During the first session of two days of parliamentary debate regarding the "state of the community" (so therefore government policies), President Armengol yesterday considered the burning topic of so-called tourist "saturation". She warned against the risk of adopting structural decisions to deal with tourist pressure that reflects current circumstances, by which she was referring to the elevated demand caused by insecurity elsewhere in the Mediterranean. She instead advocated a "realistic" response and one that does not give out an anti-tourist message.
Armengol referred to the sensation of saturation as being one of the weaknesses of the Balearic economic model, adding that she is in favour of considering this model according to social, environmental, economic and labour parameters.
In highlighting the need to be cautious in making decisions, she warned that no one can ensure that "we do not return to a situation that we had a few years ago, when everything was being done to attract tourists through low prices and formulas such as all-inclusive".
She accepted that there have been "excesses" this summer which have caused inconvenience. However, she advised against making generalisations based on specific examples. "We must not turn this into an anti-tourist message. A balance needs to be sought between the main economic activity of the islands and people's quality of life."
Armengol also suggested that it was simplistic to attribute tourist pressure to an increase in the availability of holiday lets, although she recognised that a good deal of this is outside current tourism regulations. She stressed that the government is committed to regulating rentals. Not every property being rented to tourists will continue to be, she suggested.
Moving on to other topics, the president referred to the way in which the current government has distanced itself from the way that the previous government (of the Partido Popular) operated. Far from there being "impositions", there was now dialogue. "We have changed the ways of doing politics."