The Quiet Man And The Serious Man

Amidst all the euphoria (?) of Mariano's march to victory, the local leadership, i.e. that of President Bauzá, could find itself a sideshow to the main event in Madrid. It could do, but it won't. The inevitable scrutiny that a president is subject to and some personality cultivation for Bauzá make sure that it won't.

Rajoy is the Quiet Man, the brothers Iain and Duncan Smith (to lift an old Paul Merton gag) of Spanish politics. Actually, "quiet" doesn't do him justice. Mute is a bit more like it. Whether he ever gets round to acquiring a personality is questionable, but Bauzá, in the meantime, has been.

The spin médicos have it that Bauzá is "serio", a proper politician, as opposed to one who isn't (and there are plenty of candidates, to be fair). "Serio", but he has also undergone something of a metamorphosis, not just in acquiring the facial-hair trappings of Partido Popular politics but also in being portrayed as being vaguely human, though there are those who would disagree.

Before Bauzá was elevated to party leadership n March 2010, his stock, publicity-wise, wasn't that high. Indeed, it was his relative anonymity and unremarkableness, save for a resemblance to Richard E. Grant and/or Count Dracula (or perhaps because of in the case of the latter), that made him the perfect choice for the PP, determined to appoint anyone but Carlos Delgado, who was said not to be shy in promoting himself.

"Serio", and confronting the serious challenges threatening the Balearics with Armageddon, Bauzá set to work after the elections in May. Since then, the new improved Bauzá has emerged with his designer-stubble beard sprouting from the chin of political ambition.

Bauzá is close to Rajoy, so close in fact that it has been implied that Rajoy has, in spirit if not in body, taken up residence in the regional presidential palace in using the Balearics as a test site for national policy to come.

The closeness has caused the electoral commission to describe Bauzá's call for votes for Rajoy at the national election "inappropriate". It also fuels opposition from within his own party as well as from rival parties. Similarly, it does nothing to hold at bay sections of the media, alert to any opportunity of gaffe akin to that which Bauzá made when he had what he admitted later was a "mental lapse" regarding language policy during a radio interview.

The media has, for example, jumped on a more recent admission, that of having a mortgage of some 800 thousand euros for a property said to be valued at well over a million. There is nothing wrong about the mortgage, but it does send out a confused message to all those who had pressurised the poor banks into handing over fat mortgages for which they haven't got a cat in hell's chance of paying off this side of hell freezing over and who, in the process, precipitated the potential for financial Armageddon.

There has also been the issue of Bauzá on the golf course. Opponents have argued that photos of the president in full fairway-swing mode sent out another confused message. There are more "serio" things he should be doing (like cutting even more public-sector jobs, presumably).

The jibe should have been ignored. But no. It was the right message. Golfers spend 400 euros a day, came the reply, and not the average 97 euros a day of regular tourists. Absolutely. The message, one takes it, is that Mallorca doesn't need damned, cheapskate tourists filling the place up and not running to a daily hundred sobs.

Rajoy has met with the different PP regional presidents, emphasising the need for them to comply with the need to reduce regional deficits. In the Balearics, compliance hasn't needed to be sought. Bauzá can be relied upon; "serio" can, after all, mean reliable.

But this compliance is what threatens Bauzá. His image and personality making since the regional elections has been partly for internal party consumption, because there is someone whose greater "presence" was apparent long before the elections: not Delgado, but Antoni Pastor, the mayor of Manacor.

The PP should be riding the wave of success, but it has been holding back the tide of internal division that was evident last year and which now may break over the party's flimsy beachhead. An "ants nest" is how the local party has been described, with Pastor on one ant hill, that of the malcontents whose murmurings of perceived influence of the party nationally and of the party losing its humanity are starting to become louder.

Euphoria can swiftly turn into dysphoria, and for Bauzá, it could be "serio".


Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.