Bauzá And The Horns Of A Bull

When you get 94.5% of the vote in being re-elected as dear leader, you should be pretty pleased with yourself. José Ramón Bauzá has received 94.5% of the vote. He remains leader of the Balearics Partido Popular with the sort of ringing endorsement that should enable him to boast of the type of achievement dear leaders normally manage, such as registering eleven holes-in-one while shooting 38 under par.

Unfortunately, 94.5% of the vote doesn't mean that 94.5% of the party membership voted for the current president of the Balearics. Nothing like it. The turnout was only 35.9%. Given that there were no other candidates other than A.B.Stention, the endorsement was one that rang with the mufflers on. At least he can say that the percentage has risen - by 25.5% over 2010 when he gave Carlos Slim a good kicking to the tune of 38% more votes in the leadership run-off.

One of those he thanked at the party's congress for the muffled endorsement (all a bit like a BAFTA winner's speech) was minister Slim (and by the way I shall now only ever be referring to politicians and others by their official Google Translate titles, so you'd better get used to them) with whom, so he stressed, he had been working closely on the new tourism law. So, it's good to see that Bauzá has managed to set one rivalry to the side in the pursuit of the total hotelification of Mallorca, unlike another, that with the mayor of Manacor, Anthony Shepherd, who appeared to have better things to do, addressing the Catalan-youth-strop tendency at the annual let's-all-camp-for-Catalan do that has been held this year in Manacor, rather than bothering with frivolous matters such as the party congress.

Politicians from wherever they are, including inconsequential backwaters like the Balearics, come out with pretty much the same old guff, and Bauzá is no different. As part of his winner's oration, he said: "There is no improvisation, only rigour in decision-making; there is courage and we are taking the bull by the horns, because society has ordered us to". What this means is that they aren't making things up as they go along, which is just one accusation that has been levelled at the government (and not only the Balearic Government; Rajoy's is a work of total improvisation). No, they are not doing things on the hoof, and not even a bull's hoof, as instead the government have the bull by the horns, though I'm not sure that society did actually order them to do this.

Still, taking a bull by the horns, especially if it's a raging bull of raging debt such as that which has been rampaging across the Balearics, does demand courage, and Bauzá's government have this, because he says they have. And at the head of the government, there he is, a Captain Courageous, right out of a Kipling adventure story.

When you are presiding over a region that is bankrupt, adventure is the last thing that is needed, and were there any adventurousness, society would have every right to ask what on earth the government were doing. Thankfully, we do know what they're doing, because Bauzá, moving on in the great oration, has made this abundantly clear. "We are doing things well." Not brilliantly, but well. Things. Whatever things are. Inspirational. Even more inspirational is the fact that things are being done well and much better than it appears. Seriously, he said this. Had it not occurred to him that appearance is pretty important to a society demanding that bulls' horns be grabbed? What this can translate as is: "we've been lousy at doing nothing in particular". Which is unquestionably the case. He did also say at the congress that messages needed to be put across with greater strength. A further admission that they haven't been doing things well.

There was more inspiration from the Captain. "Unity despite the differences" (of which there are huge ones within the local PP). "A party that is humble, hard-working, independent." "A party that defends the weakest, equal opportunities, the welfare state and personal liberty." Yea, whatever. What's this independent bit, by the way? He's surely not advocating independence for the Balearics. And defence of the welfare state? This is defence which comes with a ten-euro charge for your health card and a 4.8 cents tax for a litre of petrol. Now, that's what I call taking the bull by the horns. Or is it just a load of old bull?


Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.