"It's an easy criticism, the game is present in many areas. In Barcelona there are days when five cruise ships with casinos are docked, but when we talk about gambling in Catalonia we always point to the Hard Rock", laments Pere Segura (Junts), mayor of Vila-seca.
With the planning process for the Hard Rock tourist macrocomplex on the Costa Daurada stuck in the offices of the Generalitat since the autumn of 2022, criticism from within the Government itself for including a large casino, and the desire that the promoters Americans end up backing down, they've lit the fuse. Once more.
Businesses in the tourism sector of the Costa Daurada, among those most interested in seeing it become a reality, have been outraged by the statements of the Minister of Health, Manel Balcells, who has openly criticized the project: "I am absolutely against there being the Hard Rock Casino. I hope that the promoters will back off", he said in an interview with Catalunya Ràdio.
"It's being very naive... The company will not give up, it will wait for the Generalitat's resolution. If I had the planning permission, I would start the works", answers Segura, who says that he is very tired of it.
The mayor of Salou, Pere Granados, who governs the city together with the PSC and has just signed a pact with ERC, has been criticizing the Government's actions for a long time. "I regret the attitude of the minister, who apparently speaks on behalf of the Government. We are faced with repeated non-compliance for a long time with the deadlines for approval. We ask the Generalitat to clarify this situation, to definitively approve the urban planning master plan; we can't delay the project any longer, the investors will eventually get tired".
The urban master plan referred to by the mayor of Salou is still waiting for the Generalitat to approve it, after having suffered countless setbacks and setbacks, judicial and administrative. The last, in October 2022, when an unfavorable report was made public by the Climate Action technicians, who demanded modifications to give the green light.
Since then, silence, in a period of waiting that was first linked to the municipal elections in May and then to the general elections in July. "It has always been used in the political war", laments Segura.
The Government ended up accepting the definitive push for the tourist complex as a condition imposed by the PSC to give its support to the budgets of the Generalitat. Esquerra promised to unblock the approval of urban planning in the first half of the year. The pact specified the commitment to complete all the procedures so that the works could start in 2024.
With the project asleep in the drawers, at least apparently, the role of the Health Minister has generated even more outrage. "We are fed up with people putting sticks in our way. Hard Rock is not moving forward. Many promises and some, few, good words but only in private meetings; however, neither dates nor strong public statements of support for a capital project for the Costa Daurada. Yes, it is as important as Port Aventura World", says Berta Cabré, president of the Business Federation of Hospitality and Tourism of the province of Tarragona.
All in all, the new master urban planning plan (PDU) that must unblock Hard Rock's investment will not be approved by the Urban Planning Commission of the Generalitat before October, when the body's first session is scheduled. Autumn should be the key to elucidating once and for all if it goes ahead or ends up being discarded. "We laugh, for months, years, we have been waiting for reports that have not yet arrived", criticizes the mayor of Vila-seca.
Faced with so much noise, Àngel Xifré (ERC), the delegate of the Generalitat in Tarragona, replies to this newspaper that everything is following its course. "The Government's position has not changed, the master plan continues to be processed. Everything goes forward. Hard Rock is a recreational and tourist complex that will have hotels, shops, shows, concerts... The casino will be part of the center.
