Celestí Alomar, reason and strength

Celestí Alomar has died at 76 years old and leaves a very large void as an era. He did and was many other things, but he will be remembered as the counselor who implemented the ecotax in the Balearic Islands. He did this during his time as Minister of Tourism of the first government of the Pacte de Progrés, a government that had to withstand the fiercest criticism during its existence –from adversaries, but also from those closest to them– and which now, 25 years later, many value and miss, and with good reason. The first Pacte de Progrés of the Balearic Islands governed from 1999 to 2003. In a short time, the deaths of President Francesc Antich and Vice-President Pere Sampol, and now Minister Celestí Alomar, represent the premature disappearance of three key figures in the recent political history of the country. I write 'premature' because, although all three were around or past seventy years old, the death of those who truly work for the common good is always premature.The Pacte de Progrés was the first progressive government that the Balearic Islands had and it was a pioneer in many things, here and in the Spanish state. The ecotax that Celestí Alomar promoted was ahead of its time in uniting tourism policies with serious environmental policies. Alomar understood this tax as a tool for self-government and social cohesion. It earned him a fatwa, a war from hoteliers, an economic sector with pretensions more of a caste than a lobby. 

The political world bids farewell to Celestí Alomar: "One of the great men of our homeland"

In these past few years I have had the pleasure of conversing a few times with Celestí Alomar and hearing him explain how one of those hoteliers chased him down the stairs of the Consolat de Mar shouting at him: “Don’t think you’ll be working in the Balearics again! Forget about it!”. He told it laughing, because Celestí Alomar was a master of irony and good humor. A geographer by training, he had professionalized in tourism and did not disown it, but he advocated, in speech and in writing, that tourism needs limits to prevent touristification, that is, overpopulation and speculation. He pointed out that excessive dependence on an industry like tourism leads to an economic model crisis, which is where the Balearic Islands and a large part of the Mediterranean are currently found.A historic socialist, he was one of the founders of the PSI (later PSM, currently within the MÉS coalition) and later joined the PSIB-PSOE, from which he resigned in response to the approval of Article 155. He always thought and spoke freely, while remaining loyal to a progressive mindset based on two non-negotiable ideas: the common good and social justice. He did not want wealth creation to stop; he wanted it to be distributed in favor of the community, of society. Good public services for citizens: this was his idea of a country, of a homeland. His legacy is that of reason over force, and of force (of will, of thought) in the service of reason. As the director of ARA Balears, Jaume Perelló, told me, it may seem like a cliché, but there are no longer people like that in politics.