Going Slow In Mallorca: Legislation

Never let it be said that things move swiftly in Mallorca. There is, as we all know, always tomorrow. And as we also know, there is the day after tomorrow and the tomorrow that never in fact comes.

Drafting new legislation doesn't happen overnight. It does require time to get it right. There is time and there is time, however. And when a government has, in effect, only one big idea in terms of major policy, as is the case with the Balearic Government and its tourism law, then it really should get a move on. The tourism law may not be finally approved until after the summer break, or it may require politicians hacking back to Palma for the odd day from their holiday homes in order to approve it during an extraordinary session of the regional parliament.

Though by no means everyone is happy with where the tourism law will lead, if it is to become law - and it will - then it is better if the hotels and the builders can get on with the transformation of Mallorca's resorts. If the bill really were to be delayed beyond the summer, then whatever work might be in the pipeline for this coming winter could well have to wait until the following winter.

This said, it is understandable if the regional government is taking its time to ensure that all the i's are dotted and t's crossed. The bill could, even if it is well-crafted, yet prove to be a minefield and one that opens up the possibility of legal challenges that delay projects for years more. Just two reasons why are that local authorities will retain the final say over building and conversion permissions and that the national government's reform of the Coasts Law might not be all that the regional government and the hoteliers would hope.

With any luck, tourism minister Delgado will have been finding out what this reform might entail. If he has, then all well and good, but if not, and the reformed Coasts Law turns out to contain some unanticipated shock that scuppers the best laid plans of men and Meliá hotels (among others), then it will highlight an absence of joined-up policy between the regions (the Balearics in this instance) and central government.

Though the Balearics have their own line to national government tourism policy, thanks to the appointment of the Mallorcan Isabel Borrego as tourism secretary-of-state, the Coasts Law isn't of course a matter for tourism; it is an environment issue. Delgado's wish to see everything in the Balearics operate in support of tourism may be fine for the Balearics and may even ultimately work in practice, but national government is a different matter.

The swifter the regional government gets its tourism law through, though, the swifter we can all see what it actually produces. The tortuous process of enacting legislation, and the regional government is no different to national government in this regard, means that, by the time another election looms, it is difficult to assess how successful or not the government has been.

And it is proving to be difficult to make a fair judgement as to the performance of the Bauzá administration. It has now been in office for nearly a year, but apart from its main challenge, that of the deficit and the economy (on which it has achieved virtually nothing), one of its few obvious changes has been in education, and it is one that is going to end up costing at least three million euros.

In order to bring in the "free selection" of teaching language, it was always going to be necessary for there to be more teachers. And so there will be. But is it wise to be increasing spend on teaching staff at a time when other sectors of the economy are suffering? It is arguable, but what is perhaps also arguable is whether the government is barking up the right language tree. Putting Catalan and Castellano on a par where selection of teaching language is concerned seems reasonable enough but, as noted yesterday, the majority of the population don't in fact agree with the policy.

The president and his education minister are being criticised for taking themselves off to Switzerland to see how its model of teaching using different languages works. The criticism isn't fair. The Swiss model, of which English is a part, is one that might just be adapted to tackle the lousy standard of education in the Balearics. And it is English, as much as if not more than Castellano, that would be at the heart of a raising of standards. Just as importantly, it would feed into tourism. If the government were to succeed in introducing a genuine system of trilingualism, it would have something to boast about. The trouble is, how long, like introducing a tourism law, would it take them? Nothing moves swiftly in Mallorca.


Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.