The Partido Popular have again demanded that Biel Barceló should resign as vice-president and tourism minister. Party spokesperson Marga Prohens yesterday described Barceló's management as "disastrous", adding that President Armengol is complicit in this for not having dismissed him and that she lacks sufficient authority.
Although Barceló has survived motions of censure, the most recent one last week, Prohens argued that he has been censured as there have been three votes on this.
Andreu Alcover, the chief parliamentary spokesperson for Armengol's PSOE party, responded to calls for Barceló's resignation by saying that were he to resign, the opposition would then demand Armengol's resignation as well. "They (the opposition) always want to go one step further."
Alcover observed that responsibilities have been assumed by the government and in a swift fashion. No other government has reacted as quickly, he suggested, in referring to how issues such as the Més contracts affair have been dealt with. "But for the opposition parties this will never be enough."
The spokesperson for Podemos, Alberto Jarabo, had his say yesterday as well. His party will wait until a meeting with Barceló tomorrow before making any decisions. He added that at present Podemos are not considering support for a censure motion (they abstained in the vote last week).
Jarabo insisted that the resignation of Barceló "was not an objective in itself". He added that Podemos are wanting solutions and a tourism policy that works. Tomorrow's meeting would be to specify the selection criteria for senior officials and "to define the tourism policy of the ministry". "It is not our intention to distance ourselves from the government but to ensure that the government acts in a more respectful way towards the 'agreements for change' (which were drawn up by PSOE, Més and Podemos)."
The Podemos spokesperson observed that for now all the people charged and affected have left the government. "This has been an act of political courage," he noted. He was referring, for example, to the resignation of Pilar Carbonell as tourism director-general.