Magalluf, BCM and horror in Llucmajor: the week in Majorca

Businesses and hoteliers were all in favour, albeit the latter were less in favour of no more hotel places being permitted under the scheme. There was a note of caution, however. What might happen if there is political change? Municipal and regional elections are just over two years away.

The opposition Partido Popular in Calvia suggested that the whole plan was a case of the town hall administration "playing to the gallery". Everything with the project for a remodelling was "up in the air". The words of the PP's José Manuel Ruiz did therefore reinforce the concerns being expressed by Magalluf's businesses. There again, is it not the case that political change, which there seemingly inevitably is at each election, affects all sorts of plans?

Closing BCM
More dramatically, the town hall ordered the closure of BCM. This had to do with the lack of a licence for work at the club in 2015. There was some suspicion in Magalluf about the timing of the town hall's order. It was described as "opportunist". The fact that Palma town hall had closed another Cursach Group establishment, Tito's, because of "deficiencies" did seem more than just coincidental.

The story of the closure on the Bulletin website went viral, indicating the club's fame and importance. Pepe Tirado of the Acotur tourist businesses association acknowledged that the club may have its "detractors", but he was firm in stressing the importance of BCM to Magalluf, a point echoed by several of you. Whatever one might think of BCM or Tolo Cursach, it's important that the club continues. Hopefully, it will be allowed to open shortly.  

Holiday rentals legislation moves closer
The government finally presented its holiday rentals legislation in that the cabinet has now approved the text. Biel Barceló said that he hoped the legislation could be approved by parliament within two months, an unusually short period for parliamentary processing.

There was little to this which wasn't already known, though provision for town halls to be able to ban holiday rentals came as something of a surprise. On the day that the cabinet made the announcement, we had suggested that the legislation might throw up the unanticipated. Was this a case in point? We also wondered to what extent this important legislation will be tied to the crisis that has engulfed the government because of the contracts' affair and tourism minister Barceló especially.

The legislation probably will proceed with the hoped-for rapidity, but twists to it cannot be ruled out.

An awful murder
There was a truly shocking incident in Llucmajor on Tuesday night. A woman murdered her baby and then committed suicide. It emerged that there had been a fierce argument with her husband. He had told the woman that he planned to divorce her. The baby was hanged. The woman used nautical rope to do this and then hanged herself. The autopsy revealed that the eighteen-month-old was asleep when she was killed. Guardia Civil investigators said there had been a "fit of madness".