With fifteen Blue Flags lost, three new ones gained, leaving a balance for the Balearics of twelve fewer this year, now comes the fallout. As three of the lost flags are in Palma, the Partido Popular's spokesperson at the town hall, Marga Duran, yesterday called for the censure of the city's president of the Emaya services agency, the councillor Neus Truyol.
Duran referred to her "disastrous" management of the agency and to the "catastrophe" of the loss of three flags. She is to seek an extraordinary meeting of the council to discuss Emaya, saying that Truyol needs to "accept her responsibility". "In a private company, she would be given an hour to clear her desk."
The PP councillor dismissed arguments by both Truyol and the tourism minister, Biel Barceló, that the loss of the flags was due to payment not having been made. It was solely due to the water quality, she said, and had "nothing to do with lack of investment".
Barceló, in responding to the loss of the flags, explained that the concessionaire for the Blue Flag organisation in Spain, had requested a payment of 21,000 euros from the Balearic government, this being the annual charge for making an evaluation of Balearic beaches. The minister said that this was not paid as there were other priorities. He went on to add that he fears there will be more lost flags next year, as the analyses for 2016 were conducted in 2015.
He also insisted that the loss of flags was not a reflection of any poor condition of Balearic beaches. He also suggested that tourists do not attach a great deal of importance to the flags. José Ramón Sánchez, for ADEAC, the Association for Environmental Education and the Consumer, which organises the Blue Flag campaign in Spain, stated that the Palma beaches had lost their flags because the environment ministry had excluded them because of their water quality, while beaches in Ibiza had not been put forward for Blue Flag nomination.
The three Palma beaches in question are Can Pere Antoni, Ciudad Jardin and Playa de Palma (Arenal).