Rosario Molina, the lawyer acting for the Stereo Temple club in Magalluf, has requested the provisional lifting of Calvia town hall measures for a breach of the tourism of excesses law.
In Molina's view, these measures violate a right to work and freedom of enterprise. The Balearic legislation, which the town hall has enshrined in its ordinance, penalises behaviour "depending on the street where it is carried out", something that is detrimental to clubs situated in the "zone of excesses" as determined by the government.
Molina argues that the closure of the business could cause "irreparable" damage to the company and to its employees. She is confident that Temple will be able to reopen this weekend - it was sealed off on Tuesday - albeit without dancers. It was the dancers, their clothing and their visibility to people on the street, who led to the town hall charge of denigrating women, prohibited under article seven of the law, and to a potentially huge fine for the club as well as its closure.
This article, according to legal opinion, is open to interpretation. It refers to objectification and hyper-sexualisation but doesn't specify behaviours that denigrate women. Consequently, subjectivity is possible, which in turn creates legal uncertainty. Because of this apparent subjectivity, other businesspeople are wondering what clothing could constitute objectification, be this of men or women.
One of the two dancers to have lost their jobs as a result of the measures, Barbora Novakova, hopes that she will be able to dance again "very soon". "We aren't naked. We don't wear explicit clothing." She can't understand why the law "denigrates" her work.