The political crisis over Rafal Rubí leads to the resignation of the director of the Menorca Talayotica.

BrickThe political crisis sparked by the Menorca Council's decision to defy UNESCO and the Ministry of Culture and push ahead with the construction of the Rafal Rubí viaduct, which the world's leading body for heritage protection was calling for its demolition, has now claimed its first victim.

The director of the Menorca Talayotica agency, Antoni Ferrer, has resigned in disagreement with the political use that, he believes, the PP government in the Menorca Council has made of his technical report on the impact of the half-built bridge on the area's prehistoric navetas.

The appearance made on Friday by President Adolfo Vilafranca and his Vice President, Simón Gornès, in which they cited Antoni Ferrer's favorable report to affirm that they agreed with completing the bridge, has precipitated his resignation. Especially since both Popular Party leaders have used it to challenge Culture Minister Ernest Urtasun's request that they wait for UNESCO's ruling before moving forward with the project.

Vilafranca and Gornés ignored the fact that Ferrer's report dates back to July 2024, a year ago, when the heritage assessment commissioned by the Consell by the former director of ICOMOS in Spain, Jordi Tresserras, which definitively endorses the proposed solution, is dated November; that is, four months later.

The Minister of Culture, Joan Pons Torres, met this morning with Antoni Ferrer and accepted his voluntary resignation from the position. However, Ferrer will still have to continue leading the Menorca Talayòtica agency for three more months before his resignation can become effective.

Specializing in the Prehistory and Protohistory of the Balearic Islands, Ferrer was the island's Director of Culture and Heritage between 2015 and 2019, under the then Minister Miquel Àngel Maria, of Més per Menorca. According to his contract, he was supposed to continue as director until 2028. But since his arrival, it is said that living with his new political superiors has not been easy. Despite having been one of the architects of the reformulation of the candidacy, Ferrer was no longer invited to accompany the delegation that traveled to Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, on September 18, 2023, where the World Heritage Committee formalized the declaration.

Curiously, Antoni Ferrer had won the position of director of the Menorca Talayotica agency over the current vice president of the Island Council, Simón Gornés, the only member of the government team who appeared on Friday to respond to the minister, as the ministers of Culture, Joan Pons, and Mobility, and Mobility.

Gornès, who is also an archaeologist by profession, received a lower score than Ferrer, whose appointment was signed in June 2023 by the now former president of the Council, the socialist Susana Mora, a few days before the change of government at the head of the Menorcan institution became effective.

The reaction of the opposition has not been long in coming. Más por Menorca has denounced the reckless actions of the Popular Party government and demanded political accountability for the resignation of the director of the Menorca Talayotica.

In his opinion, the situation of the works at the crossing with the Rafal Rubí site "has taken on an unsustainable tone" and he has blamed the PP government for "the political manipulation and misuse of its technical report, which has been used to legitimize a work that generates a strong scientific rejection and.

Más understands that the team chaired by Adolfo Vilafranca "has acted irresponsibly, ignoring the recommendations and warnings of Icomos, the UNESCO World Heritage Committee and even the Spanish Ministry of Culture, which have warned that moving forward with this project puts the recognition at risk."

Minister Esteve Barceló considers this to be "serious imprudence. They have acted by means of faits accomplis, with arrogance and without listening to any voice that is not aligned with their political objectives." Barceló has denounced that the PP "politically uses technical reports to create a narrative that decays on its own and that could end up seriously damaging the declaration of Talayotic Menorca as a World Heritage Site":

For all these reasons, Más demands that any planned action in Rafal Rubí be halted until there is a formal response from Torres, "show his face, appear publicly and assume responsibility for this way of acting."