Wanted: Tourism Minister, Forklift Experience Not Necessary

The Balearics have been on their annual jaunt to Berlin. The biggest of the round of travel fairs, the ITB, has been the backdrop to the celebratory noises coming from Germany, those speaking of staggering increases in tourism volume this summer, anything up to 50% greater sales, and of hotel chains suspending sales because of fears that high demand will lead to overbooking.

An “historic” year for tourism in Mallorca and the islands does genuinely now appear to be in the offing, despite the best attempts of the airport workers to put the kibosh on this. For once, the joyous expressions of photo-opportunistic Balearics representatives at the travel fair are unforced. Gone are the smiles through gritted teeth of an imminent, crisis-imploding season. Holiday. Celebrate.

Amongst the ecstatic faces in Berlin have been President Antich and his tourism minister, Joana Barceló. They have probably been making the most of their time in the German capital; this year’s fair may well turn out to be the last that either attends. Through happenstance more than design, they can go out on a tourism high.

While you would expect both to pitch up at such an event, it is the presence of Antich which is the more significant. Progressively, over the course of his current administration, he has become a far more visible player in matters tourism. His involvement with developments of new tourism markets, China and especially Russia, has coincided with the expansion of these markets. The Russian tour operator, Natalie Tours, anticipates bringing 40% more Russian tourists to the islands this summer; an increase in the number of flight connections with Palma and other Balearic airports (34 in all) is largely due to new routes to and from Russia.

To what extent Antich can take personal credit for these developments is open to question, but he does deserve some credit for seeming to have adopted a more proactive stance when it comes to tourism. It might be said that he, and previous presidents, should have been doing this anyway, but it hasn’t always been so.

If one accepts the generally held view that tourism equates to roughly 80% of Mallorca’s GDP, then a hands-on presidential role in the management of what is the island’s only strategic industry should be a given. It is only belatedly, however, that a local president has seen this light. For Antich, it may have been that he was left with little choice, as he was the one element of continuity while successive tourism ministers were being shown the door.

Placing tourism in a more central and lofty position in the governmental hierarchy chimes with how it is perceived in some competitor destinations. In both Turkey and the Mubarak-governed Egypt, tourism is and was afforded a special, strategic role, one reflected by the power invested in officials to ensure the success of tourism.

In the past, I have argued for a similar arrangement in the Balearics, with tourism, in effect, being treated as a special case as an office of the president. Without going so far as this, Antich more recently said that not only should tourism be the priority but pretty much everything else in Mallorca should play a supporting role to tourism. If one follows this line of argument and one of the president assuming greater executive responsibility, where does that leave the minister for tourism?

The Fomento del Turísmo (the Mallorcan Tourist Board) called the other day for a future tourism minister to be someone from the industry. Quite how this might be effected if this were not an elected official, I am unsure, but it was a not unreasonable point.

While any minister should be capable of understanding and following a brief, tourism is too important to be left to a politician whose qualifications for the post are often questionable. Take, as an example, the unfortunate Miguel Ferrer. Transported from the mayoral seat in Alcúdia, he rematerialised for a couple of months behind the tourism ministry’s desk. The rationalisation for his appointment was that he was mayor of a town with a significant tourism industry. He was also, before becoming mayor, a forklift truck driver. The logic of the argument was singularly lacking, and were there any logic to it, then why not put the mayor of Sa Pobla in charge of agriculture because the town is the centre of the island’s potato production?

Antich, by default, has become the de facto tourism minister, more so than Barceló who, as with her predecessors, appears to operate via a manual by which Balearics tourism ministers are obliged to utter banalities in respect of so-called alternative tourism, amongst other things. Antich does at least seem to get it, something which his likely successor, José Bauzá, gives little confidence in suggesting that he does. It may well be that the Fomento think the same, and so have called for a professional appointment.

Whether tourism is placed in the presidential palace or not, the need for someone with the correct qualifications is enormous. It is not just that 80% of GDP that needs taking care of. Tourism at government level demands dealing with the most powerful of Mallorca’s businesses, the hotel and travel groups, as well as the most influential of external businesses, the airlines and tour operators. It is a job that is presidential in its scope, importance and need to be seen to be credible. If not the job of the president himself, then it has to be that of someone with real clout, knowledge and contacts. It is not a job for a forklift truck driver.

Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.

De-Sastre – Corruption at the tourism institute

The corruption scandal that has engulfed the Inestur tourism institute threatens to swallow more than just a few named politicians; it could take with it the Unió Mallorquina (UM) party and indeed the regional government. Following the arrests of the director general of Inestur and of Joan Sastre, the head of tourism promotion in the government, the police have now detained our old friend Miquel Nadal – ex-tourism minister – in connection with the Inestur action, known as Operation Vulture (Operación Voltor). The vultures are circling, spying the carrion that is the UM and the government.

President Antich has been backed into a corner not of his making. He may have been criticised for not doing so before, but now he has sacked all the UM ministers in his government, while the heads of the Council of Mallorca and Palma town hall have done likewise where UM councillors are concerned. One of these – Nadal, forced to quit as minister because of the Son Oms corruption case – had the temerity to stay on as a Palma councillor. He isn’t any longer. The UM has been left utterly humiliated and discredited. Many of its leading lights are either under arrest or under suspicion. How it can continue as a viable party must be open to some doubt – certainly in the short term.

Antich intends to continue to govern, but in minority, with only the left-wing Bloc as a coalition ally. The UM has been booted out. Whether Antich can limp on is also open to some question, but he wants to avoid what may become inevitable – an early election.

There are innumerable practical issues that face Antich, only one of them being his ability to govern. Foremost is what the hell he can do with the tourism ministry. At a time when all hands are needed to man the pumps of the islands’ tourism promotion, he is left with no head of tourism promotion (Sastre) and no minister for tourism. Spare a thought for poor old Miquel Ferrer. No sooner had he got his feet under the desk at the ministry, than he’s been told to pack up his stuff and clear off. And he’s meant to be one of the good guys. Another minister, Enviro Man Grimalt, implicated in a previous and ongoing case, has also been shown the door.

The president is due to announce a reduction in ministries. He has got a whole mess on his plate and a whole mess of things he needs to do, but now – surely – he will grab the tourism brief himself. What he, and the rump government, cannot afford is to allow even more uncertainty where the industry is concerned.

Antich is now getting a kicking. Though his own party, the PSOE, is not caught up in the scandals, it is the ruling the party, and Antich – so it is argued – should have acted earlier to oust the UM. Perhaps so, but he had his majority to consider. What he has attempted to do is to continue with the status quo of the coalition, whilst at the same time being undemined by the rotten status of his key coalition partners. There will doubtless be calls for an election, but where ultimately does that get anyone if the problem is less one of politics but more one of a thoroughly nasty streak of greed, power, nepotism and favours that runs through the Mallorcan culture? It is Mallorcan society that stands accused as much as its political system. Inestur, Son Oms, these have been spectacular scandals even by the corrupt-ridden standards (sic) of Mallorcan life, but who is to say they won’t be repeated? It’s not as if they are new. What is, is the sheer scale.

The tourism industry outside of Mallorca is said to be concerned. Concerned? You bet it is. Or should be. Aghast, perplexed, horrified. Only some days ago at the Fitur exhibition in Madrid, tour operators and others would have been glad-handing Joan Sastre. They have every right to wonder what the hell is going on. The comings and goings at the tourism ministry and the extraordinary nature of the scandals and of the people involved are farcical. Or they would be were they not so tragic. For this reason, as much as for practical purposes, Antich should take over. He may have lost credibility with some, but who on earth else is there to represent the islands at such a crucial time for the local tourism industry?

The UM’s latest leader, Josep Melià, is blaming Antich for breaking the pact and for acting unilaterally. What other choice did he have? It is the UM that has brought the situation about, or at least several of its leading members have. But there will still be hints that this is all somehow a conspiracy, one aimed at blasting the UM into political oblivion. It doesn’t seem to need any help in this, yet there is one thing that occurs, and it is this. When Nadal was forced to quit as tourism minister, there were various possible successors, one of them was Sastre. A UM representative, a member of the government, the holder of a position in the tourism ministry, he had, it seemed, all the right credentials to take over from Nadal, given that the UM held the ministry as part of the coalition agreement. Instead, Ferrer was appointed, for no better reason than he had been mayor of a town that is an important tourist resort. Yet, he had never operated at the level he was then propelled into. Sastre on the other hand had and was doing so. Why, therefore, was Sastre overlooked? Did someone know something?

* Note on the title: De-Sastre. The word for disaster in Spanish is “desastre”.

Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.

I’m Anti, Fly Me – Tourism Priorities

Despite some predictions that 2010 might be worse than 2009, there are reasons to be cautiously optimistic about the coming season. The resident travel expert that “The Bulletin” short-hauls out on regular occasions – a chap from the combined Co-Op, Monarch and Cosmos group – referred the other day to factors previously mentioned here, such as issues in Turkey and increasing consumer confidence. As ever, or so it seems with the paper, there was some confusion. The article had a strap-line “Cosmos reports 43 per cent increase in Majorca holiday sales”, yet nowhere in the article itself was this mentioned or was an explanation offered as to the time frame during which the increase had occurred. Maybe Cosmos has indeed experienced such an increase, but overall sales figures quoted for this year suggest a 15% reduction. Such a decline could clearly be used as evidence to support the argument that 2010 will be worse, but there are factors to take account of which might counter this – a bad summer in the UK last year and recent bad weather preventing trips to travel agencies, and, more positively, the improvement in the pound, that returning confidence and, in all likelihood, a later surge in holiday bookings.

There is a further reason for optimism – and this is that the regional government does appear to be galvanising itself. In the paper’s editorial, Jason pointed to the fact that President Antich is to make tourism his top priority this year, rightly noting that he might surely have been doing this previously. Antich, in addition to announcing greater funding for tourism, has called on all government departments to get behind tourism and for it to be everyone’s priority. Maybe the centimo has finally dropped. I have argued that the regional government should be restructured in such a way as to place tourism at its peak. Antich should, I believe, have grasped the nettle when Miquel Nadal was forced to resign and taken on the tourism brief himself. But if the president can persuade the rest of the political class that it, in effect, acts in support of the island’s only strategic industry, then this has to be applauded – at last.

A question is, however, whether the rest of the political class will take any notice. There was a letter to “The Bulletin” a few days ago. It was questioning tourism minister Ferrer’s ambitions for changes in the tourism sector, bracketing this with a reference to members of the coalition government who “have gone on record saying that they would prefer to see less (sic) foreigners here”. I’m not sure who these members are, but it is the case that there have been some political voices raised against swelling tourist numbers, a sort of anti-tourism brigade that isn’t. One of them belongs to Mother Munar, the matriarch of Ferrer’s nationalist party, who once spoke out against an invasion of foreigners, but a member of government only in the sense that she is the speaker of parliament. (Incidentally, Mother applied her constitutional right the other day in keeping mum when she appeared before the beak investigating the corruption accusation against her.) There may well be some Little Mallorcans lurking who would prefer to turn the clock back or others who would rather Mallorca tourists were only those with bulging wallets, and these politicians may well reside in the ranks of the nationalists or parties to the left of Antich’s PSOE, but there is one very important factor that none of them would wish to ignore. It is a factor which gives lie to what they may or may not allow their different ideologies to say about tourism numbers, and that is … the airport.

Antich used the platform at the Fitur exhibition in Madrid to make not only his announcement about tourism priority but also to refer to the management of the airport by the regional government. This is, and has been, a major ambition of local politicians for some while. And why? Because it means money. And a pre-requisite for granting local management is passenger numbers. The more there are, the closer that management gets. And more passengers means more tourists. And more passengers, more tourists means more money for whatever body runs the airport because of landing and docking licences and all the rest. No politician, of whatever party, is going to thumb his nose at the potential moolah that will be forthcoming. The central government vice-president has been making positive noises about local management during a visit to Palma, which may or may not be simple politicking in support of fellow party member Antich as the regional elections approach. Presumably, Antich would see securing airport management in advance of these elections as a voting feather in his cap.

One can be cynical about the motives behind the renewed tourism drive. But airport management or no airport management, the declaration of tourism priority is an overdue statement of reality, if also an overdue statement of the bleeding obvious. In the absence of any other industry of real note, certainly given the parlous state of construction, then tourism it has to be. Now just get on with it.

Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.

Fever Isn’t Such A New Thing – Elections in 2011

Election fever may be starting to take hold in the UK, but in Mallorca the fever is, as yet, just a mild sniffle. Regional elections for the Balearic Government do not take place till 2011, but plans are starting to be put into place. The greatest uncertainty surrounds the current president, Francesc Antich, who has been equivocal as to whether he will seek a further term. The good money, until now, has been that he will not stand again, and he has hinted that this might be the case, but his party – the PSOE socialists – would like him to and to continue as secretary-general of the party.

Whatever one thinks about Antich and indeed his socialist party, and whatever one thinks about his handling of affairs from the economic crisis to the corruption scandals, he has been a good enough president. More than this, he is one of the very few Mallorcan politicians who can be said to demonstrate anything like statesman-like qualities and genuine political maturity. His diplomacy and patience in dealing with the disruptions in government – none of them of his making – have been commented upon and been admired. He has also overseen a significant increase in the level of central funding coming into the islands for different projects. It was not, for example, his fault that one of the major projects – the rail extension to Alcúdia – was scuppered. He is dealt the hand he is dealt, one that pretty much any president in the Balearics faces – that of dealing with coalition partners and different levels of government that often have competing needs or which just act in a politicking manner.

The main alternative to Antich is the current leader of the Council of Mallorca, Francina Armengol. The fact that members of the Unió Mallorquina were prepared to resign from her administration does not fill one with great confidence; they resigned because they didn’t get on with her. It might be argued that they – the UM members – did a touch of toy-throwing out of the pram, but the fact remains that there were tensions and still are, following their return to the fold. The ability to deal with different factions and parties is arguably the most important aspect of a prospective leader’s CV, and Armengol has not proved that she can satisfy this demand.

Of course, even if Antich were to seek a further term, there is no guarantee that he would win it. However, the main opposition – the Partido Popular – is not in great shape, and there is a question mark as to who actually would be its presidential candidate. Nevertheless, the party is polling quite well, despite the corruption scandal involving the former PP president, Jaume Matas. The UM is most unlikely to offer a serious challenge, certainly not in light of the corruption charges and the decimation in its ranks. Perhaps the biggest potential pitfall for the PSOE would be voter apathy, a rejection of the political class as a whole and a vote against corruption, though this would be somewhat unfair on the PSOE which has not been caught up in the scandals.

One of the great advantages for Antich is that he is a member of the same party that rules in Madrid. A closeness to Zapatero can only work to Mallorca’s benefit, but there must also be the possibility that Antich, who has already had an earlier stint as regional president, may have his eye on a central position. That would be Mallorca’s loss but Spain’s gain.

The race to next year’s elections starts now.

(Since writing this piece, Antich has now announced that he will indeed be putting himself forward as a candidate in 2011.)

MORE SANT ANTONI INFO
On the WHAT’S ON BLOG is stuff for Sant Antoni in Alcúdia (Sant Sebastià as well) and in Muro – http://www.wotzupnorth.blogspot.com

You Just Can’t Get Agreement – Antich And Other Politicians

There was an interesting little thing tucked away in “The Diario” yesterday. Interesting, not because of what it said, but because of what could be extrapolated from it. The article referred to a meeting between Francesc Antich, the regional government president, and the hotel federation. The headlining element was that Antich suggested it was easier to reach agreements with business and unions than with political parties. From that, one can infer that it is not always easy to reach compromise with coalition partners. He is not wrong. But this was not the most interesting aspect. Antich is also reported as saying that “the political situation impedes the taking of measures that allow for greater tourism competitiveness”. In other words, the very nature of the system is a constraint on Mallorca’s most important industry.

Now, just think about this, and take into account also the fact that the hoteliers made a number of demands to Antich, one of which was for the improvement of public transport to Alcúdia, i.e. the train, the train that was effectively vetoed by Alcúdia town hall. Think about it. Who is now the new tourism minister? The mayor of Alcúdia, Miquel Ferrer, the one who stood in the way of the train because the town hall would not go along with the government’s preference for the siting of the Sa Pobla rail extension.

The political system – the coalition – acts against the best interests of the tourism industry, including those to do with transport infrastructure. This is what Antich is saying. The coalition comprises three parties, one of which, the Unió Mallorquina, is represented in the tourism ministry, as it has been throughout the Antich administration, albeit by different politicians. Do we infer from this that the UM has been obstructive in tourism development? No, this has not been the case. But now that Ferrer is in charge of tourism, will he see the train in a different light, i.e. one that takes account of a wider interest than merely a parochial Alcúdia one of self-interest, as was manifest in the protests by the finca owners of the Son Fé area of Alcúdia? It is not for Ferrer, as tourism minister, to decide anything where transport is concerned, but he must have an opinion or be asked for one. Will this now change?

When Ferrer gave his first press conference the other day, one of the things he was not asked about was the train. Had he been, he would probably have deflected it by saying that it is not an issue for the tourism ministry. But he should still have been asked. Ferrer has been mute on the subject since the decision was taken to use funds earmarked the Sa Pobla extension for different projects. He has made something of a virtue of not saying things, but now he is tourism minister, he is going to be expected to be less taciturn. Though the train is effectively dead in the water until a new administration is elected, it nevertheless remains an issue, an issue for tourism development – as the hoteliers have made clear and, by implication of what Antich said, for the president himself, whose whole period of office was meant to have been celebrated as “the age of the train”.

There is no collision course as such between Antich and Ferrer on the matter, as it has been shelved, but the very fact of the matter having been raised highlights – again – the difficulties created by different levels of government and different parties and also the potential complications for a politician elevated from a local environment to one of state (assuming one can call the regional government a “state”). Moreover, Ferrer will spend much of his time in discussion with the likes of the hoteliers federation. What will he say to them about the train? That Antich has had this meeting with the federation could be interpreted as a shot across Ferrer’s bows, while a more active involvement in tourism matters by Antich, something I believe he should have, might be taken as either an admission of possible inexperience on behalf of Ferrer or of undermining him and also the UM.

Alcúdia town hall went against the preference of the government’s transport ministry, one headed by a member of the Mallorcan socialists (Bloc), i.e. one to the left of centre, an area also inhabited by Antich. There is no love lost between the UM and the Bloc, and the train debacle was in so small part a reflection of this. Antich is widely admired for his patience and for his attempts at diplomacy, but one could forgive him just a touch of annoyance that one of his “big things”, the train, was scuppered by the very person who is now his tourism minister.

Bloc-Heads

Politics in Mallorca are never exactly dull. Scandal, crisis, division, these are the almost daily staples of political fare served with a Mallorcan flavour. We now have the situation in which members of the ruling coalition at the Mallorca Council have resigned; they are all from the Unió Mallorquina (UM) nationalist party. It, the UM, forms (or should that be, formed) a pact with the socialists, the PSOE (that of the national president, Zapatero), and the so-called Bloc, comprising the Mallorcan socialists – PSM – and others to the left of centre. This coalition is mirrored at regional government level, i.e. the Balearics Government. Its president, Francesc Antich (PSOE), has looked to try and smooth over the problems at the Council, created, so it would seem, by differences with its own president, Francina Armengol (also PSOE). I trust, by the way, that you’re following all this, as I’ll be testing you later.

 

The consequence of the resignations at the Council is that what remains of the coalition now forms a minority. Chief among the accusations coming from the UM is that the Council has become a “dead institution” and a vehicle of “false marketing” (whatever that refers to). It should, the UM maintain, revert to what it is meant to do, namely undertake projects and investment. It’s handy that the UM should make this point. There must be many who have no idea what the point of the Council actually is, set, as it is, betwixt the regional government and the town halls. 

 

Setting aside the relevance or not of the Council (though this is a legitimate subject for debate in its own right), the fractiousness is an indictment not only of an inability of those of different political persuasions to work together in the name of the common good but also of the very nature of coalition politics. The UM is a centre-right party; it is not a naturally sympathetic partner for either the PSOE or the Bloc. But partner it is, or has been, as a means of getting some hold on the reigns of power and of making up the numbers to actually form a government. The UM says that it is not planning a rival pact with the conservative Partido Popular (PP), one that might be able to take over the running of the Council for the remainder of the current legislature. Yet, the PP would be a more natural ally. Both have similar political philosophies, apart from the obvious nationalist dimension of the UM and therefore also the language question. 

 

Into all of this strides “The Bulletin” with a call to Antich to declare an election; an election, that is, at regional government level. Why? The Council is an entirely different body. Moreover, it is, as the name makes clear, a body for Mallorca and not the Balearics. It is, however, true to say that the regional government has stumbled into its own crises, in which the UM often appears to be the common factor. There was, for instance, an issue with the former tourism minister (UM) who had to be jettisoned and replaced by the current incumbent, Miquel Nadal (also UM), himself implicated in a scandal. 

 

Were there to be an election, who is to say that the status quo would not be the result? That the same partners would not have to coalesce? Where would this get anyone? Perhaps the problems at the Council are at least in part due to a certain atrophy, that “dead institution”, brought about by the horse-trading of a coalition of differing political colours. It is not that coalition politics cannot work. They do in Germany, for example, albeit that consensus politics there leads to a lack of radicalism the country has long needed. Germany now has a more natural coalition of the conservatives and the free-market liberals, one that may well provide the stimulus for change. But the philosophy of seeking consensus is one that seems to be lacking in Mallorca, one that places political party power above a desire to act in tandem for the common good. It is the maturity of the political mindset, or the lack thereof, that creates the problems for sound government in Mallorca. Not the system per se.

 

A mid-term election would serve no real purpose, unless the problems at the Council do repeat themselves at regional government level, though the feeling is that they do not exist there. Perhaps so; perhaps not. Either way, a solution lies in a greater humility and maturity. Or maybe there’s another one – if it is indeed moribund, then scrap the Council altogether.

Head Bangers

The piece below has been rather overtaken by events – the government is set to divert the funds set aside for the extension to Alcúdia to other rail work on the island and in particular work on the “boulevard” which is part of a solution to issues surrounding the Manacor railway. Or is this just a cunning ploy by the government? More on all this to come, no doubt.

 

 

 

No, not something about Status Quo and their geriatric rocking all over the Darby and Joan Club in Palma the other day, but ever more on the Sa Pobla-Alcúdia train, an ever more which just goes to show how what you read and where you read it can give a less than complete picture of the situation. In “The Bulletin” we learn, thanks to the mayor of Manacor, that there has been “wholesale opposition” to the proposed northern corridor for the rail extension into Alcúdia and that the regional government has “heeded the outcry from Alcúdia” whilst not heeding one in Manacor regarding the rail extension from there to Artà, work on which is due to start shortly.

 

This is not quite accurate. There has of course been opposition to the northern route, but it is not as great as is being made out. Recently Alcúdia town hall, which has invited “allegations” against the proposed route and which has also extended hours of opening in order to present information, received – on the first day of these extended hours – fifteen people who asked for information. Moreover, the town hall received only a few “allegations”. Asking for information does not mean wholesale opposition; it means asking for information. A few allegations do not represent wholesale opposition. 

 

It is not accurate to suggest that the government has “heeded the outcry from Alcúdia”. What it, or more specifically the transport ministry, has done is to suggest that if there cannot be agreement to the northern route, it (the ministry) would consider siting the rail extension elsewhere. Heeding the outcry actually means getting hacked off with the apparent intransigence at the town hall. The outcry itself is more one of political statements from the town hall; it is not a great public demonstration against the northern route. Yes, there have been protests, such as signs against the extension some months ago, but the Manacor mayor is overstating the situation. And those protests were essentially NIMBY in nature as they related to finca land that would be needed for a line into the centre of Alcúdia town.

 

In contrast to the report in “The Bulletin”, which deals only with what the Manacor mayor has to say, one from “The Diario” presents a rather different picture. And it is this. The president of the government, Francesc Antich, has met with the leader of the Unió Mallorquina party, Miquel Flaquer, in order to try and gain some sort of consensus to present before the regional parliament. It should be noted that the Alcúdia town hall mayor, Miquel Ferrer, is from the same party as Flaquer. On Tuesday next week, responding to a demand from the Partido Popular, which is in opposition at the regional government, there needs to be some sort of definitive statement from the parliament about the Alcúdia railway. What one concludes, from what “The Diario” is saying, is that the whole issue has now gone over the heads of the main protagonists in the saga – the transport minister and the mayor of Alcúdia. Going over their heads and banging their heads together. And not before time. 

 

The words of Manacor’s mayor, himself from the Partido Popular, are essentially political posturing, certainly where Alcúdia is concerned, as the extension there has nothing whatsoever to do with him. But they sum up what this story is all about: political point-scoring. The real issues of environment, convenience, boost to local economy, population density and all the rest have been put to one side while the politicians from differing parties adopt their stances. ‘Twas ever thus, you might say, and you would be right, but the fact that Antich has seen it necessary to get involved – overdue some might argue – is indicative of the inconclusiveness of the local political system and of political fighting. It should be remembered that Antich came into power with his “age of the train” declaration. Railways were his “big thing”. He should have been more intimately involved long ago.

 

Personally I don’t give a damn where the train goes, so long as it goes to Alcúdia which is the only sensible option in the north. Hopefully Antich can now, through the boss of the Unió Mallorquina, get Alcúdia town hall to accept the northern route, as quite clearly the transport ministry is not prepared to budge except to go to a different and less satisfactory municipality. 

 

 

Places that are closing

Chances are that this might become a regular slot on the blog in the coming weeks. One place that is going is Mulligan’s in Puerto Pollensa. Unfortunately, we can probably anticipate that there will be a number of others.

Cutting Down To Size

The president of the Balearic Government is to consider a rationalisation of the structure of the government’s executive and therefore the number of ministries – all part, says he, of serving the citizen well. That this may result in the merging or even the axeing of certain ministries may make for more efficient and perhaps less expensive government, but what real difference it might make would be questionable. Restructuring is not a complete red herring, but there are numerous issues that should be addressed apart from simply moving boxes around on an organisational chart. 

 

Let’s consider the following: the absence of a culture of service, excessive bureaucracy, too many tiers of government and therefore duplication, unclear lines of responsibility, legislation that is poorly communicated or implemented, corruption, nepotism, incompetence, self-interest, political in-fighting, disregard of what is meant to occur … They’ll do for starters. 

 

An editorial in “The Bulletin” argued that as important as any rationalisation at executive level would be a consideration of the tiers of government. It referred to three; it could have added two more. Central government in Madrid, the Balearic regional government, the Council of Mallorca and the town halls. On top of all of this lot there is also Brussels. Multi-tiered it may be, but so are public administrations elsewhere. Apart from the Council of Mallorca, about which one can legitimately ask what purpose it serves, the model is not in itself wrong. Localisation of democracy through the town halls and the mayors is a strength, albeit that it can go badly wrong mainly because of the lack of checks and balances and the resultant scandals. Devolution to the regions may be a political expedient in some countries, as in the UK, but it, together with regional autonomy, is a political necessity in democratic Spain. Perhaps the greatest political problem that has dogged Spain for more than two centuries is how to handle the regions. 

 

But the consequence of these tiers is that each becomes a mini-me of the one higher up the political food chain. The town halls have councillors for this and that, directors for so and so. There are far too many of them, recipients of jobs for the boys and girls and unfortunately sometimes recipients of favours or the issuers thereof. If there is to be rationalisation of the regional government executive, so there should also be at town hall level. Merging municipalities would actually make a lot of sense in terms of better management of resources, but it wouldn’t happen, so efficiencies need to be found inside the current municipal boundaries. 

 

Strength though it is that local democracy is so active, there is also a weakness in the obstructive nature of the exercise of local politics. No better example of this can be found than in the case of the Alcúdia train. The impasse over the siting is fundamentally political. Yet it would benefit not only Alcúdia but also Mallorca as a whole to finally have an extended rail line to the north. The regional government should be allowed to simply veto the local objections, but it struggles to – because of those tiers. It is in the relationship between the tiers of government and their actual areas of responsibility that the fault lies, not in the levels themselves. But because Alcúdia, for example, has a responsibility for the environment within the municipality, it can use this (or indeed other factors) to block something agreed at central government level in Madrid; it’s that mini-me principle in action. 

 

Then there is the actual exercise of public administration, the interaction with the public that this administration is meant to serve. Note the word “serve”, one to which President Antich has also referred. There is a shocking antipathy towards the concept of service, just witness for example the workings of the Trafico building in Palma or how many town halls treat their “customers”. Antich should be demanding a complete re-education programme in terms of service. 

 

The suggestion of rationalisation is a good thing if only because a senior politician might actually wish to improve the system of public administration in Mallorca. It would be a massive task to do it well, but perhaps there is, after all, a political will to do so. It’ll do for starters.