What would happen in the Balearic Islands if a weather phenomenon of the magnitude of the Valencia DANA hit the islands? This is the concern that members of the Parliament are taking to the plenary session this Tuesday, which began at 10 am. Therefore, the agenda highlights the treatment of measures to prevent and mitigate the effects of climate change and emergency protocols that would be activated in the face of extreme weather events. Before the plenary session, the spokesman of MÉS per Mallorca in the Parliament, Lluis Apesteguia, has advanced that he would urge the Government to put on the table the problem of the “tens of thousands” of inhabitants of the Balearic Islands living in areas at risk. In this sense, he has criticized the administrative simplification, which will be brought to the plenary in two weeks, and has called to rethink certain points. According to various organizations such as the GOB, the legislative text allows “a free bar that amnesties houses on rural land, many of them in risk areas” such as landslides or floods. “Without making any reproach, with an eye on the lives we can save in the future, we will extend our hand to the Govern to maintain prevention measures in risk areas and be able to expand them. We must prevent more people living in flood zones or any other risk,” said Apesteguia, hoping to get support from different parliamentary groups to discuss. For her part, the deputy of Unidas Podemos, Cristina Gómez, regretted that the PP rejected the measures presented by her party to deal with emergencies such as the DANA. Among them was the creation of stable brigades for cleaning and maintenance of torrents or a reinforcement of the ambulance service. Gómez has wondered “what else does the Popular Group intend to do” “to please their negationist partners” -in allusion to Vox- and has warned about the “irresponsibility” of allowing the construction of houses in flood zones. Unlike these parties, the Socialist Group has withdrawn one of the questions it had planned about the administrative simplification decree law. “We believe that now is not the time for this question and that there will be time to make these reflections that I suppose will be raised by the parliamentary groups,” said Socialist deputy Mercedes Garrido.
Other topics
In addition to the measures against the effects of climate change and emergency protocols, during the plenary session on Tuesday, with the control session to the Govern, other issues will be discussed. Among them are some related to mobility, and others related to budgets, investments in research and innovation, or education. One of the topics is the housing. Més per Menorca will defend a PNL proposal to modify the program ‘Secure Rent’ of the Government, considering “inconceivable that a supposed housing policy consists of subsidizing those who are already able to access housing without aid and, instead, exclude those who have greater difficulties -not to say impossibility- to access if not with the support of the administration.” According to the party, the ‘Secure Rent’ program allocates “huge amounts of public money to subsidize the speculation of the rentier classes”. The Balearic Government, for its part, has defended that the program ‘Secure Renting‘ is one of the initiatives that form part of the plan of shock impelled to increase the supply of houses to accessible prices in the Balearic Islands. The objective, as they have explained on several occasions, is to capture empty or unused residential housing of small owners to offer them to residents at a reduced price of 30% below the market price.
