Joan Serra: "Mallorcans are in danger of extinction"

PalmaEl Pi has allied with a new party, Som Mallorca, and will present itself in the next elections under the umbrella of Coalició per Mallorca, with the message: "There is no more room for people in Mallorca". It proposes a decrease in the tourism sector and has positioned itself against the extraordinary regularization of migrants. Businessman and former vice-president of the tourist rental employers' association Habtur, Joan Serra, is its general coordinator.

How would you define Coalició per Mallorca ideologically?

— Coalició per Mallorca is a political movement that has emerged to defend the residents of Mallorca, the Mallorcans. It is necessary to make important decisions that affect the societal model and the economic model we have.

Is it a right-wing, left-wing, or centrist party...?

— It is a transversal party. We have profiles ranging from social democrats to liberals, we have a broad ideological spectrum, but we all agree on the concrete measures that Mallorca needs today.

Was the decision taken that Unió Mallorquina would not be part of the party?

— Unió Mallorquina is another political project that does not have the same priorities as we do, and there is not much more to add.

You introduced yourselves saying that there is no more room in Mallorca.

— We have a capacity and we need to be clear about what it is. For a long time, we have been demanding that a capacity study of the island be carried out. We have a limited number of schools, hospitals, doctors, health centers, and capacities to assist people. We must make a decision to see how many people Mallorca can hold. We cannot continue growing by 20,000 inhabitants each year. This makes no sense and we believe that it will lead us, according to certain perspectives, to two million inhabitants if we do not stop it. This requires reflection from everyone and taking measures, because if we do not do so, we are not heading in the right direction.

Are you referring to tourism sector workers? To immigration?

— It's a matter of the economic model. In the end, we have generated jobs, we have created an intensive model that requires a large volume of labor, and as long as we continue generating this labor, people will keep coming. The problem is that we don't give them a dignified life because we don't give them the ability to have housing, to access minimum services. They end up living in caravans or in apartments, the so-called "boat-apartments". It's the result of an economic model that generates jobs. Therefore, the first thing we must do is make a decision: we cannot continue generating jobs because we cannot continue receiving more people residing here.

Are you considering changing the economic model?

— The first proposal is a reduction in accommodation capacity, which is what marks the complementary offer and the volume of workers in the tourism industry. In the next legislature, when Coalició per Mallorca is necessary to generate a government, we will have to reduce all accommodation places by 10%: both holiday, hotel, and all varieties. This implies a reduction of between 30,000 and 40,000 places. It allows us to take a break, and this is the first step. From here, we need there to be a real belief in the promotion of other models. But we must be aware that tourism is the basis of our economy and on tourism the Mallorca we want must be built.

Rather than changing the model, therefore, talk about making changes to it.

— It is a primary objective that other actors can represent a relevant part of the GDP is a primary objective. Both the knowledge economy, the primary sector, and others that we have in Mallorca and must promote. But we must also be aware that it is very difficult for these sectors to compete, being an island. Therefore, we must help them and we must try. But the first step is to modify the tourism model we have.

Is overtourism the responsibility of the tourism sector?

— The economic model is responsible for what we have. In the end, we generated it ourselves. It has been a model that has generated wealth for many years and which now, due to its density and volume, no longer generates wealth for residents. This is no longer an interesting model for the people here.

Both you and Joan Lladó (deputy general secretary of the party) are businessmen in the tourism sector. You represent this model and are now proposing changes to it. Why?

— We are like 90% of the Mallorcan society that is dedicated to the tourism sector. From here, what has happened is an excess of creation of tourist places by public institutions. Both PP governments and others: the moment when more tourist places have been created has been when there has been a left-wing government.

What part of the responsibility does tourist rentals have in the housing crisis?

— Tourist rentals represent a very low percentage of the number of homes available. They are normally single-family, detached homes, owned by Mallorcan families. It may have a part of the responsibility, but the problem in Mallorca is population growth, not the number of houses that can be dedicated to tourist rentals.

How do you value the vehicle limitation that the Council approved on Friday and will now be processed by Parliament?

— It is a law of intentions that does not limit absolutely anything, a push forward to reach the elections and say that they have done something. Anyway, it is necessary that this limitation be made, and it should be put into practice, but with concrete numbers and concrete measures. In the end, they have approved a framework without anything concrete.

You have called for "embracing Mallorca" as a political option. Mallorca as a nation?

— We do not talk about nations, we talk about Mallorca as a space for coexistence where Majorcans, whatever their origin, can feel at home. We consider any person to be Majorcan, regardless of where they were born, who resides here, respects our norms, our culture, our language. We do not engage in ideological discussions, which are terms that do not contribute anything at this moment.

Do you propose measures to defend the language?

— Preserving our identity means preserving our language. It is one of the foundations of our identity. Mallorcans are in danger of extinction. If we do not take measures so that our identity is valued, respected and that people who arrive approach it and also assume it as their own, we are condemned to disappear. One of the main objectives of Coalició per Mallorca is that Mallorcans do not cease to exist.

Which national party do you agree with more?

— We collaborate with Coalición Canaria. We want to achieve some advantages for Mallorca as an island territory that are necessary. All the islands of Europe have special taxation and measures to compensate for insularity, and in Mallorca we do not have it because we have never had a force that could be destabilizing at the state level. We have the resident discount thanks to the Canary Islanders.

Would you support a government led by Marga Prohens?

— Coalició per Mallorca will act responsibly. The most important thing at this moment is that Vox cannot condition either the debate or the measures that the Government has to take. We are not willing to enter into a government with Vox, because it is incompatible with our way of seeing Mallorca, with our identity.

Do you feel closer to ERC or Aliança Catalana?

— Coalició per Mallorca is a political movement that emerges to defend residents, which is not based on maximalisms nor on an ideology strongly marked to the left or to the right, transversal. We have no references beyond Coalición Canaria.

What do you advocate for regarding immigration?

— If we modify the economic model, we must ensure that people stop coming. Everyone has the right to have a decent life, but not everyone has the right to have a decent life in Mallorca. We need people to stop coming, because the other action is to build thousands of houses for people from outside to come, and that is not the solution we want.

And what about irregular immigration?

— We have positioned ourselves against the extraordinary regularization, because we believe it has perverse effects for Mallorca. It is not that the people who are here can start working regularly, because this can be done in other ways and special measures or regularizations adapted to each territory can be made. Here 15,000 regularizations are being requested, which according to the experts' estimation will lead to about 30,000 or 40,000 family regroupings: we do not have housing for all these people. If we want to help these people who at this moment do not have a regularized situation, it must be done in another way.

Joan Lladó affirmed that from 20% of the population born abroad living here, a substitution occurs. What was he referring to? Remember the great replacement theory.

— When you have 30-40% of the population that was not born here, you do not have the capacity to integrate them. This happens in any society, and ours is a society with a minority language, which does not have the institutional support that other languages or other countries may have. It is in danger of disappearing.

Propose initiatives such as establishing a 15-year residency period to access certain benefits or aid. Why 15, and not 5 or 10?

— We must prioritize residents and discourage people from arriving. We have based this mainly on the issue of housing. Any housing that receives public aid, a public concession, requires 15 years of residency. If we have resident people who cannot access housing, it makes no sense that when public housing is built, people from outside come. We must organize the people who are here. Not according to their birth, nor their color, nor their nationality, but according to their roots. We need a strong volume of official protection housing designed for the people who live here.

This week, the PP and Vox have voted in favor of asking the State to prohibit the use of the burqa and niqab, full veils. How do you position yourselves?

— This type of clothing is discriminatory towards women. We join this space of the feminist movement that demands that this not be allowed. We consider that it is not freedom of action, but social, religious pressure, so that women of a certain religion feel obliged to wear headscarves to have social peace in their environment. It is a discrimination against them and we believe that institutions must provide tools to prevent this from happening.