Videoconference on Wednesday involving the restaurant sector. | CAEB (Confederation of Balearic Business Associations)

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Alfonso Robledo believes that Palma town hall has "abandoned" the restaurant sector. The president of the Majorca restaurants association was speaking after the Wednesday afternoon videoconference with Mayor Hila and business and union representatives. Measures announced by the town hall, he insisted, "do not take the restaurant sector into account". "The only help they are giving us is to eliminate the terrace tax until December. What will happen to all the establishments which don't have terraces? They won't be getting any help."

"The mayor doesn't want to get into more debt, but he has no other choice. We are also getting into debt. The town hall needs to ask for help to make sure that the restaurant sector doesn't disappear."

An estimate is that 40% of bars, cafes and restaurants could be lost once the immediate crisis passes and establishments can reopen. "What they don't realise is that when we can open, if there are no tourists, we won't be able to survive on the resident populations of each municipality."

The association wants all municipal taxes to be suspended and the town hall and tourism ministry to develop a tourism promotion plan "to help us recover tourists and boost the economy".

There is an urgency, Robledo stressed, for determined action. If not, "we will be forced to close and have to dismiss our staff, our friends, our relatives". "Hundreds of businesspeople will be on the streets along with hundreds of working families. The unions understand us and support us. We must be united because we all have the same objective."