Hard Rock: a controversial economic injection for southern Catalonia that destabilizes two governments

The negotiation of the Catalan budgets and its recent failed outcome has been conditioned by the political tug-of-war around a hotel complex with a mega-casino that the multinational Hard Rock intends to build in Salou (Tarragona). The project is full of big figures: 2,000 jobs, an investment of 700 million euros and with the capacity to triple, 7,600 square meters dedicated to gaming, 1,200 slot machines and 100 betting tables, and a water consumption of one million meters. cubic each year.

The matter has sparked a heated debate between two sides that accuse each other of whether to give impetus to the idea or bury it forever. The PSC has become the standard bearer of a plan that Junts per Catalunya also views favorably. Both parties share the municipalities of Salou and Vila-seca, where the land surveyed by Hard Rock is located. Esquerra Republicana claims not to have “enthusiasm” for the proposal, but when its leader, Oriol Junqueras, was Minister of Economy in 2016, he validated a reduction from 55% to 10% of the tax on casinos, which PSC and CiU had previously approved. The fiercest voices against Hard Rock are the CUP and the commoners. Both forces have little electoral representation in Tarragona, but they have had the ability to turn the issue into a priority of the Parliament. The Catalan budget did not include a single item reserved for Hard Rock, but the demands of En Comú Podem for the Government to express a clear repudiation of the project frustrated a tripartite agreement between ERC, PSC and the commons themselves. A disagreement that wrecked a pact due to the accounts and that has caused the elections to be anticipated. The entanglement casts uncertainty on the Spanish legislature, since Esquerra acts as the parliamentary support of the PSOE and Sumar, the parent of the commons in Congress.

The terrain that Hard Rock has reserved to build its proposal are some plots owned by La Caixa, which are next to the Port Aventura park and very close to the Tarragona petrochemical industrial estate. Tourism and the chemical industry are the two pillars that support the economy of what is known as Camp de Tarragona, an area where 550,000 people live together, with cities such as Tarragona, Reus, Cambrils or Salou, which has the status of the second metropolitan area of Catalonia. and that suffers from chronic levels of unemployment. According to the Active Population Survey published at the end of January by the INE, Tarragona closed 2023 with an unemployment rate of 14.4%, when the Catalan average is 8.9%. “It seems unbelievable that so many obstacles are put in place for an investment that creates jobs and boosts the economy in tourist municipalities that suffer from seasonality,” says Pere Granados, mayor of Salou. According to data from the Statistics Institute of Catalonia, Idescat, Salou appears as one of the towns with the lowest annual income in the autonomous community: it does not exceed 12,700 euros, and neighboring municipalities such as Constantí or Pobla de Mafumet are also in that group. . The Tarragona Chamber of Commerce has declared itself in favor of defending the Hard Rock and in December 2022 it called an event with business entities and economic institutions to show a common front of support. A document was agreed upon stating that Hard Rock is a “strategic project” for the territory.

Josep Maria Arauzo Carod, professor at the Department of Economics at the Rovira i Virgili University (URV), warns about the project. “Perpetuating a model based on this type of tourism has many restrictions and represents a brake on the growth of the territory’s economy,” he maintains. “It is understandable that in an area where the unemployment rate is notable, a project of this type can be seen as an opportunity, but that implies prioritizing the short term. Furthermore, it means conditioning the improvement of the quality of the labor market and salaries and, therefore, the standard of living of citizens,” the professor adds. A study by the same URV reveals that two out of every three inhabitants of Camp de Tarragona have the feeling that they live in an area with a “high level of petrochemical risk.”

Supporters of the project point to its million-dollar economic impact, deseasonalization of tourism and the creation of jobs. The detractors, the incitement to gambling, job insecurity and doubts about the sustainability raised by a project that has had a zigzagging trajectory: it was born in 2012, with a different name (“BCN World”) and the then president of the Generalitat, Artur Mas, presented it with all honors, defending that it was a source of prosperity for a territory, the south of Catalonia, which received a sharp blow with the economic crisis of 2008. The original idea has been mutating and taking air, or shrinking, depending on the interests that the successive governments of the Generalitat have had. Now the approval of the urban development plan (PDU) is pending and Pere Aragonès claims to have limited capacity for maneuver, because stopping its processing would mean a high economic cost for the Catalan administration.

The North American multinational Hard Rock does not give clues to clarify what possibilities of realization the idea retains. “North Americans see a great opportunity in this territory and have not lost interest,” says Pere Granados, mayor of Salou. The Generalitat prefers not to comment on whether the developer is still attracted by the possibility of investing on the coast of Tarragona. “It is an issue between private investors,” alleges the Government.

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“It is a project typical of a development model from the nineties, absurd in a context of climate emergency and that pushes Catalonia towards a model of low salaries and precarious jobs,” Jéssica Albiach, leader of the commons in the Parlament, to support its slamming of the door on Hard Rock. The left-wing party has repeated that the Hard Rock would be “the largest casino in Europe” and that the entire complex generates water consumption equivalent to a population of 30,000 inhabitants. Salvador Illa, head of the opposition in Catalonia and first secretary of the PSC, accuses the commons of “taking advantage” of the current climate situation in Catalonia to “put prosperity at risk.” As a result of the lack of rain, Barcelona and northern Catalonia are in an emergency phase due to drought, but the Tarragona area is resisting the restrictions because it is supplied with water from the Ebro River.