T HE Balearic government must be thinking what went wrong. Just three weeks ago the local government were celebrating. There were just a handful of new coronavirus cases, the Balearics was the only place in Spain which was on Britain´s travel Green List and it appeared that we would have a holiday season after all.
But bad things come in threes; first there was a steady increase in cases which some have linked to the fact that a group of mainland students had been given a free hand to party on the island, then Britain took the islands off the Green List and other countries followed and then the tourist industry braced itself for a season to forget. What next? Well, new restrictions appear to be on horizon.
The days of “freedom” which we have been enjoying appear to be numbered because the government is under great pressure to take radical action. It it easy to write with the benefit of hindsight but I do believe that the restrictions were eased far too quickly. The Balearic government didn´t have much option really, once the Madrid government had ended the state of alarm, they had to ease the restrictions.
Initially, the local government resisted but when faced with legal challenges they had little option but to surrender. But, the local government are not totally blameless. The “student episode” was on on their watch and it should never have been allowed to take place. Now, they are faced with some very difficult decisions.