The People's Party (PP) backs down and softens the PTI's amendment to avoid breaking the Menorca model.

BrickThe People's Party (PP) is backing down in Menorca in the face of overwhelmingly negative reports from the Consell's technical staff and softening its modification of the Island Territorial Plan so as not to overturn the island's model. The new proposal, presented this Friday morning by President Adolfo Vilafanca and the Regional Minister for Territorial Planning, Núria Torrent, is a complete reversal of the proposal that had been reported by the Corporation's secretary and the Regional Minister for Territorial Planning, and which had also been reported to some external official bodies.

Vilafranca now asserts that the proposal to change 95 of the 140 provisions of the current PTI (Plan Territorial Plan) to, among other things, reduce landscape and territorial protection, allow road expansion, beach expansion, and the establishment of facilities, housing, accommodation, and restaurants on rural land, without being tied to any state, would have been uncontested, as we are doing right now. We have nothing to hide."

The president admitted that "guidelines" were given to the technicians in charge of the different studies and that these were reviewed internally, but stressed that these were documents "in the preparation phase" from which they are now being released. He also admitted the carrying capacity study, which set the maximum number of tourist places at 107,917, 23,859 more than the current number, and which will now be recalculated downwards to take into account factors such as water consumption and other natural resources that, as the Secretariat report warned, had not been assessed by the author.

"There has been a lot of lying and defamation to create a political narrative of fear and wear down the government team," said Vilafranca, who accused the two opposition groups, PSOE and Més, of even leaking the internal reports that underlay the entire proposal of the Popular government. "In the media, has gone so far as to transcribe its content verbatim. It is very serious and illegal, a complete lack of institutional loyalty."

Adolfo Vilafranca explained that the aim was to create a PTI "for all Menorcans," far from "the elitist" one approved by the left a week before the 2023 elections and which "ignores key issues, such as housing and the management of water resources, and which does not place any limitations on growth." Furthermore, he has criticized the PSOE and Más (Spanish Socialist Workers' Party) for the fact that the current PTI allows for more than 13,000 places on rural land when currently there are only 1,252, "ten times less."

"We defend the territorial model and we promote it," insisted the president, who justified the deletion of 10 articles "because they created legal uncertainty" and highlighted his commitment to "facilitating access to housing and making possible the qualitative transformation of the tourism model."

In this regard, Vilafranca criticized the left for tripling the number of tourist rental spaces in ten years and advocated eliminating the activity for multi-family homes "to promote residential housing and avoid the coexistence problems it causes." However, tourist rentals will be permitted on rural land, provided that they are located in places with agricultural activity and that they were built before 1960, in order to offer a complementary income to farmers and small landowners in Menorca. The consequence of this measure, she emphasized, will be that "the potential number of tourists in the countryside will be reduced," since farms will be offered the possibility of renting out houses to tourists with a maximum of 12 spaces instead of converting them into rural hotels, which have a limit set at 50 spaces.

"We want all cases of tourist accommodation in the countryside to require a preferential agricultural activity," she emphasized. Councilor Núria Torrent. Rural expansions of up to 30% will also be permitted, as well as the implementation of small mobile and removable structures linked to cleaning, provisioning, or active tourism activities.

Vilafranca also denied that the Talayotic Menorca assets recognized as World Heritage sites will be left unprotected, thus rectifying her initial proposal. However, she confirmed that "safety and traffic flow will be prioritized" over the landscape integration of infrastructure such as the Rafal Rubí Bridge. "Road infrastructure, educational infrastructure, or infrastructure of island interest will have priority over landscape criteria," the councilor added, adding that "corrective measures to minimize their impact" will also be applicable.

Solutions, "but not tailor-made"

The PP government in the Consell will also revise the PTI (Project Management Plan) to avoid the compensation, exceeding 30 million euros, being claimed by the owners of the Biniancolla water park for the revocation of the license that has now led the courts to close its operations. Adolfo Vilafranca has pointed out that "a technical solution will be found so that any infrastructure, even public ones, that is not regularized, can escape legal limbo." This subterfuge will allow for the legalization of recycling centers, slaughterhouses, equestrian clubs, and the Maó fire station itself, which is located on rural land. "But we will not implement any tailor-made measures," he insisted.

The new PTI also includes a dirt track parallel to the main road, a direct bus line between Ciutadella and the airport, a new athletics track, the Levante desalination plant, and the creation of new tourism projects, such as hostels and shelters, to offer affordable accommodation to young people and users.

The opposition accuses the People's Party of "wanting to disguise its desire to change the Menorca model."

The opposition in the Menorca Council has accused the PP government of "wanting to disguise its desire to change the island's territorial model," but has welcomed the fact that the opposing reports from the council's technical staff and the pressure exerted over the last month have forced the PP to back down.

The PSOE is very clear that, contrary to what President Vilafranca has stated, the proposal that was intended to be brought to the plenary session and sent to organizations external to the institution for information was not a draft. "If it had really been a draft, they would not have hired companies that received directives from the governing team and submitted the project for technical reports," said the secretary general of the Socialists, Pepe Mercadal.

"Reports are not requested from institutions if they are only drafts," Mercadal argued, recalling the statements made on July 5 by Vilafranca himself, in which he assured that the drafting of the PTI was already finalized, that the "technical reports" were being "processed," and that it would go to plenary session shortly after.

Despite the backtracking announced this Friday by the president and the regional minister for territorial planning, the PSOE leader stated that "we will not believe anything until we see the new draft in writing, since we are too used to them saying one thing and doing the opposite. The president cannot be trusted; he has been saying for years that he has been saying for years that he has been saying for years that he has been saying for years that a repeal of our model would be necessary."

Mercadal denounced the lack of transparency in the process followed by the PP government, which "at no time has sought the necessary political and social consensus." For this reason, she fears that "behind this way of doing things there are partisan interests that the people of Menorca deserve to know about."

For her part, the spokesperson for Més por Menorca, Noemí García, believes that "there are more than enough reasons for the Minister of Territorial Planning, Núria Torrent, to resign. After two months of silence and lack of transparency, the government team is limited to criticizing the opposition when it is hiding something."

Garcia considers it "worrying that they have tried to carry out this authentic coup through the back door, without participation or transparency. In no case are these drafts, but rather reports commissioned from individuals and with very specific intentions that have cost all the people of Menorca a lot of money."