Party's over: Mallorca closes bars and clubs
In some of Mallorca's main tourist resorts hundreds of people partied away without masks and without any regard for distancing rules last weekend. The regional government is now cracking down: all clubs and restaurants in the main party zones of Palma and Magaluf were forced to close on Wednesday, initially for two months. Is the politicians' reaction excessive or justified?
Crackdown instead of lockdown
Tourism Minister Iago Negueruela's seething criticism of the partying tourists goes too far, tagesschau.de writes:
“Mallorca has earned good money with this tourism model over the past 50 years. To say now: 'We don't want you anymore, you're uncivilised and anti-social' is not fair because not all partying tourists are the same. Those who really go wild living it up are only a small percentage of the total number of holidaymakers. ... There is no shortage of regulations in the Balearic Islands to curb binge drinking. New rules have been added in recent years. But the government must implement them. What's needed is a firm crackdown by the police, not a total end for the Ballermann party mile.”
Partying tourists are partly to blame
This scandal was not just media hype, the Mallorca Zeitung points out:
“The politicians reacted in panic. ... And not just on the basis of police investigations, but solely because of the images circulating on the media. So is the media, the 'lying press', to blame for the mishap, as many are saying on the Internet? Things aren't that simple. Exaggerated coverage clearly had something to do with the government's 'Enough is enough!' The fact remains, however, that the people the reports were about also bear some of the blame: mostly young holidaymakers who are partying during these coronavirus times just as much as they did before.”