In today's Bulletin, there was consideration of a national minister with sole responsibility for tourism being appointed for the first time. And a familiar name has been tossed into the ring as a possible minister, if Mariano Rajoy is confirmed as prime minister next week and decides to increase the number of ministers and create a specific post for tourism.
José Ramón Bauzá is the name. Businesses in the tourism sector in the Balearics and elsewhere in Spain have received a communication which asks them to sign a letter which promotes the ex-Balearic president and to forward it to Rajoy. A specific ministry for tourism is also advocated in this communication.
Various businesspeople say that they are aware of the request but haven't signed it. The Partido Popular in the Balearics is also aware of Bauzá's name being mentioned. Leaders of the local party believe that Bauzá himself is responsible for the communication, even if it has been made to appear like a spontaneous initiative from within the tourism sector.
Bauzá appears to have the support of a fellow senator, the leader of the PP in Catalonia, Xavier Garciá Albiol, who himself is being talked of as a possible minister. Bauzá, if he weren't to get the top job, would, it is understood, opt instead to be secretary of state for tourism under Albiol.
The PP in the Balearics is looking upon Bauzá's resurgence and desire to get into national government with astonishment. Party leaders believe that he doesn't have any chance of getting the job because his very name is incendiary in the Balearics, something that Rajoy will surely be aware of.
These party leaders are now, it is said, regretting the fact that Bauzá's request to become a senator was agreed to. This has allowed him to maintain a presence in the party and even to promote himself by appearing on talk shows.
Before he resigned in the spring, José Manuel Soria was the tourism minister but combined the portfolio with energy and industry. He and Bauzá had various run-ins while Bauzá was president. A cause of them, it was widely believed, was because Bauzá was targeting Soria's job for himself.