The Balearic Government's sustainability pact, launched in May last year, was launched - or so it seemed at the time - in response to images of early-spring traffic congestion and with one eye on protests in the Canary Islands. The first protest in Mallorca had yet to be held, but the government knew that protests were coming.
The pact was ambitious in that it was to address the future of the Balearic economic model and so principally the tourism model. Some 150 entities were invited to participate in debating changes to this model; the pact would set the agenda for a generation. Political parties, business associations, unions, environmentalists, farmers, the university; these were among those represented. The intention was, the impression was that this would be a pact for open dialogue, with voices for all interests. Input from the various sources, plus that of the general public via a website specifically set up for this purpose, would be pulled together in arriving at a series of roadmaps, hopefully based on some form of consensus.
Little of substance has emerged. Measures such as those to address numbers of vehicles would almost certainly have been pursued in any event. Not that these go far enough for some of the entities that were originally represented; originally, because several walked away and have not returned.
The minister for employment, public function and social dialogue, Catalina Cabrer, says she will be contacting these groups and encouraging them to return. She faces a challenge as these groups believe that the reasons that led them to abandon the pact not only remain valid but have strengthened.
The Forum for Civil Society, which has held its own direct talks with the Mallorca Hoteliers Federation and TUI; the OCB Catalan culture organisation; the environmentalists GOB; the European Anti-Poverty and Social Exclusion Network (EAPN); Palma's Federation of Residents Associations. These all left the pact. Political parties - Més, Podemos - also quit. They all felt that the methodology of the process was "obscurantist" and designed to legitimise, with their inclusion, policies that had already been decided and went against the whole objective of moving towards sustainability.
Andreu Grimalt of the EAPN says: "We have never closed the door to returning, but right now we don't see that the reasons that led us to stop attending the meetings have been resolved." GOB spokesperson Margalida Ramis argues that "the reasons which led to our departure have worsened, as evidenced by the law allowing for land liberalisation approved by parliament in July".
Neus Picó, a member of the OCB board, points out: "We presented more than 50 proposals to the pact's working parties. The government not only ignored them, it also approved measures that go in the diametrically opposite direction. If they contact us, we are willing to listen, but right now we are not considering returning because we don't see that the government has any intention of making amendments."
The president of the Palma federation, Maribel Alcázar, says: "We are tired of people trying to use the residents' movement to legitimise political decisions already made; we have our own position."