“Balearic government has to take responsibility for its actions...”

SPAIN'S deputy prime minister, Rodrigo Rato, told the Bulletin in Palma yesterday that the foreign vote at next month's local election is an important one. Rato, Spain's Minister for the Economy, and tipped to replace Jose Maria Aznar as leader of the conservative Partido Popular when the prime minister steps down at the general elections next year, said “the foreigners who live in the Balearics, some because it is a privileged destination, which it is, others because of the employment opportunities, all have democratic necessities and opinions which we want to hear and need to hear. “We, the PP, welcome all foreigners who come to live in the Balearics, Spain in general, and hope that those eligible, will exercise their right to vote and participate in shaping the future of where they have chosen to live,” Rato said. The fact that on May 25, the electorate will be deciding how they want to live their lives for the next four years that Rato was keen to underline to all voters in the Balearics. There has been much talk of protest votes over Spain's backing of the attack on Iraq as part of the country's determined war against terrorism, but Rato said “people living in Palma on May 25, will play an important part in deciding what kind of city they want to live in, whether they want clean streets, greater security, quality of life, local issues that we in Madrid (central government) are not responsible for, so the electorate has to stop and think and be aware of what they are really casting their votes for.” Over the past four years, the Balearic left wing coalition government has constantly blamed Madrid for all the islands' problems. But Rato, who yesterday rounded on the local government and its leader Francesc Antich for its abysmal tourism record, said “what the Balearic electorate needs to consider over the next few weeks is who is responsible for the decline in the economy, tourism and employment over the past four years. “Spain is a federal country, the autonomous government have a great deal of responsibility, but sometimes, they will not admit to it and apportion the blame elsewhere. “In Madrid, we are not directly responsible for the Balearics' tourist industry, we are responsible for the Spanish tourist industry as a whole. “So far this year, the Spanish tourist industry is doing extremely well, but the Balearics, once the country's top destination has slipped to fourth place over the past three months and seen a further 13 per cent drop in tourism on last year. “Something is wrong and the Balearics needs to change its tourism policy,” Rato said.
The Minister added that as soon as regional governments start “to go out on a limb,” introducing policies that are not advocated by central administration, but no other administrations have adopted and have no precedent, they are going to run into problems, such as the Balearics has with the tourist tax, building freezes, trading laws. “The Balearic government has damaged the local economy and the facts and figures are for all to see,” Rato said yesterday.
Rato, in Palma to help the Partido Popular's candidate for Balearics President, Jaume Matas, unveil his election manifesto, said that the PP wants to repair the damage caused by the left-wing coalition as quickly as possible after the elections. He is confident Matas will win “as a Spaniard and a great fan of the Balearics, I hope so,” he said.
Madrid wants to push ahead with giving the Balearics much greater financial independence and in turn increase air and sea travel compensation for residents, not by hiking discounts, but by injecting more public funding into transport services and working with the airlines. On Friday, Rato will unveil a series of new ecommic measures recently approved by the government.
Rato said that the government is about to take important steps towards resolving the problems of gender inequality in the workplace, radically remodel the housing sector with new benefits and opportunities for first time buyers and greater incentives and assistance for the self-employed. Rato was quick to point out that all these measures and more, are the results of policies the government has been working on for the past two years and continued to work on during the Iraq crisis. “There were two issues about the Iraq crisis. “Spain, committed to the fight against terrorism, was asked for help by its democratic allies and did so. The government had to make some tough decisions, it did so and in doing so showed that it is united and strong enough to stick to what it believes in and not bow to popular opinion.” “But what is also important to note is that while the government dealt with the Iraq crisis and the political flack, we did not put the domestic political agenda on hold, but continued working to resolve political issues and policies. “While the PSOE (socialist party) were taking part in anti-war demonstrations and attacking us on the war and nothing else, we were also talking employment, economy, health and education etc. Now the crisis is over, the opposition has found that they have nothing to offer the public as alternatives to all the policies we have been working on throughout the conflict.” Rato said that politicians and governments have to be responsible for their actions, “in the Balearics, the government has not been and something has to be done.”