- Esperanza Aguirre, a senior and influential politician, has come out strongly in favor of the EuroVegas project.
- To those objecting on moral grounds she replies that they should remember the creation of the tourist industry.
- Moral objections to the bikini were soon forgotten and an economic boom resulted.
- EuroVegas can do the same, especially in this time of economic need.
The President of Madrid’s People’s Party has come out strongly in support of Sheldon Adelson’s EuroVegas project.
The Eurovegas project plans were recently submitted to the Madrid regional government, but a vocal opposition campaign has emerged.
In a regular column for Spain’s center-right ABC newspaper, Esperanza Aguirre, former president of Madrid, argues that any opposition to the project on moral grounds is mistaken. She compares the situation to moral arguments raised against the tourist industry which was developing when she was a young adult: “Bikinis only brought positive effects to Spain: more freedom and openness in their minds.”
She argues that people should have the freedom to go to casinos in Spain: “to go to a casino will never be mandatory, and yes, it is a free choice for adults, who will come from all over the world.”
“I think that a project like Eurovegas is called for, to play a role similar to that of the tourist boom of the sixties, that of being a lever to support economic recovery in difficult times,” she added. “It is true that as a country we are now fully developed, and then we were a 'developing country,’ but it is also true that then as now we needed a push to activate the economy: tourism, like it was then, can be Eurovegas now.”
Sheldon Adelson’s Las Vegas Sands is seeking to develop a mega-complex to rival that of Las Vegas: Twelve resorts, nine theaters, six casinos, three golf courses, and a sports stadium together with extensive conference facilities are all planned. Adelson claims the project will create over a quarter of a million jobs.
