De-Sastre - Corruption at the tourism institute

The corruption scandal that has engulfed the Inestur tourism institute threatens to swallow more than just a few named politicians; it could take with it the Unió Mallorquina (UM) party and indeed the regional government. Following the arrests of the director general of Inestur and of Joan Sastre, the head of tourism promotion in the government, the police have now detained our old friend Miquel Nadal - ex-tourism minister - in connection with the Inestur action, known as Operation Vulture (Operación Voltor). The vultures are circling, spying the carrion that is the UM and the government.

President Antich has been backed into a corner not of his making. He may have been criticised for not doing so before, but now he has sacked all the UM ministers in his government, while the heads of the Council of Mallorca and Palma town hall have done likewise where UM councillors are concerned. One of these - Nadal, forced to quit as minister because of the Son Oms corruption case - had the temerity to stay on as a Palma councillor. He isn't any longer. The UM has been left utterly humiliated and discredited. Many of its leading lights are either under arrest or under suspicion. How it can continue as a viable party must be open to some doubt - certainly in the short term.

Antich intends to continue to govern, but in minority, with only the left-wing Bloc as a coalition ally. The UM has been booted out. Whether Antich can limp on is also open to some question, but he wants to avoid what may become inevitable - an early election.

There are innumerable practical issues that face Antich, only one of them being his ability to govern. Foremost is what the hell he can do with the tourism ministry. At a time when all hands are needed to man the pumps of the islands' tourism promotion, he is left with no head of tourism promotion (Sastre) and no minister for tourism. Spare a thought for poor old Miquel Ferrer. No sooner had he got his feet under the desk at the ministry, than he's been told to pack up his stuff and clear off. And he's meant to be one of the good guys. Another minister, Enviro Man Grimalt, implicated in a previous and ongoing case, has also been shown the door.

The president is due to announce a reduction in ministries. He has got a whole mess on his plate and a whole mess of things he needs to do, but now - surely - he will grab the tourism brief himself. What he, and the rump government, cannot afford is to allow even more uncertainty where the industry is concerned.

Antich is now getting a kicking. Though his own party, the PSOE, is not caught up in the scandals, it is the ruling the party, and Antich - so it is argued - should have acted earlier to oust the UM. Perhaps so, but he had his majority to consider. What he has attempted to do is to continue with the status quo of the coalition, whilst at the same time being undemined by the rotten status of his key coalition partners. There will doubtless be calls for an election, but where ultimately does that get anyone if the problem is less one of politics but more one of a thoroughly nasty streak of greed, power, nepotism and favours that runs through the Mallorcan culture? It is Mallorcan society that stands accused as much as its political system. Inestur, Son Oms, these have been spectacular scandals even by the corrupt-ridden standards (sic) of Mallorcan life, but who is to say they won't be repeated? It's not as if they are new. What is, is the sheer scale.

The tourism industry outside of Mallorca is said to be concerned. Concerned? You bet it is. Or should be. Aghast, perplexed, horrified. Only some days ago at the Fitur exhibition in Madrid, tour operators and others would have been glad-handing Joan Sastre. They have every right to wonder what the hell is going on. The comings and goings at the tourism ministry and the extraordinary nature of the scandals and of the people involved are farcical. Or they would be were they not so tragic. For this reason, as much as for practical purposes, Antich should take over. He may have lost credibility with some, but who on earth else is there to represent the islands at such a crucial time for the local tourism industry?

The UM's latest leader, Josep Melià, is blaming Antich for breaking the pact and for acting unilaterally. What other choice did he have? It is the UM that has brought the situation about, or at least several of its leading members have. But there will still be hints that this is all somehow a conspiracy, one aimed at blasting the UM into political oblivion. It doesn't seem to need any help in this, yet there is one thing that occurs, and it is this. When Nadal was forced to quit as tourism minister, there were various possible successors, one of them was Sastre. A UM representative, a member of the government, the holder of a position in the tourism ministry, he had, it seemed, all the right credentials to take over from Nadal, given that the UM held the ministry as part of the coalition agreement. Instead, Ferrer was appointed, for no better reason than he had been mayor of a town that is an important tourist resort. Yet, he had never operated at the level he was then propelled into. Sastre on the other hand had and was doing so. Why, therefore, was Sastre overlooked? Did someone know something?

* Note on the title: De-Sastre. The word for disaster in Spanish is "desastre".


QUIZ
Yesterday: "Close To The Front", Amy Winehouse, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7oPslmsH7hA.

Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.