Rebel Yell: Mallorca's Catalan civil war

Simón Ballester, known also as Simó Tort, was born in Manacor some time in the first half of the fifteenth century. In the middle of that century, Ballester, supported by, among others, chiefs from Muro and Inca, led an uprising against the governor of Mallorca. The revolt failed, he fled to Menorca but in 1457 was returned to Mallorca and was executed.

Antoni Pastor, the mayor of Manacor, will not anticipate being executed. But he faces a sort of political death, if only a political death within the Partido Popular as it currently is. He is threatened with proceedings against him for going against the party line on language policy and having made himself the leader of internal opposition within the party and the principal defender of Catalan within the party - all against the wishes of President Bauzá.

When Ballester led the uprising in the fifteenth century, it was to Palma that he took his revolt. Together with others from the regions of Mallorca, he was at the head of opposition to an "odious" governor, barricaded in Palma.

The war that has broken out in the PP has more than just the similarity of Manacor being the source of the revolt. It is being styled as a war between Palma and the regions. If President Bauzá and his administration had believed that PP-led town halls would acquiesce to changes to law which will downgrade Catalan, he was clearly very much mistaken.

As with Ballester, who could count on Inca to back him, so Inca has rode to Pastor's side. The town's mayor has expressed a "predisposition" to back him but perhaps more significantly so has Cristòfol Soler, still an Inca politician and formerly, for a brief while in the 1990s, a PP president of the Balearics.

Other towns to declare for Pastor are Pollensa and Sa Pobla. In the case of Sa Pobla, arguably the spiritual centre of Catalan in Mallorca and certainly one of the most radically pro-Catalan towns, mayor Biel Serra is unequivocal in his defence of Catalan.

What is emerging in what is becoming a quite extraordinary story is that Mallorca is being mapped according to where support for Pastor resides. Alcúdia might well follow, if only because Miguel Ramis, an ex-mayor, seems himself to be disposed to go along with Pastor. Though close to Bauzá, Ramis is also a political rival, which largely explains why, in the end, the PP's local secretary-general was overlooked for the job as national tourism secretary-of-state. Ramis does still wield a good deal of power in Alcúdia.

But what you have is two of Mallorca's five large towns, Inca and Manacor, coming together, as they did in the fifteenth century. This leaves Calviá, where Carlos Delgado, the main inspiration behind the attack on Catalan, was mayor, as well as Marratxí, where Bauzá was formerly mayor, and Llucmajor. Each of them is PP-led and each of them is a neighbour of Palma. Were they all to declare for Bauzá, you would have an even more extraordinary situation, that really would look like battle lines being drawn.

To add to the extraordinariness are the allies that Pastor can call on. One is the Obra Cultural Balear. This isn't simply an organisation that defends and promotes Catalan, it is in favour of independence for the Catalan lands, of which Mallorca is one. It is an organisation which can itself call on some perhaps unexpected supporters; former president Soler is a member.

Bauzá, who is being accused of empire-building, wishing to destroy Balearics autonomy and of sheer, naked ambition, has got himself one almighty fight. Spokespeople for the party are making conciliatory and diplomatic noises - the language policy is not a crusade against Catalan, it is open for discussion, there won't be any expulsions from the party - but whether Bauzá is inclined to be quite so conciliatory will become clear very soon.

This latest battle of Mallorca might yet just blow over and prove to have been a passing annoyance for the president to have to deal with. Or it might not blow over, even were there to be some accommodation of the challenges to the law that are coming in from all over the island.

Simón Ballester made at least three attempts to attack Palma and rid the island of its odious governor. He didn't succeed and he paid the ultimate price. From his base in Manacor, the rebel leader of the twenty-first century will be wondering if the time is approaching for civil war and for attempting to tear down the walls of Bauzá's empire.


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