Goia gets no support to “resume” the city tax debate

Euskaraz irakurri: Goiak ez du babesik lortu rate turistikoari buruzko eztabaidari “berriro ekiteko”

No one picked up the gauntlet thrown yesterday by the Mayor of San Sebastian Eneko Goiawhen he was in favor of “yield” the proposal to tourist tax which, as he has noted, was parked due to the Covid-19 pandemic. The mayor of San Sebastián expressed his opinion in a radio interview that it was time to bring this issue to the table once tourism has recovered in San Sebastián after the Covid-19 pandemic, although he acknowledged that the city council does not have the power to make such a figure.

The discussion about the introduction of the tourist tax has arisen discrepancies within the municipal government of San Sebastiánwhose councilor socialist Marisol Garmendiasecond deputy mayor, has criticized the “obsession” of his partner, the PNV, to introduce this tax.

The mayor of the PSE-EE has in a statement rejected the idea of ​​introducing the tourist tax in San Sebastián as the city “comes out of a long two-year tunnel caused by the pandemic, in which the economy of San Sebastian in particular has suffered” .

Garmendia recalled that the years of the pandemic have led to a rise in unemployment and the closure of shops in the city and now, when the number of visitors grows, it is not “timely” to take “an inquisitorial look at tourism as the only source of trouble in San Sebastian Tourism “seems to be the scapegoat for the circulatory chaos that some decisions cause daily in San Sebastian,” the councilor said in abundance.

The socialist mayor agrees that “tourism should be regularized” and commits to making it “sustainable and qualitative”.

only him EH Bildu Municipal Group from San Sebastian He is open to debate not so much because he is a direct proponent of the tax, but because he believes it could be a factor in changing the city’s tourism model “which is not sustainable at all”. He recalled that he has been “warning” for years about the “negative consequences of the tourism model implemented during the mayoral office of Eneko Goia”. For this reason, he believes that the tourist tax “can be a good tool to guarantee the social return of tourism and to distribute the wealth it generates”, and assures that from that point of view he will “actively participate” in the debate .

Negative also from Vitoria-Gasteiz

The Basque government through the Minister of Tourism, Trade and Consumption, Javier Hurtado (PSE-EE)has indicated this Thursday that the implementation of this tariff in Euskadi “it is not a priority or necessary” and he recalled that in 2019 the Euskadi Tourism Board already “majority” rejected this possibility.

In addition, he stressed that neither the PNV nor the socialists had this proposal in their election manifestos and that the coalition agreement does not take that percentage into account, so “it will not be implemented in this legislature.”

The parliamentary spokesman for the PP+Cs, Neighborhood CarmelIt has been demonstrated in violation of the levying of tourist tax in Euskadi and has stated that “we must say no to confiscation policies”. He has described as “bad news” that as the tourism industry tries to get out of the crisis caused by Covid-19 there is a “threat of more taxes”, a “very Spanish stance now with the government of Sánchez” which, according to to Barrio, the PNV supports “heartily”.