The Spanish government boycotts the PSIB's strategy against overcrowding

PalmaThe Pedro Sánchez government has become an obstacle to the PSIB's strategy in recent weeks. The Balearic socialists have focused on criticizing tourist overcrowding, but the pronouncements from the Ministry of the Presidency and Aena against the co-management of the islands' airports, added to the forecasts that 50 million passengers will be reached by 2031, contradict their discourse. “It makes us very uncomfortable,” admits a source from the party apparatus. Although its leaders have chosen to distance themselves from Madrid and claim their own position, the situation creates tension within the party, especially because their candidate for the elections, Rosario Sánchez, is the current Secretary of State for Tourism.

The obstacles for the PSIB already began with the demonstration on July 23 in Palma, when the National Police, which depends on the Spanish government, charged against the protesters. The delegate of the Spanish government,Alfonso Rodríguez, had to come out to distance himself and commission a report to “determine responsibilities”, of which there is still no news. But what has put the PSIB against the ropes is the debate on airport co-management. While the Balearic socialist federation is in favor, the Spanish government maintains an ambivalent position on the issue. While, in the framework of relations with its investiture partners, it has accepted openings towards co-management in the Basque Country and Catalonia, the scenario has been different for the Islands. At the beginning of September, the Ministry of the Presidency issued a statement firmly opposed to allowing the debate on airport co-management through a bill promoted by MÉS per Mallorca in Congress. Among other issues, the Ministry alleged that the initiative would reduce “Aena's revenues”. Although at the last moment the Ministry agreed to lift the blockade –yielding to pressure from Sumar and faced with the possibility that the PP would vote in favor of lifting the veto in the Bureau–, party sources admit that the issue left the PSIB in “a complicated position”. “The management of this episode can be described as disastrous”, considers political analyst Toni Fornés. “The intervention of the deputy spokesperson of the PSIB in Parliament, Marc Pons, defending the veto the day before the Ministry withdrew it, is the paradigm, because it exposed the little weight the party has in Madrid when it comes to dealing with this issue”, he assures.

The PSIB maintains, despite being in favor of co-management, that the bill proposed by MÉS per Mallorca has no legislative place, and for that reason it abstained when it was brought to Parliament. For her part, the socialist candidate and Secretary of State, Rosario Sánchez, maintains that the Ministry's report was “a technical document prepared by the Secretary of State for Relations with the Cortes [Rafael Simancas], and not a political position of the government of Spain”. But despite this, both the PP and MÉS per Mallorca have attacked the socialists over this episode. This week, the PP has put in its sights the PSIB candidate for the presidency of the Consell d'Eivissa, Pilar Costa, for participating last Sunday in the demonstration against the works at the Ibiza airport, precisely after the Spanish government denied that it was an expansion and defended that they were modernization works.

The President of the Government, Marga Prohens, expressed that the figures foreseen in the Airport Regulation Document (DORAIII from 2027 to 2031) prepared by Aena and approved by the Council of Ministers caused her “fright”. For her part, Rosario Sánchez remarks that “the autonomous communities had access to these forecasts” before they were made public and recalls that Aena, as a state-owned commercial company (with 51% public capital), prepares the projections based on traffic data and the forecasts provided by the communities.

A goldmine for the populars

“We have always been against the privatization of Aena, it was the PP that pushed for it,” remarks the socialist candidate: “But now we have this model, governed by market laws, which is not ours.” “The PP wants to use this issue to divert attention from who has the competencies for tourism management,” she asserts. Fornés agrees with this analysis: "The PP is playing to demobilize the left to make its absolute majority cheaper, and on this issue it has dragged MÉS per Mallorca along with it.”

Several sources from the PSIB confirm that they have chosen to distance themselves more forcefully from Aena this past week. “I will not defend Aena, I am against it enough as it is,” said the spokesperson for the socialist parliamentary group, Iago Negueruela, last Monday, who accused the company of turning the infrastructure into a “sort of flea market” that “is far from” offering a professional service: “It does not surprise me that people are protesting.” “If we did not toughen the tone, our position was not understood,” acknowledge sources from the socialist leadership.

Is having the regional candidate at the Secretary of State for Tourism counterproductive to this position? Sánchez herself denies it. "It is more useful than ever," she asserts: "The Secretary of State provides tools to implement tourism policies, and we defend a model that respects the natural and social limits of the territories." Party sources consulted by ARA Balears are of the same opinion, although they admit that there is a disparity of views within the party. According to Fornés, the fact that the Secretary of State "positions herself as a counterpoint to the model of the PP Government in the Islands, without having direct powers or the State government assuming the discourse in favor of degrowth unashamedly, may undermine her credibility." Be that as it may, the socialists are not giving up on pressing Prohens' Executive over mass tourism and have already registered new parliamentary questions regarding this issue for the next plenary session.