Quiet In My Town

Alcúdia old town. Towards the end of March. Not long before Easter. It is late afternoon, kids are kicking a ball near to the tourist information office, which is closed. A dog is on the terrace above El Limón. It barks at every passer-by and then scrapes the green shutter door, which is closed. There are people around, but not so many. Manuel at Sa Caseta says there’s no-one, but he is at least open. And so he should be, the pizzas are to die for.

People stand out because there are not so many of them. This was once his town. What happens when you cease to – in effect – run the place? What happens when you head off to another post? Elsewhere. In Palma. And then suddenly you don’t have that either. Not that it was your fault. You did it because it was a career move, I suppose.

He looks tanned. Maybe this is what you do. Go away on holiday. Get away to some warmer sun than Mallorca has to offer in February or March once you’ve lost your job. How does it feel though, do you suppose, knowing that this used to be your town? Someone stops him and has a brief chat. Everyone knows him of course. For many, he still does run the town. Or so they might think, but then remember that he doesn’t. Perhaps they feel a bit sorry for him.

He’s walking with his daughter, at least one presumes it’s his daughter. There is a little dog, a puppy that races up and sniffs my shoes. I say hello. He knows he knows me, but can’t quite place me. I want to stop and actually ask him how it feels, but somehow that seems tactless. I walk on. It’s possible that it doesn’t bother him, but you wonder what he’s doing, other than strolling in the streets of Alcúdia on a late March afternoon.

I go into the Constitution Square. I’m waiting and just looking. Staring at the tops of the pink and orange buildings, at the brown shutters and at the coffee and cake board for the German late-afternoon in March tourists. I watch. He walks past the chemists, down what we would call the high street. The town hall, the Casa Consistorial. The doors are closed.

Who is he?

Miquel Ferrer, the former mayor, the former tourism minister, strolling past the shut-tight doors of the town hall building of the town that he used – in effect – to run.

Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.

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.

Ferrer’s First Interview

Rubbish, nonsense, the Spanish have a word that can mean both – “tonterías”. It was a word used by new tourism minister Miquel Ferrer during his first press engagements. Politicians should not be wasting time on nonsense was how the interview in “The Diario” was headlined. It was, unfortunately, an uninformative piece. It lacked bite. There needed to have been more grilling of Ferrer and his qualification for the post, while the issue of the all-inclusive was ignored. Ferrer believes that 2010 will see an improvement in the tourism market, that there is an excellent marketing plan in place and that the Rafa Nadal promotional campaign will be continued. Good for the still Alcúdia mayor. The coming season should indeed be better (one would hope), but as for the marketing and the promotion … ?

Go Now

So, returning to yesterday and the breaking news that occupied the top of yesterday’s entry. 

 

The regional government’s threat to go elsewhere with their train money seems not to have been an idle one, even if the location of that elsewhere has probably taken a lot of people by surprise, including – one hopes – the mayor of Alcúdia. The central funds earmarked for the rail extension to Alcúdia now may well end up finding a solution to a bit of local difficulty in Manacor where there has been all manner of opposition to the redeveloped route to Artà. That the regional government would appear to have lost patience with Alcúdia town hall is perhaps understandable, but the diversion of funding to Manacor means the worst of all worlds. There remains just the germ of a thought that such a diversion may be a ruse to flush out Alcúdia town hall which will now face its own backlash if the train does not arrive there – ever. Nevertheless, the central ministry in Madrid that ultimately oversees such projects appears to have accepted the changed use of the funding.

 

The Manacor-Artà redevelopment (there used once to be a line between the two towns) has, unlike the Alcúdia train, been dogged by significant popular opposition. Many people argue that it is unnecessary. If one takes the tourism angle (which has been a plank of the Alcúdia town hall argument in favour of the southern route), this does not apply in the Manacor case. Apart from anything else, Artà has hardly any tourism industry worthy of the name. It is nowhere town, where no-one goes. Only if the line were to be extended on further, to Cala Ratjada (which is the intention), might the tourism factor become consequential, but even then to nothing like the degree that a train to Alcúdia might. When the mayor of Manacor referred to the “outcry” in Alcúdia, he was being disingenuous in two ways: there has not been the sort of popular outcry in Alcúdia that he suggests, yet there has been in his own municipality as well as elsewhere. 

 

The case of the rail lines is a farce. It is a farce for different reasons. The regional government can be seen as being petty by not seeking a rapprochement with Alcúdia; the transport ministry can be seen as having wished to foist a route on Alcúdia that it did not want; Alcúdia town hall has been petty by not being willing to back down; the use of funds for the Manacor line will be for something which does not have popular support; the Manacor line will not serve tourism; the Alcúdia line would serve not only tourism but also residents of the town, Puerto Pollensa and the playa region of Muro; the Alcúdia line would be more widely beneficial in terms of the island economy; the political fighting will have bitten Alcúdia’s mayor who stands above all other parties as being responsible for the loss of the rail line. All assuming that the diversion of funds does indeed get ratified. If it is, then Mayor Ferrer should either resign or be booted out. Whatever spin the town hall will try to put on the loss of the rail line, it will have been the obstructive nature of the town hall’s opposition to the government’s preferred route that will have been the cause of this loss, to the detriment of Alcúdia, its immediate neighbours and the island as a whole. Though it can be argued that the transport ministry sought a fait accompli when it announced the northern route, the alternative southern route – that which the town hall wants, especially were it to end up at the Es Foguera ruin – has no great advantage, if any, over the northern route. But this will serve also to expose the absurdity at the heart of this farce – that a town hall can effectively block an important infrastructure development. The fault in all this lies at one level with political pettiness but at another with the political system, to say nothing of possible self-interests that may or may not have played a part in Alcúdia’s obstructionism. 

 

It could be that the Alcúdia line is not doomed, if this is a ploy by the government. But for Ferrer to now back down would mean an enormous loss of face. He has a choice – loss of face or loss of support from people in Alcúdia who were in favour of the train, wherever it might have been sited. There is only one choice for him – he should go.