PALMA
THE newly appointed Balearic Minister for Tourism, Miguel Ferrer, was one of three Majorcan Unionist Party government ministers sacked yesterday morning after the former Minister for Tourism, and ex-leader of the Majorcan Unionist Party, Miguel Nadal, became the latest high ranking member of the UM to be arrested as part of a series of investigations into alleged corruption and misappropriation of public funds in public administrations.
This week, 15 members of the Majorcan Unionist Party have been arrested or questioned as part of Operation Vulture, an investigation into alleged corruption inside the Inestur Institute for Balearic Tourism Strategy, a wing of the Balearic Ministry for Tourism.
And with members of the UM already implicated in a number of other alleged corruption scandals, the leader of the Balearic left-wing coalition government of which the UM is a member, decided that all high ranking UM members of the government be sacked.
The two other axed Balearic Ministers were Miguel Angel Grimalt, Environment and the Minister for Sport and Youth Affairs, Mateu Cañellas.
The Socialist leader of the Council of Majorca, Francina Armengol, followed suit removing all UM members from their positions as did the mayor of Palma, Aina Calvo.