The Balearic government yesterday denounced as political interference a report by the national economic affairs ministry regarding the planned holiday rentals' legislation. The report questions the powers that the regional government has for regulating.
Tourism minister Biel Barceló said that the report makes no sense and that it is difficult to understand. Specific powers that are being queried are those for establishing a ceiling for the number of tourist places and for granting island councils the responsibilities for the zoning of rentals. Indeed, the power to be able to regulate holiday rentals at all appears to being queried.
Barceló insisted that the government defends its right of self-government to regulate tourist activity as well as its right to establish caps on numbers because of limited territory. "It is an attack on our autonomy and has a series of legal inconsistencies, while it is also inconsistent with what the Partido Popular in the Balearics have maintained." Barceló believed that there is PP "double-speak", with the party in the Balearics demanding prohibition while in Madrid it wants liberalisation.
The minister added that the draft of the legislation was sent to the national government's delegation, which considered it to be within the framework of existing legality. "We can only believe that there are political motivations for the report."