It appears that the coin has finally dropped or politicians are no longer afraid to admit that the past two years of anti-tourism protests have not gone down well with international markets and visitors.
And today, Thursday, the Balearic Parliament, with the support of all political groups except MÉS per Mallorca, condemned all ‘violent’ acts against tourism, especially ‘vandalism’ such as the burning of photographs outside the Balearic Ministry for Tourism in Palma by Arran activists last July.
This was approved at the meeting of the Committee on Tourism, Culture, Sports, Labour, Civil Service and Social Dialogue held on Thursday following a non-legislative proposal (PNL) defended by centre-right Partido Popular MP Maria Salomé Cabrera. The initiative, which received 12 votes in favour and one against, ‘strongly condemns all violent acts against tourism, and in particular the acts of vandalism and the burning of photographs inciting hatred that took place in July by the Arran group’.
The activists, according to the text, carried out ‘graffiti against tourism on the building of the Regional Ministry of Tourism, Culture and Sport, which also constitutes damage to a Site of Cultural Interest’.
‘These are attacks that go against our main economic sector, which undermine the confidence of our visitors and the image of our tourist destination, and attacks that go against peaceful coexistence and freedoms. It is essential to demand respect and responsibility for differences of opinion, which should not be defended with violence or intimidation,’ concludes the text defended by the PP.
Under a heading of 'Tourism impoverishes us, the government persecutes us', Arran stated at the time that criticism of the Balearic Government is in response to the role that it and previous governments, including those of the left, have played in the touristification of Mallorca.
They maintain that people's quality of life has lost out to the interests of the tourism industry and that a monoculture economic model based on tourism only generates "misery" for working people. There is harsh criticism of official condemnation of graffiti that directly targeted the government, while the same government ignored other protests. "Their objective is not to protect the tourism ministry, but rather to silence a message that shows them as guilty of our precariousness."
The Socialist group unsuccessfully attempted to add, via amendment, a point seeking to have Parliament acknowledge that ‘despite the broad social consensus on the need to act on tourist saturation’, the government ‘has not yet promoted any real or effective way to limit tourism growth, reduce pressure on the territory or improve the quality of life of residents’.