gratuity depends exclusively on the central government, and has confirmed that the Consell has not yet received so far this year the 43 million euros budget item. “There is still no news from the globe-trotting and epistolary president”, said with an ironic tone the conseller, implying the inattention of the central government on this issue. During the control questions to the autonomic Executive, the PSIB deputy Ares Fernandez has warned that it is “obvious”, considering the autonomic budgets, that the gratuity is going to end, and therefore has asked “how much it will cost next year to take the bus to go to school or to work”. The socialist has assured that it is a fallacy and an excuse to insist that the responsibility for the gratuity is of the Executive presided by Pedro Sánchez.“You have already decided that you are not going to lift a finger,” lamented Fernandez. The conseller, for his part, has insisted, as he has done on other occasions, that the question of gratuity would have to be transferred to the state executive. ” We do not know what will happen next year, what we do know is that we are still waiting for the 43 million this year,” he argued. Mateo has accused the PSIB of trying to confuse the public in this matter. “The free service was never their policy,” he concluded.
Free buses in 2025 only “if the central government pays for them”.
Sources of the Consell have informed La Voz de Ibiza that the total gratuity of the buses will continue next year only “if the central government pays for it”. “From collectives, that is, young people, seniors and people at risk, we continue to maintain the gratuity,” they have specified. The central government has this responsibility since 2022, when it implemented the total subsidy of public transport services in an agreement between the Executive and the Canary Coalition, which was extended to the Balearic Islands. In December 2023, the Council of Ministers has approved a decree which extended for all 2024 the extension of free transport to the Balearic and Canary Islands, and which fixed for that year the same allocation as for 2023: 43 million euros.
