'The Balearics street drinking rules are a classic government own goal – and totally unworkable'
San Antonio local and former travel industry professional Martin Makepeace, who has lived in Ibiza since the early 90s, takes aim at the British press’s response to changes to existing street drinking laws in the Balearics.
"The sale of alcohol will be totally banned between 9.30pm and 8am in areas of ‘excessive tourism’ in Majorca and Ibiza, under a new decree passed by the government of Spain’s Balearic Islands."
This is typical of the latest negative headlines to hit the UK press about Ibiza [following further minor changes to the island’s public drinking laws]. But it’s far from the reality.
Upon first reading, you might assume this refers to all establishments in San Antonio. It doesn’t. You might also assume it means all of San Antonio. It doesn’t.
For clarification, it only applies to a very small area and it’s for shops and NOT bars and restaurants.
The law has already been in existence for several years and only covers a couple of streets of the area commonly known as the "west end".
The law has been tweaked but nothing much has changed apart from the wording that makes it more specific and again for clarification it’s only the sale of alcohol in shops that is affected by it.
Bar owners have been rightly exasperated at the coverage and are at pains to reiterate that bars and restaurants will run exactly the same as before and customers can still drink and be merry but the headlines don’t say that.
It’s a classic own goal by a Balearic government wanting to look tough when in reality nothing will much change.
And what’s more, it’s totally unworkable. It’s not against the law to drink a beer from a can in one street but it is in another? It’s a nonsensical impractical law that’s designed purely to garner headlines and send a message.
In other words the worse kind of law that sits on the shelf gathering cobwebs until it’s wheeled out twice a year to send a message that can’t be enforced because there’s no will or workforce to do it.
Playing devil’s advocate, Ibiza’s excessive side has always been there and does needs controlling but in proactive ways working with local businesses rather than arbitrary laws that prejudice a few and don’t get to the root of the problem.
The island’s relentless surge to a more lucrative market has only increased the fervor, but it doesn’t take a sledgehammer to crack a nut especially one that screams negativity and sends exactly the wrong, and in this case, incorrect message.
Local police in San Antonio have enough to do over a busy summer tackling real crime such as organised theft, drug dealing in plain sight and illegal street selling. These headlines paint the picture of a swat team swooping in on an innocent tourist sipping a can of beer in the evening heat. A classic own goal!
Martin Makepeace is managing director of Ibiza Property Shop. He moved to the island in the early-1990s and writes the Man in San An blog. You can read his original column here.
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