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.

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.