Marga Duran, the Partido Popular spokesperson in Palma, will be presenting an urgent item of business at tomorrow's full council session in which she will be calling for the immediate removal of anti-tourist graffiti in the old part of the city. The PP is demanding the graffiti be cleaned off because of the "poisonous" image of Palma that it conveys.
Duran stresses that the messages of the graffiti cannot be permitted, as they directly attack visitors and make them think that they are not welcomed by the city. She is accusing the town hall administration of acting with "exasperating slowness" and of having allowed the graffiti to remain on buildings in Palma's historic centre for several weeks without those with responsibilities at the town hall appearing to be concerned. In addition, she suggests, the town hall has not sent out a clear message in favour of tourists and against the graffiti artists - one that would counteract negative publicity in principal tourism markets.
Most damning is Duran's assertion that the town hall's inaction, allied to suspicions that the town hall and other governmental institutions controlled by the left are themselves against tourism, could "lead one to think that there is a certain complicity with the graffiti messages".
A further aspect of the proposition to be made by the PP is that there should be resources invested in an information campaign to make clear the magnificent welcome that Palma and its people have for tourists. They, tourists, should not be deterred by acts of disgraceful vandalism that have occurred.
Duran is to recommend that the administration stops spending so much money on totally dispensable projects and instead dedicates part of its budget to addressing the bad image that the graffiti has presented.
She is also attacking the "erratic" policy of the town hall in respect of heritage. While it seems to not care about what has happened in the case of the graffiti, it openly seeks to destroy heritage - a reference to the planned demolition of the Sa Feixina monument.