On Tuesday, President Armengol promised to "keep fighting" for a safe air corridor between the Balearics and the UK.
The president insisted that the UK government's travel advice and quarantine are "not based on sanitary criteria", while she questioned how the decision to add the Balearics and Canaries to the advice against non-essential travel could be supported. "They changed their minds in 24 hours."
"It is not a good decision, and we must continue to press for a safe corridor. We have the experience of having created a safe corridor with Germany. Being islands is of value in making such a corridor safe. We are confident that the intense efforts by the foreign affairs minister will result in this corridor."
Armengol stressed that the Balearics and the Canaries are in "a better situation than the United Kingdom". She said that it was "difficult to make a comment about another government" but felt that the UK was making decisions "that are not based on health criteria".
The president expressed her disagreement with remarks made by Fernando Simón, the director of the Centre for Coordination of Health Alerts and Emergencies, who has thanked the UK and Belgium for discouraging travel to Spain. "I do not share Fernando Simón's opinion. The average level of infection in the UK is not so extreme as to suggest that it is better that they (UK travellers) do not come. In the Balearics, we were clear from the outset. We closed ports and airports, we controlled the pandemic, and we have the epidemiological data to support this."
Armengol added that "there are British citizens who want to travel, and there are Britons who live here who cannot understand the decision". The islands, she observed, were beginning "to see the light of tourism" before the UK government made its decision.
"A balance must be sought between economic reactivation and the health situation. Economic reactivation is an absolute necessity, for which we need safe tourism." Referring to the Balearic request to the Spanish government for greater control of travellers coming to the Balearics from certain regions of mainland Spain, Armengol emphasised that "we want to have all the data of people who travel in order to carry out health monitoring". "It was evident that when mobility (between regions) restarted, there would be more infections. We cannot be eternally confined."