The PP now says that the new PTI of Menorca will have "nothing to do" with what was being processed.

PalmThe president of the Menorca Council, Adolfo Vilafranca, announced this Monday a modification to the Island Territorial Plan that "has nothing to do" with the one processed by his government, which had already been sent to official bodies such as the Ministry of Coasts and Civil Aviation, and which had received opposing reports from the Secretariat and the experts in the Territorial Planning area. Furthermore, he revealed that he has not yet sat down to negotiate the proposal with the non-affiliated councilor Maite de Medrano, expelled from Vox, who has also announced her expected support for the modification to be approved.

Vilafranca made the PP's new position clear in a tense and polarized debate that lasted more than three hours and filled the plenary hall with nearly two hundred detractors and supporters, including banners. From those summoned by the GOB (the majority), to the public officials and organizations that the Popular Party has mobilized to try to counter the call made by the environmental organization. Even so, it has not been able to avoid the opposing reactions of a large part of the public and the anger of the opposition spokespersons, especially that of Més, Noemí García, who has insisted on the president's "lack of shame and credibility" and the forcefulness of the opposing reports from the party's experts, which have forced the PP to back down and avoid "altering the territorial model of Menorca." "They have softened them up," García emphasized. "They have reunited them with the ice cream cart," added the socialist Edu Robsy at the end.

With the support of the expelled Vox councilor

However, the PP government will not halt the process of amending the Territorial Plan. With the support of former Vox minister Maite de Medrano, they rejected the opposition's joint proposal and also refused to rebuke the Minister of Territorial Planning, Núria Torrent, for her alleged "negligence" in managing the process. "Out of respect for everyone, but above all for yourself, you should resign," declared the Més spokesperson. The Popular Party's response came from its spokesperson, Joan Pons Torres, who condemned the left's "disastrous management" over the previous eight years.

The president, who opened and closed the debate, announced that the proposal that will be approved "strengthens" the Menorca model and sought to "refute the falsehoods" of the left. He reiterated that the seven external studies commissioned for approximately €100,000, which opened the door to touristification in the countryside, were merely "drafts." They are now "science fiction," the fruit of the "unusual campaign" he attributed to the PSOE and Més (Spanish Socialist Workers' Party) for "with disloyalty and lies, attempting to undermine the government." Furthermore, he confirmed, as he announced last week, that the growth forecast in the tourist carrying capacity study, which set the new ceiling at 107,917 places, 23,859 more than the current number, will even be revised downward. "We want to improve the balance between residents and economic sectors," he noted.

Vilafranca also announced that "there will be no new rural housing, nor any complementary tourism activity in the countryside without farmers." He has thus frontally distanced himself from the proposal that his own government was processing and which this July, weeks before the opposing reports were known, announced that it would be approved imminently.

"The Menorca of today is the result of left-wing policies," criticized Vilafranca, who accused the PSOE and Más of having increased tourist rentals with 11,000 places and tourist licenses by 55%. "Back then there was also overcrowding, saturation on the roads and water consumption, but no signs," he denounced, referring to the GOB, and has ironically discussed the fact that "the PP, which you make out to be the destroyer of the territory and which will cement everything, now has to be the one to provide solutions," stating for the first time that 2023 is not foreseen.

Shame and shames

PP spokesperson Joan Pons Torres described the extraordinary plenary session forced by the left as "a smokescreen to cover up the shame of a PSOE covered up to its eyebrows in corruption" and accused the Socialists and Menorcan supporters of "deceiving people with the discourse of fear. They make it seem like we want to do what they do. The current PTI allows us to grow from the current 1,200 rural parking spaces to 13,000. "Where were the protectors of the territory when the left made holes in a protected mountain like ANEI to make the largest macro-roundabout in Menorca?" he censured and compared the discourse of the progressive sectors to the father of Nazi propaganda, Joseph Goebbels.

"The sad image of the half-built Rafal Rubí bridge is the most emblematic monument of their poor management," lamented Pons Torres, who guaranteed that the PP "will prioritize safety over the landscape" on the roads and has stood up to them. to the left that the current one is "and a PTI" houses. But, fortunately, the PP will now set the limits that the left in eight years never knew how to set."

Former socialist president and spokesperson for the PSOE in the Council, Susana Mora, has condemned "the unpresentable ways" of the PP, which "governs with authoritarianism when it has an absolute minority and practices contempt and disrespect towards civil society and the entities that protect our land." It is, Mora said, "the worst face of the PP, which previously had the decency to be upfront and not hide and now intended to modify 95 of the 143 articles of the PP through the back door." So she "welcomed" the setback, but made "very clear what the political intention was."

The fact that, according to Vilafranca, a PowerPoint presentation of hypothetical measures now prevails over official documentation that had been commissioned last year and processed since May has sparked outrage among Més por Menorca spokesperson Noemí García. "They've lost all credibility," she denounced. "We've uncovered the entire framework with which they tried to pass off a comprehensive review of the PTI as a one-off change," García said. "Everyone knows that these weren't drafts. In fact, without pressure from Més and civil society, they would have gone ahead. How shameful!"

"The music goes one way and the lyrics another," added Més coordinator Esteve Barceló, who wondered, "If they were drafts, why were they sent to the ministries?" Edu Robsy (PSOE) did the same, recalling that internal and external reports were requested on the "regulatory text" that was to be approved. Although Minister Nuri Torrent defended herself by saying that she warned Susana Mora that these documents would not be the ones ultimately submitted for approval, Robsy emphasized that they are the only ones included in the file and that they have only been classified as drafts following the "devastating" opposing reports prepared by technicians.

According to this documentation, Noemí García said that "the PP's PTI represents the absolute lack of protection for Menorca, which they want to turn into another Ibiza and Marbella. Enough! Menorca is untouchable."