Marga Prohens (right) with Xisca Porquer, the mayor of Campos, at Ses Covetes beach. | @ppbalears

TW
3

The leader of the opposition Partido Popular in the Balearics, Marga Prohens, accused President Armengol on Tuesday of being obsessed with applying a "new ideological policy of zero beach bars".

Speaking at the beach in Ses Covetes (Campos), Prohens denounced "the government's attacks" on beach bars. The situation in Campos, she said, will be repeated in other municipalities due to this policy.

A recent report from the regional environment ministry was "profoundly ideological" and will lead to the number of beach bars in Campos being reduced from six to three. (These are the bars along Es Trenc beach.)

Referring to an "ideological mania", Prohens also criticised management deficiencies. Campos town hall has not yet received the reports from the environment ministry and the Costas Authority to allow the beach bars to be put out to tender. This will make it "impossible for them to be awarded and assembled by May 1".

A reduction in the beach bars "is one more step in the government's tourismphobia and in a decrease of tourism". "The well-being and sustainability of the islands is at stake. We believe in a sustainable economy, but it must be environmental, economic and social. If one of these elements is missing, there is no possible sustainability. We believe in the protection of the most vulnerable natural areas, such as dunes, but the distance between the beach bars, as determined by the Coasts Law, had been complied with."

Prohens continued by saying that "it is false that the beach bars are the cause of all ills and that they are to blame for there being less sand". These are just "excuses for a policy of prohibition".

She predicted that people who go to the beaches where there will no longer be bars will bring their own food and drink. This will create a problem because there are no litter bins in the Es Trenc Nature Park, while "illegal selling will proliferate, with all that it entails".