The PP and Vox prevented this Thursday the Minister of the Sea and the Water Cycle, Juan Manuel Lafuente, from appearing extraordinarily before Parliament to provide explanations regarding the dismissal of the former Director General of Coasts and Littoral, Maria Joaquina Ferrer, and regarding the decisions subsequently adopted by the department. The Permanent Deputation rejected this Thursday the request made by the opposition, which wanted to clarify if there were pressures or political instructions on Ferrer or the officials of the Coast Department and if these affected administrative files. The PSIB, MÉS per Mallorca, Més per Menorca, and Unides Podem had already warned that the information known generated an “absolute distrust” towards the minister.

Maria Joaquina Ferrer is no longer the Director General of Costs and Littoral, but a good part of the team that worked with her does not seem willing to let her dismissal be read only in terms of a management crisis. Twenty-one officials from the agency have signed a letter addressed to the Minister of the Sea and the Water Cycle, Juan Manuel Lafuente, in which they express disagreement with the Government's decision and claim the way Ferrer has led the agency in recent months.

When the phone rang, a member of the National Police's Economic Crime Unit (UDEF) explained to Antoni what his brother had done: “Delivering a box of chocolates with 20,000 euros” to the Director General of Coastal Affairs of the Government, Joaquina Ferrer. “I couldn't believe it. My world fell apart when the Police told me that my brother had put money inside a box of chocolates and sent it to Coastal Affairs,” recounts the businessman, who is also very affected by what has happened.Antoni Barceló is his brother's partner and the administrator of the company Bennassar Naviliers SL, a company that aspires to authorization to carry out tourist maritime excursions in the Levante of Mallorca. “I had to go and testify, and it's a very big shock. It still doesn't make sense to me that my brother would put money inside a box and send it to a Director General,” he said in a telephone conversation with ARA Balears.“Obviously, I had no knowledge of it, nor would I have ever authorized it, because I believe our project is very well planned from a technical point of view,” remarks the brother of the investigated party. Benassar Naviliers SL is listed as an applicant to access the exploitation of tourist excursions in the Levante of Mallorca area, services that require authorization and to which other companies in the sector also apply. “Perhaps it's not right for me to say it, but our project is very well prepared and it's the best. The last thing we needed was to complicate our lives,” laments Bennàssar.