An hour after a meeting with the Social Dialogue Table, the Balearic Minister of Economic Model and Tourism, Iago Negueruela, telephoned Vicent Marí, president of the Consell de Ibiza, to inform him that the Decree Law 3/2022 of urgent measures for the sustainability and circularity of tourism in the Balearic Islands had just been approved.
It was 10.22 a.m. on Friday, February 11 when Marí, who was in the middle of a Zoom videoconference, stopped to answer Negueruela’s call. The chat lasted only 30 seconds: “I found out then that the Royal Decree had been approved and that it contained a moratorium”, says Marí. Seven minutes earlier, at 10.15 hours, the Ibizan president received a text by Whatsapp about the decree, but from “someone who was not from the Govern”. “I guess you already have it, but just in case, here it is”, said the message. No, he didn’t have it. He did not even have time to read it before Negueruela called him. The title of the leaked document was ‘Decree Law on Tourism, final revised Catalan version’, a 55 page PDF, like the one received by Diario de Ibiza at 9:15am.
It was 10:22am when Marí, who was in the middle of the videoconference, stopped to answer Negueruela’s call. The chat lasted 30 seconds: “I found out then that the Royal Decree had been approved and that it contained a moratorium”
At 9:58am, the Govern’s press room website published the images of the social dialogue roundtable. The call to approve the text in an extraordinary Consell de Govern was at 9 am. In reality, Negueruela called Marí on his way to the press conference in which Francina Armengol, first at 10:35am, and then the Balearic Minister of Tourism himself (30 minutes later), made the details of the Decree Law public at the gates of the Consolat de Mar.
Blind appointment with Armengol
At that time of the morning, Vicent Marí thought that Armengol was still in Ibiza, because the afternoon before she came to the island to meet with the tenants of the Don Pepe apartment building: “We were scheduled for 1pm the following day for the presentation of ‘the basis of the new Balearic Island’s tourist model’. Not the presentation of the Tourist Law. We thought that she would come to present in Ibiza what she had already prestented in Madrid, Fitur, and Barcelona. But what she came to present on Friday was the decree that had just been approved two hours earlier in Palma”.
At 9:58am, the Govern’s press room website published the images of the social dialogue roundtable. The call to approve the text in an extraordinary Consell de Govern was at 9 am. In reality, Negueruela called Marí on his way to the press conference
“There has not been a negotiation process, not at all. The general director of Tourism, Rosana Morillo, came to Ibiza on Friday, February 4. She did not inform us about the decree [its existence and imminent approval] or anything else, and told us to look at the draft to give them our input as soon as possible. A week later, wham, the Decree Law is approved. No negotiation or anything. Neither with the Balearic Minister of Tourism [Iago Negueruela], the Balearic President [Francina Armengol] nor with anyone. They have negotiated, but the Consell has been completely ignored”, protests Vicent Marí.
“A very shady process”
They only received “drafts of the decree, one by one on the same day [one day earlier, on 3 February]: version one, version two, version three… And sent via Whatsapp, with only a dozen pages, when the Decree Law has many more”. And that draft “only talked about boilers, raised beds and the circularity plan, little else”. That document was 16 pages. The final draft, that of Friday, February 11, 55 pages. The text of the Decree Law published that same day in the BOIB, 78 pages.
Rosana Morillo sent them version three (16 pages) on February 3: “And we asked her, is this the last draft? Nobody knew. I had been told,” Marí says, “that there was a newer version. What were they playing at? She wanted us to send her proposals on a biased, incomplete text”. Last Friday, the Consell got the big surprise: “The Govern made its negotiations unilaterally, without taking us into account at all. It has been a very shady process. I guess they made all the negotiations in Mallorca and haven’t paid attention to anyone else” complains Marí. In that meeting with the general director of Balearic Tourism, they “did not say at any time that it would be a Decree Law” that would be approved. Nor when.
While the Balearic Minister of Mobility, Josep Marí, criticizes the Consell for not making contributions to the Law, the island president of Ibiza denies this and, in addition, she describes some of the requests made to Rosana Morillo on February 4
For the full article, please visit Diario de Ibiza website here.