Cirer under fire for acting in the public´s best interests

While the Majorcan fishing fleet licked its wounds yesterday and held another meeting to discuss what “symbolic” protest action can be taken in protest against fuel prices, the main topic on the agenda was how to regain some form of respect after having been forced to back down by the central government delegate Catalina Cirer, who in the space of 24 hours broke the fuel blockade and prevented the fleet from blocking the Port of Palma and disrupting passenger and merchant shipping yesterday afternoon. While the government slowly started to break the deadlock on the mainland, with fish stocks and fuel supplies running dangerously low yesterday morning, Cirer has already taken the initiative in the Balearics and, faced with a “major crisis,” which would have made the general public pay dearly and inflict further damage in the Balearic's dented image in the global tourist industry, re-established fuel supplies and pulled the carpet from under the fleet's feet over the port blockade. On Thursday as fuel supplies were being replenished around Majorca, four times the usual amount of fuel was bought by motorists desperately in need of fuel and eager to stock up in the event of further protest action. The 800 million pesetas spent in one day on fuel in Majorca throws fresh doubts over any significant level of local public support for the fuel protest.