Matas says that unpopular tourist tax will go

JAUME Matas, who led the Popular Party (PP) to victory in the autonomous elections, announced yesterday that one of his first steps will be to withdraw the controversial tourist tax because, he claimed, it has seriously damaged the islands' tourist image. He stressed that the PP will be able to rule without pacts (a reference to the Majorcan Union party) and that his first job will be to try and boost the tourist sector. “We are going to adopt urgent measures,” he said, adding that among them will be putting an end to the tourist tax.
He went on to say that his government would have talks with tour operators and hoteliers to make the Balearics a leader in tourism in Spain once again. “There are a lot of people worried about the tourist season, there are a lot of jobs at stake and from the Balearic government we want to show solidarity with these persons and work tirelessly for tourism,” he said yesterday. He also gave assurances to the effect that while the tourist tax will be eliminated, the government will not neglect the environment.
Finally, he said that he would try to reach agreement with other parties on the question of roads, one of the biggest points of discrepancy between the previous coalition government of the Balearics and the conservative government in Madrid. The PP won 29 of the 59 parliamentary seats and will have the backing of ASI, the independents of Formentera, to give it an absolute majority. But it was one deputy short in gaining control of the Council of Majorca. Most of the Balearic hoteliers were happy about the conservative victory, and Pere Cañellas, chairman of the Majorcan Hoteliers Federation, said that under the previous coalition government, the archipelago's tourist image had deteriorated. But, he warned, the PP must keep all the promises it made in its electoral campaign.
The Fomento del Turismo (Majorcan Tourism Board) said that the election results were a consequence of the coalition government's “disastrous tourism policy.” The chairman of the CAEB (Balearic Business Associations' Federation) described the change of government as “optimistic.” The farmers organisations Unió de Pagesos and ASAJA congratulated the PP on their election victory and called on them to treat farming as a “strategic activity,” providing greater funding. Biel Company, the secretary general of ASAJA, said that the defeat of the coalition and the absolute majority of the PP had made it clear that the coalition's policy over the past four years had not been to everyone's liking. Pau Bellinfante, the chairman of the traders association Afedeco, called on the new government to work on behalf of the small traders, but, he added, the first thing to be done for the Balearic economy is recover tourism, as the other sectors of the economy all depend on it. Pedro F. Ferrá, the chairman of Balearic building firms, called on the new government to approve territorial plans, and described the election results as “punishment” for the Progress Pact for its constant clashes with the various sectors of the economy. He added that they hoped for a change, which would enable them to develop the sector, which provides 60'000 direct jobs and double that number in indirect jobs. Demetrio Peña, the chairman of Pimeco (small and medium sized business federation) called on the new government to maintain the law on commerce and the moratoria on the opening of new hypermarkets and department stores approved by the Balearic parliament in 2001. Catalina Cirer is the first woman to be Mayor of Palma, and she said yesterday that her first initiative will be to return to the Palma districts where she had been campaigning for the past few weeks. She said that she wants to make people see that everything she promised during the campaign have not been false hopes but “realities” which the council is going to put into operation, such as green zones in neglected areas, and more police on the streets. She expressed disappointment in the fact that her socialist rival Antoni Roig had not congratulated her. She said that she had started with a disadvantage, as it was the first time she was running for Mayor (previously, she was the central government representative in the Balearics), while Roig had been on the council for ten years. As to the poor results of the Majorcan Union (UM) in Palma, where they lost their only councillor, Cirer saw this as “a punishment by the voters because UM had allied itself with the Progress Pact.”