While the PSOE celebrates visitor records, the Minister of Tourism visits a luxury cruise ship

Palma"It is clear that Spain has never done so well in its history, no matter how you look at it: 46.6 million international tourists in the first six months of the year and a record spending of 63.8 billion euros. So much noise and exaggeration so that you don't feel that we govern well and it benefits you". Apparently, the socialist Minister of the Presidency, Justice and Relations with the Courts, Félix Bolaños, has not been told that in places like the Balearic Islands people are not so happy and that 70,000 people took to the streets on July 26 to demand something as simple as it is difficult to achieve at this point: that the citizens of the Islands can live with dignity. I want to think that Bolaños understands the difference between GDP and GDP per capita, because this nuance will help him understand that the 63.8 billion euros left by visitors do not affect residents in tourist areas. Perhaps the satisfaction is because companies like Aena exceed their profits year after year by squeezing the doors of our home.

The PSOE's social media accounts have joined Bolaños's celebration, noting that in June alone, Spanish tourist regions had to deal with 9.7 million foreign visitors. Then, as if nothing happened, they present an oxymoron that tests the understanding of citizens in places like the Balearic Islands and the Canary Islands. Not only are we shattering records, but we are also doing so sustainably: "The Spanish tourism model is moving towards triple sustainability, economic, social, and environmental. More quality, better territorial balance, less saturated destinations, and an increasingly diversified offer." Better territorial balance? Less saturated destinations? An increasingly diversified offer? Perhaps the colleagues from the Balearic Islands should explain to Madrid that this triple sustainability, which the President of the Government, Marga Prohens, also champions, is mythical, utopian, fiction, unreal. No matter how many tweets they send. It's like when Prohens points out that the Government is implementing containment measures and gives as an example that many permanent-discontinuous contracts are now indefinite. Legend has it that thousands of tourists stopped coming to islands populated by permanent workers...

However, the PP also enjoys the tourism party. And if not, ask the minister in charge, Jaume Bauzà, who is going from inauguration to inauguration this summer. This Tuesday he received the luxury cruise ship Explora III (from the shipping company MSC), a ship that can accommodate nearly 900 tourists and which made its first stop at the port of Palma (the Ministry of Tourism explains on social media that the MSC Foundation has a project for the protection and restoration of Posidonia, in addition to bringing thousands and thousands of cruise passengers to Mallorca every year).

The company clarifies that these 900 tourists who will contribute to the saturation of Palma's streets will arrive using Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG), which reduces emissions of sulfur and nitrogen oxides and particles. What the liquefied gas will not do is diminish the number of cruise passengers arriving to saturate the center of the City. However, they will move to their exclusive suites, "all with private terraces," the company highlights. "The ultraluxe client is especially sensitive to environmental reputation," points out a specialized publication on the presence of the Explora III in the Mediterranean. Here we must be careful with the words: it is not that the ultraluxe client is sensitive to the environment, but rather that it is a matter of reputation. The machine does not stop. In fact, Bauzà ended July by inaugurating the Mandarin Oriental Punta Negra hotel, in Calvià, a town that precisely does not need new tourist accommodations.

Meanwhile, GOB and Terraferida await a response from the Government. These entities requested a meeting with Marga Prohens and the president of the Consell de Mallorca, Llorenç Galmés, on July 27, and this Tuesday they explained that no one has told them anything since then. It is already known that August is a bad month for institutional communication. Perhaps someone will contact them after the Sóller demonstration, which worries some merchants because the till will decrease for a few hours. There are also those who say that it is not the time to add overcrowding to what is already overcrowded. As if the right to demonstrate also had to depend on tourist saturation.