Goodness, there was a surprise. The purging of Xe-Lo Huertas had led us to believe that Balearic parliament speakers' fashion lines were a thing of the past. Xe-Lo had provided us with her adapted J-Lo range for the fuller feminist, only for it to be removed from all best alternative retail outlets when the purge totally undermined the Xe-Lo brand and required fleets of lorries to transport the remaining items to the recycling containers or the charity shops.
But no. Gone may be Xe-Lo but instead we now have Tie Rack as re-conceived by Balti. The range is as yet limited, which will come as no great surprise as Balti had said that he would be eschewing neckwear. This parliament president, as he also stated, has one foot on the streets - those streets where ties dare not speak their (brand) name. Despite this vow to remain tieless, Balti bowed to convention - the presentations for Balearics Day - by unveiling the new parliament speaker's spring fashion. And what a tie it was. Its purpleness was a suitably Podemos purple if somewhat purple-lite, a softer, more sympathetic purple, one that spoke to all the citizens, for indeed Balti is a representative of all citizens.
What really had the fashion critics reaching for their reviews was the adornment on the purple - whitish, silvery lines. Were these integral to the tie or had Balti left it outside to air at his Cas Concos commune and allowed the organic snails to wander all over it? Difficult to say, but the overall effect was striking. Balti is the very model of the modern parliamentary major general. Body-hugging sporty black shirt (not tucked in), black Levis and a pair of Converse sneakers. And that tie. He was appealing to the inner Deep Purple among all citizens, those of whom may wish to be Ritchie Blackmore or Jon Lord tribute artists.
Naturally enough, when it came to his speech, Balti called for consensus, thus echoing (parroting) the mantra that has come to characterise the current government. Dialogue was also there, as in "democracy is a system of balances that allows us to articulate dialogue without losing sight of the respect for the views and opinions of others". Some, i.e. Xavier Pericay of the C's, felt his discourse was unusually "institutional", i.e. parliamentary, presidential almost. For the most part it was greeted positively, even if Marga Prohens of the PP thought that it was "idealistic and decaffinated". Well, maybe Balti prefers decaff.
Marga, it has to be pointed out, had already opted for her spring fashion - a flowery frock affair, which didn't seem to play well with Francina, who was photographed next to a beaming Marga with a massive gob on. Francina's functional grey top looked rather lost amidst Marga's flowers and Balti's snail trails. And she knew it. There's nothing worse for a Balearic president than to be upstaged by a PP supermodel and a hippy with a weird tie.
Being kept from view all the while were Xe-Lo and her sister in arms, Montse Seijas, both of whom continue to be outraged by having been consigned to that part of parliament to the rear of the right, namely the PP. The land they occupy in parliament has now become known as the valley of the fallen, from where Xe-Lo can only look on and wonder what might have been as her successor branches out with his own website - tiesbybalti.com, or probably tiesbybalti.cat, as a dotcom would smack far too much of globalisation, and that would never do.
Showing posts with label Balearics Day. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Balearics Day. Show all posts
Sunday, March 05, 2017
Monday, February 27, 2017
The Balearic Holiday
This Wednesday is Balearics Day. On 1 March 1983 the islands were officially granted regional autonomy. The official part is crucial for determining the date. It was 1 March when the announcement was made on the Official Bulletin. The law by which autonomy was approved was in fact passed on 25 February.
The day is essentially a celebration of government. Once autonomy was secured, it was only a short time before the first elections were held and the first government in the Balearics was formed. It was an historic development. One-time institutions or organisations which had been at the core of economic, social and political affairs disappeared or were superseded. The Mallorca Tourist Board was one such. There was to be a tourism ministry for the first time and so therefore a governmental tourism promotion agency rather than one that was a private club, albeit a very large club that had done so much for the island's tourism for almost eighty years.
With autonomy came legislation: the Balearics own legislation, not law foisted upon the islands (or never passed) by a distant power in Madrid. Tourism was but one area to come under legislative scrutiny. The environment was another. The two seemingly irreconcilables - tourism and environment - have been scrapping it out ever since, though it needs remembering that initial tourism legislation took due account, considerably more so than previously, of the fragile earth of the Balearics.
Government spawned its array of what they like to call "social agents". Lobbying elevated the status of the hoteliers and of the environmentalists. GOB, a product of the very late days of Francoism, had found its initial protest voice six years prior to the creation of government when it had inspired an occupation of the island of Dragonera; there was concern about "private interests". Government facilitated a legitimisation of environmental protest. Like the hoteliers, and perhaps ironically so, GOB were to become what they are nowadays - part of a non-governmental establishment, at times seemingly indivisible from policies of certain political parties.
And this autonomy bred its new parties. "Nationalism" in the sense of defending and advancing Mallorcan and Balearic claims - to the point of ever greater levels of self-administration - split along left and right lines. A political honeypot was created, around which hovered those whose greed was to eventually be their undoing, i.e. the Unió Mallorquina.
Yet how deep-rooted is any notion of Balearic-ness? Is Balearics Day solely an affirmation of political structure rather than a deeply felt sense of identity? To answer this, one has to go back to the time when autonomy was declared. There were no particularly riotous displays of unconfined joy. This was a political development which erected something of an artifice that exists to the present day.
Autonomy for the Balearics had never been strongly demanded. Reaction to the possibility of regional autonomy, which arose during the Second Republic immediately prior to the Civil War, had been lukewarm to the point of outright hostility, not least in the islands which weren't Mallorca. Autonomous government was viewed with suspicion and as a means by which Majorca could assert ever greater power and authority over the region.
When this autonomy was to come about fifty years after it had been widely rejected, it did so almost by accident. The drafters of the 1978 Constitution originally sought to establish rights to forms of self-government for regions with historical claims to it, notably the Basque Country and Catalonia. When certain other regions made demands, not necessarily based on any historical claim, there was a redrafting. Regions couldn't be discriminated against. They all had to have their own governments.
While there clearly are common elements among the islands of the archipelago, there are also clear distinctions. History can be drawn upon, from as far back as ancient times if needs be, in order to highlight them. At the time of the Roman occupation, for instance, Mallorca (and Menorca) were backwards in a way that Ibiza was not. That island had more in common with north Africa than its neighbours and a trading system that was far more advanced.
So we come, once more, to Balearics Day, a celebration that we are never quite sure about and one - in terms of government - which is in any event under certain strains. The Council of Mallorca has been pressing claims for it to have more government responsibility as the natural voice in defending Mallorca's rights and interests. And the Council has changed its day - Mallorca Day - as a way of expressing ever greater Mallorcan identity. Balearics Day? There'll be concerts, there are open days at institutions and museums. And Wednesday will be a day off, a public holiday. Now you're talking.
The day is essentially a celebration of government. Once autonomy was secured, it was only a short time before the first elections were held and the first government in the Balearics was formed. It was an historic development. One-time institutions or organisations which had been at the core of economic, social and political affairs disappeared or were superseded. The Mallorca Tourist Board was one such. There was to be a tourism ministry for the first time and so therefore a governmental tourism promotion agency rather than one that was a private club, albeit a very large club that had done so much for the island's tourism for almost eighty years.
With autonomy came legislation: the Balearics own legislation, not law foisted upon the islands (or never passed) by a distant power in Madrid. Tourism was but one area to come under legislative scrutiny. The environment was another. The two seemingly irreconcilables - tourism and environment - have been scrapping it out ever since, though it needs remembering that initial tourism legislation took due account, considerably more so than previously, of the fragile earth of the Balearics.
Government spawned its array of what they like to call "social agents". Lobbying elevated the status of the hoteliers and of the environmentalists. GOB, a product of the very late days of Francoism, had found its initial protest voice six years prior to the creation of government when it had inspired an occupation of the island of Dragonera; there was concern about "private interests". Government facilitated a legitimisation of environmental protest. Like the hoteliers, and perhaps ironically so, GOB were to become what they are nowadays - part of a non-governmental establishment, at times seemingly indivisible from policies of certain political parties.
And this autonomy bred its new parties. "Nationalism" in the sense of defending and advancing Mallorcan and Balearic claims - to the point of ever greater levels of self-administration - split along left and right lines. A political honeypot was created, around which hovered those whose greed was to eventually be their undoing, i.e. the Unió Mallorquina.
Yet how deep-rooted is any notion of Balearic-ness? Is Balearics Day solely an affirmation of political structure rather than a deeply felt sense of identity? To answer this, one has to go back to the time when autonomy was declared. There were no particularly riotous displays of unconfined joy. This was a political development which erected something of an artifice that exists to the present day.
Autonomy for the Balearics had never been strongly demanded. Reaction to the possibility of regional autonomy, which arose during the Second Republic immediately prior to the Civil War, had been lukewarm to the point of outright hostility, not least in the islands which weren't Mallorca. Autonomous government was viewed with suspicion and as a means by which Majorca could assert ever greater power and authority over the region.
When this autonomy was to come about fifty years after it had been widely rejected, it did so almost by accident. The drafters of the 1978 Constitution originally sought to establish rights to forms of self-government for regions with historical claims to it, notably the Basque Country and Catalonia. When certain other regions made demands, not necessarily based on any historical claim, there was a redrafting. Regions couldn't be discriminated against. They all had to have their own governments.
While there clearly are common elements among the islands of the archipelago, there are also clear distinctions. History can be drawn upon, from as far back as ancient times if needs be, in order to highlight them. At the time of the Roman occupation, for instance, Mallorca (and Menorca) were backwards in a way that Ibiza was not. That island had more in common with north Africa than its neighbours and a trading system that was far more advanced.
So we come, once more, to Balearics Day, a celebration that we are never quite sure about and one - in terms of government - which is in any event under certain strains. The Council of Mallorca has been pressing claims for it to have more government responsibility as the natural voice in defending Mallorca's rights and interests. And the Council has changed its day - Mallorca Day - as a way of expressing ever greater Mallorcan identity. Balearics Day? There'll be concerts, there are open days at institutions and museums. And Wednesday will be a day off, a public holiday. Now you're talking.
Sunday, March 01, 2015
The Reluctant Fiesta: Balearics Day
Today is Balearics Day. It isn't a public holiday as such but only because today is Sunday. Normally it would be a day off and it has been since 1999. Prior to this, Balearics Day had been declared in 1984 as an official "fiesta" of the autonomous community of the Balearics but not a public holiday. This official fiesta took over a year and a half to be enshrined in law, as 1 March 1983 was the day that the Balearics were granted regional autonomy and so were able to form a regional government. (In actual fact, the law was approved on 25 February; 1 March was the day it was published in the Official Bulletin.)
The hiatus between the arrival of autonomy and the creation of a "national" day might explain a great deal. While a form of self-government for the islands was welcomed, a sense of regional identity - that of the Balearics - was generally absent, and it still is. Other parts of Spain have their "national" days and, as is the case with Catalonia for instance, some are celebrated enthusiastically. Which isn't to say that there isn't enthusiasm for the Balearics day or to say that little is done to celebrate it; just that an act of granting regional autonomy doesn't have quite the same cachet or stir up similar feelings of nationalism as, for example, a defeat that finally brought a close to the War of the Spanish Succession which led to repression has for the Catalonians.
Balearics' autonomy finally arrived some fifty years after it had first been mooted. During the Second Republic and so just before the Civil War, there was a move to establish regional government. It wasn't a proposal which drew universal support. Many town halls didn't bother sending representatives to a meeting at which it was being proposed, while the other islands considered it to be a means through which Mallorca could make itself more powerful than it already was. There was a further drawback with the proposal. The Balearics were considered to lack people with decent political abilities, as there hadn't been a tradition of political education or intellectualism on the islands. The political elite was then mostly confined to Madrid, Castile, the Basque Country and Catalonia, and it might be argued that this is still the case.
Anyway, nothing came of the proposal and so the Balearics had to wait until 1983 when it was one of the last regions to be granted autonomy in what was a flurry of decentralisation established under the democratic constitution. Gabriel Cañellas became the first president and remained so until, almost inevitably you might think, a corruption case (the Soller Tunnel affair) brought about his resignation. His eventual successor was Jaume Matas, about whom enough has been said.
But coming to the present day and so to this year's Balearics Day, what is there on offer? As with any fiesta, events are not confined to today, so some of you will be aware that they have been going since Thursday, but if you have been aware that is because you live in Palma. The regional government vice-president, Antonio Gómez, who appears to be in charge of the fiesta, has spoken about the collaboration of town halls and the "maximum decentralisation" of activities to the "part forana" of Mallorca, i.e. anywhere that isn't Palma. The problem is, and a simple glance at the programme of events will tell you so, this collaboration is minimal. Today, there will be precious few things occurring away from Palma - a battle between glossador monologuists in Sóller, some folk dance in Pollensa, and very little else. Even the open days at museums don't stretch to today out in the sticks; these days have been and gone.
Of course, as Balearics Day is a celebration of regional autonomy, it is appropriate for events to be centred on the city that has the seat of government, i.e. Palma, but if it is to be a fiesta that genuinely reflects its name, very much more needs to be done to take it out to the towns, villages and other islands. In Formentera today, they are having a massive popular paella event, but that's about your lot.
Somehow though, you doubt that this will ever be the case. It comes back to the identity issue, and as far as the villages and towns of Mallorca are concerned, the people identify with their villages and not some expression of grander institution and government - even Mallorca Day (in September) fails to attract much interest away from Palma - while nationalist sentiment, where it exists, is that for the individual islands, not for the archipelago.
The hiatus between the arrival of autonomy and the creation of a "national" day might explain a great deal. While a form of self-government for the islands was welcomed, a sense of regional identity - that of the Balearics - was generally absent, and it still is. Other parts of Spain have their "national" days and, as is the case with Catalonia for instance, some are celebrated enthusiastically. Which isn't to say that there isn't enthusiasm for the Balearics day or to say that little is done to celebrate it; just that an act of granting regional autonomy doesn't have quite the same cachet or stir up similar feelings of nationalism as, for example, a defeat that finally brought a close to the War of the Spanish Succession which led to repression has for the Catalonians.
Balearics' autonomy finally arrived some fifty years after it had first been mooted. During the Second Republic and so just before the Civil War, there was a move to establish regional government. It wasn't a proposal which drew universal support. Many town halls didn't bother sending representatives to a meeting at which it was being proposed, while the other islands considered it to be a means through which Mallorca could make itself more powerful than it already was. There was a further drawback with the proposal. The Balearics were considered to lack people with decent political abilities, as there hadn't been a tradition of political education or intellectualism on the islands. The political elite was then mostly confined to Madrid, Castile, the Basque Country and Catalonia, and it might be argued that this is still the case.
Anyway, nothing came of the proposal and so the Balearics had to wait until 1983 when it was one of the last regions to be granted autonomy in what was a flurry of decentralisation established under the democratic constitution. Gabriel Cañellas became the first president and remained so until, almost inevitably you might think, a corruption case (the Soller Tunnel affair) brought about his resignation. His eventual successor was Jaume Matas, about whom enough has been said.
But coming to the present day and so to this year's Balearics Day, what is there on offer? As with any fiesta, events are not confined to today, so some of you will be aware that they have been going since Thursday, but if you have been aware that is because you live in Palma. The regional government vice-president, Antonio Gómez, who appears to be in charge of the fiesta, has spoken about the collaboration of town halls and the "maximum decentralisation" of activities to the "part forana" of Mallorca, i.e. anywhere that isn't Palma. The problem is, and a simple glance at the programme of events will tell you so, this collaboration is minimal. Today, there will be precious few things occurring away from Palma - a battle between glossador monologuists in Sóller, some folk dance in Pollensa, and very little else. Even the open days at museums don't stretch to today out in the sticks; these days have been and gone.
Of course, as Balearics Day is a celebration of regional autonomy, it is appropriate for events to be centred on the city that has the seat of government, i.e. Palma, but if it is to be a fiesta that genuinely reflects its name, very much more needs to be done to take it out to the towns, villages and other islands. In Formentera today, they are having a massive popular paella event, but that's about your lot.
Somehow though, you doubt that this will ever be the case. It comes back to the identity issue, and as far as the villages and towns of Mallorca are concerned, the people identify with their villages and not some expression of grander institution and government - even Mallorca Day (in September) fails to attract much interest away from Palma - while nationalist sentiment, where it exists, is that for the individual islands, not for the archipelago.
Friday, March 01, 2013
Thirty Years Of Trouble: Regional government
Thirty years ago, while Britain was gripped by the Deirdre-Ken-Mike love triangle, was listening to David Bowie's "Let's Dance" number one and was gearing itself up for the any time soon re-election of the vanquisher of Galtieri, the Balearics were celebrating their autonomy. On 1 March 1983, the statute of autonomy came into effect and three months later the islands were to have their first president, Gabriel Cañellas.
The granting of autonomy to the Balearics was one of the last of a series of legislative acts that created the Spanish regional governments in the late 1970s and early 1980s (the north African cities of Ceuta and Melilla were to follow some years later). The islands' autonomy, as with regional autonomy in most other parts of Spain, hadn't initially been envisaged when the post-Franco Constitution was drawn up. Those regions with historical claims to some form of self-government - Catalonia, the Basque Country and Galicia - were the focus of the move to this devolution. Once the Andalusians started pressing their claims as well, the impetus began by which all the regions were to become autonomous.
1983 was, in a way, the final move in a process that had started 52 years before. A statute had been drafted in 1931 in line with a desire of the government of the Second Republic to bring about regional autonomy. This statute was never effected. Apart from the obvious intervention of war, there were any number of factional differences that made it nigh on impossible in arriving at genuine agreement. One of the biggest differences of opinion was between the Mallorcans and the Menorcans. The latter were wary of Mallorcan "centralism" and were also more of a mind to join in with a Catalonian statute of autonomy.
Though the draft statute was approved, even if it was never implemented, it is instructive to see that in 1931 there was the opposition that there was. The Ibizans were reluctant supporters of autonomy, while several municipalities in Mallorca were against it. These included Marratxí.
While there were, naturally enough, celebrations in 1983, they obscured underlying divisions, ones that hadn't essentially changed since the 1930s. Thirty years on, they are still observable. The journalist Chema Ferrer is one who has highlighted these divisions. Ahead of this year's Balearics Day, he suggested that rather than there being a fiesta, it would be better if there were a wake and that the statute of autonomy was buried like the sardine is traditionally buried at Carnival time. He questions the very notion of a Balearic identity and condemns a recent political slogan - "four islands, one land, no border" - as being a fallacy. The Menorcan writer, Ponç Pons, is another who takes issue. He has changed the slogan to "four islands, four worlds".
Thirty years of autonomy have not removed pockets of resentment in the smaller islands of the Balearics. This is a resentment of Mallorcan supremacy and what are considered to be the advantages that Mallorca has and receives. The people of the four islands, surveys tell us, identify far less with the Balearics than with their respective islands, and this sentiment is stronger in Menorca, Ibiza and Formentera than it is in Mallorca.
The Balearics as a region is something of a contrivance, a geo-political convenience. While intuitively I favour regionalism and while I have repeatedly questioned the purpose of island councils, such as the Council of Mallorca, I can see there is more sense to these councils, which did after all pre-date regional government, than there is to a regional government. Because what can truly be said has been the achievement of thirty years of autonomy and of regional government?
I mentioned Marratxí before, because the opposition of that town to the 1931 draft statute has some echo today. President Bauzá, characterised as being against regionalism, is the former mayor of Marratxí. The charge that is levelled against him is that he would allow autonomy to wither in pursuing an unstated campaign against regionalism that lurks within the Partido Popular nationally. Even if the charge is accurate, it shouldn't be forgotten that the Zapatero administration had begun to question regionalism because of its cost.
Regional government was conceived as a way of keeping Spain together, but this had in mind the troublesome Catalans and Basques. Thirty years on, and where are we? Still faced with two troublesome regions. As for other regions, like the Balearics, which have no history of being troublesome, one has to ask whether regionalism has really been worth the trouble.
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
The granting of autonomy to the Balearics was one of the last of a series of legislative acts that created the Spanish regional governments in the late 1970s and early 1980s (the north African cities of Ceuta and Melilla were to follow some years later). The islands' autonomy, as with regional autonomy in most other parts of Spain, hadn't initially been envisaged when the post-Franco Constitution was drawn up. Those regions with historical claims to some form of self-government - Catalonia, the Basque Country and Galicia - were the focus of the move to this devolution. Once the Andalusians started pressing their claims as well, the impetus began by which all the regions were to become autonomous.
1983 was, in a way, the final move in a process that had started 52 years before. A statute had been drafted in 1931 in line with a desire of the government of the Second Republic to bring about regional autonomy. This statute was never effected. Apart from the obvious intervention of war, there were any number of factional differences that made it nigh on impossible in arriving at genuine agreement. One of the biggest differences of opinion was between the Mallorcans and the Menorcans. The latter were wary of Mallorcan "centralism" and were also more of a mind to join in with a Catalonian statute of autonomy.
Though the draft statute was approved, even if it was never implemented, it is instructive to see that in 1931 there was the opposition that there was. The Ibizans were reluctant supporters of autonomy, while several municipalities in Mallorca were against it. These included Marratxí.
While there were, naturally enough, celebrations in 1983, they obscured underlying divisions, ones that hadn't essentially changed since the 1930s. Thirty years on, they are still observable. The journalist Chema Ferrer is one who has highlighted these divisions. Ahead of this year's Balearics Day, he suggested that rather than there being a fiesta, it would be better if there were a wake and that the statute of autonomy was buried like the sardine is traditionally buried at Carnival time. He questions the very notion of a Balearic identity and condemns a recent political slogan - "four islands, one land, no border" - as being a fallacy. The Menorcan writer, Ponç Pons, is another who takes issue. He has changed the slogan to "four islands, four worlds".
Thirty years of autonomy have not removed pockets of resentment in the smaller islands of the Balearics. This is a resentment of Mallorcan supremacy and what are considered to be the advantages that Mallorca has and receives. The people of the four islands, surveys tell us, identify far less with the Balearics than with their respective islands, and this sentiment is stronger in Menorca, Ibiza and Formentera than it is in Mallorca.
The Balearics as a region is something of a contrivance, a geo-political convenience. While intuitively I favour regionalism and while I have repeatedly questioned the purpose of island councils, such as the Council of Mallorca, I can see there is more sense to these councils, which did after all pre-date regional government, than there is to a regional government. Because what can truly be said has been the achievement of thirty years of autonomy and of regional government?
I mentioned Marratxí before, because the opposition of that town to the 1931 draft statute has some echo today. President Bauzá, characterised as being against regionalism, is the former mayor of Marratxí. The charge that is levelled against him is that he would allow autonomy to wither in pursuing an unstated campaign against regionalism that lurks within the Partido Popular nationally. Even if the charge is accurate, it shouldn't be forgotten that the Zapatero administration had begun to question regionalism because of its cost.
Regional government was conceived as a way of keeping Spain together, but this had in mind the troublesome Catalans and Basques. Thirty years on, and where are we? Still faced with two troublesome regions. As for other regions, like the Balearics, which have no history of being troublesome, one has to ask whether regionalism has really been worth the trouble.
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
Sunday, February 27, 2011
Picnic At Hanging Rock: Balearics Day celebrations
Tuesday will be a public holiday in the Balearics. 1 March is Balearics Day. It commemorates the establishment of regional autonomy in the islands. In gestures symbolic of what many decry as a lack of urgency and a propensity for inertia in the Balearics, everywhere will be shut. Oh come on, be fair, there hasn't been a public holiday for a few weeks, and it's ages until Easter.
Official autonomy is 28 years old, 28 years of a degree of self-government which the Balearics enjoy, along with the other 16 regions of Spain and the African enclaves of Ceuta and Melilla. The autonomy of the regions has given Spain arguably the most decentralised system of government in Europe. It is one that was created as a buffer to both separatism and extreme-right centralism. This may have been the idealistic theory, but it hasn't stopped either of these competing objectives being pursued. The granting of autonomy may also have been a means of making democracy ever more local, but it hasn't stopped the democratic process being undermined by the prevalence of corruption, and not only in the Balearics.
A year older, but not a year wiser. On Balearics Day 2010, President Antich's address included an apology for the corruption that was abroad in the islands, predominantly in Mallorca. He had sought a remedy, that of removing his party's coalition partners, the Unió Mallorquina party, from government. A year on, what can he say now? The UM is in political exile from government, but it continues to be cast as the most rotten of the apples in the far from ripely sweet barrel of Mallorca's politics. The latest scandal to rock the UM, the operation monikered "Picnic" by the anti-corruption forces, sours the celebrations of the Balearics Day anniversary, turns them into a picnic at the hanging rock for discredited politicians.
Antich has no need to apologise this year for the actions of the UM. It's not his party. Perhaps he should apologise for the corruption of the body politic as a whole, but contrition should be unnecessary. He, as much as innocent citizens who try to lead honest existences in the face of endemic dishonesty, is as much a victim of a societal malaise that allows the virus of corruption to insinuate itself into every organ of the Mallorcan body.
The UM is the most visible source of scandal, and it is also the most visible of the political organisations that autonomy spawned. It was born out of the drive to regionalism, having been formed in 1982, a year before autonomy. Its benign nationalism, mixed with a centrist, pro-business philosophy, seemed well-conceived. It still is, but it has been undone by the party having been exposed as ultimately self-serving. Its belief that a change in logo could distance itself from court hearings involving party grandees has been revealed as idiotic. It now contemplates a name change as a way of making it appear whiter than the black of envelopes stashed with cash of the past: a rose thorn by any other name.
If the responsibility for correct behaviour that was meant to come with autonomy has been hard to deliver, the buffers to the polarities of separatism and centralism have begun to come under pressure. Catalonian ambitions for independence and a more assertive Catalanism have impelled the nationalist parties of the UM and the PSM (Mallorcan socialists), together with other parties to the left, towards a clearer separatist agenda. Against this, there is the greater Spanishness of the right, one of the Partido Popular and the UPyD (Unión Progreso y Democracia), while into the mix, from different ends of the spectrum, have emerged a more militant and radicalised Catalanism as well as a far-right, neo-fascist centralism.
28 years of autonomy, and the regional organisation of government is under great discussion and strain, and not just within the Balearics. The Zapatero government has raised doubts about regionalism, not on political grounds per se but because of the cost. The Partido Popular, through both its current leader Mariano Rajoy and his predecessor José María Aznar, have made it more of a specifically political and constitutional issue, Aznar having gone so far as to suggest that the current system of autonomy is not viable. He has railed against what he calls regions' pretensions to become "micro-states".
It is against the background, therefore, of democracy-weakening corruption, of the tensions of state versus separatism and of national parties' doubts that Balearics Day takes place. The regional government has expected 40,000 people to participate in celebratory events from Friday until 1 March, and no doubt they will have. But celebrating what exactly? The Balearics region is something of an artifice as it is. Pride, identity reside more within the individual islands rather than with the archipelago. Yet there was, in 1983, pride in and passion for autonomy, an expression of a new model of political self-determination that had been considered in the years before the Civil War but which didn't come to pass. Pride has subsequently been diminished by misbehaviour; passion supplanted by a rising radicalism.
28 years of autonomy, and the cracks are there. They are the fissures, the gorges of the eroding rock of regionalism over which the threesome of the celebrators, the corrupt and the politicians clamber. In the story and film of the hanging rock, three disappeared. On Balearics Day, you wonder what might disappear. Whither autonomy?
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
Official autonomy is 28 years old, 28 years of a degree of self-government which the Balearics enjoy, along with the other 16 regions of Spain and the African enclaves of Ceuta and Melilla. The autonomy of the regions has given Spain arguably the most decentralised system of government in Europe. It is one that was created as a buffer to both separatism and extreme-right centralism. This may have been the idealistic theory, but it hasn't stopped either of these competing objectives being pursued. The granting of autonomy may also have been a means of making democracy ever more local, but it hasn't stopped the democratic process being undermined by the prevalence of corruption, and not only in the Balearics.
A year older, but not a year wiser. On Balearics Day 2010, President Antich's address included an apology for the corruption that was abroad in the islands, predominantly in Mallorca. He had sought a remedy, that of removing his party's coalition partners, the Unió Mallorquina party, from government. A year on, what can he say now? The UM is in political exile from government, but it continues to be cast as the most rotten of the apples in the far from ripely sweet barrel of Mallorca's politics. The latest scandal to rock the UM, the operation monikered "Picnic" by the anti-corruption forces, sours the celebrations of the Balearics Day anniversary, turns them into a picnic at the hanging rock for discredited politicians.
Antich has no need to apologise this year for the actions of the UM. It's not his party. Perhaps he should apologise for the corruption of the body politic as a whole, but contrition should be unnecessary. He, as much as innocent citizens who try to lead honest existences in the face of endemic dishonesty, is as much a victim of a societal malaise that allows the virus of corruption to insinuate itself into every organ of the Mallorcan body.
The UM is the most visible source of scandal, and it is also the most visible of the political organisations that autonomy spawned. It was born out of the drive to regionalism, having been formed in 1982, a year before autonomy. Its benign nationalism, mixed with a centrist, pro-business philosophy, seemed well-conceived. It still is, but it has been undone by the party having been exposed as ultimately self-serving. Its belief that a change in logo could distance itself from court hearings involving party grandees has been revealed as idiotic. It now contemplates a name change as a way of making it appear whiter than the black of envelopes stashed with cash of the past: a rose thorn by any other name.
If the responsibility for correct behaviour that was meant to come with autonomy has been hard to deliver, the buffers to the polarities of separatism and centralism have begun to come under pressure. Catalonian ambitions for independence and a more assertive Catalanism have impelled the nationalist parties of the UM and the PSM (Mallorcan socialists), together with other parties to the left, towards a clearer separatist agenda. Against this, there is the greater Spanishness of the right, one of the Partido Popular and the UPyD (Unión Progreso y Democracia), while into the mix, from different ends of the spectrum, have emerged a more militant and radicalised Catalanism as well as a far-right, neo-fascist centralism.
28 years of autonomy, and the regional organisation of government is under great discussion and strain, and not just within the Balearics. The Zapatero government has raised doubts about regionalism, not on political grounds per se but because of the cost. The Partido Popular, through both its current leader Mariano Rajoy and his predecessor José María Aznar, have made it more of a specifically political and constitutional issue, Aznar having gone so far as to suggest that the current system of autonomy is not viable. He has railed against what he calls regions' pretensions to become "micro-states".
It is against the background, therefore, of democracy-weakening corruption, of the tensions of state versus separatism and of national parties' doubts that Balearics Day takes place. The regional government has expected 40,000 people to participate in celebratory events from Friday until 1 March, and no doubt they will have. But celebrating what exactly? The Balearics region is something of an artifice as it is. Pride, identity reside more within the individual islands rather than with the archipelago. Yet there was, in 1983, pride in and passion for autonomy, an expression of a new model of political self-determination that had been considered in the years before the Civil War but which didn't come to pass. Pride has subsequently been diminished by misbehaviour; passion supplanted by a rising radicalism.
28 years of autonomy, and the cracks are there. They are the fissures, the gorges of the eroding rock of regionalism over which the threesome of the celebrators, the corrupt and the politicians clamber. In the story and film of the hanging rock, three disappeared. On Balearics Day, you wonder what might disappear. Whither autonomy?
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
Tuesday, March 02, 2010
The Scream: The anniversary of corruption in Mallorca
It was another holiday yesterday. For once, not a religious occasion, but a political one. Balearics Day, the twenty-seventh anniversary of the introduction of autonomous, regional government in the islands. How apt that a political celebration should be marked by the worst cases of political corruption that Mallorca has ever known - which is saying something. During the twenty-seven years, scandal has reared its head from time to time, but it has spent the past few weeks screaming and bellowing. Rather than dressing up in party frocks, the celebrations for Balearics Day should have witnessed Munchian mourning-black dresses, the scream of the latest political nightmare and anxiety, and hair shirts donned by discredited individuals from the political class. Henry II once did a good line in public humiliation following the murder of Thomas à Becket. No-one may have been betrayed or assassinated, but the entire system of democracy that regional autonomy was meant to have bestowed on Mallorca has been betrayed. And not for the first time. The question is whether it will be the last. You wouldn't count on it.
President Antich, in a speech to coincide with Balearics Day, has not engaged in public self-flagellation but he has offered his apologies to the people of the islands. He is resisting calls for an early election, preferring to appeal to other parties to come together. Minority rule and motions of no confidence may make this resistance futile, but the mechanics of government - and the constant harping on about the allegedly dysfunctional nature of coalition - are secondary gloss over the more fundamental issue of corruption, both within politics and within Mallorcan society. More than fretting over the electoral system, the corruption scandals should be informing a debate as to what brings them about. Balearics Day should be the focal point for what the past twenty-seven years have represented, as they have culminated in the current chaos.
Autonomous government brought with it responsibility, that of acting in accordance with democratic principles. But the revelations of the past months have suggested that this lesson has not been learned or, over the course of the past generation, has come to be forgotten. Autonomous government also brought with it the Unió Mallorquina, the party at the centre of most of the rumpuses. It was formed around the same time and in readiness for the first local elections in 1983. That it, a party designed to serve "nationalist" interests on the island, should have been exposed as one serving only its own interests is a deeply alarming condemnation of not just the wider political system but also the social system of networks and nepotism. There is a horrible sense in which "nationalist" is aligned with the self-preservation of the insular webs of family and favours. Which is not to single out the UM, far from it, but it is now symbolic of a sick system created by regionalisation that has politicised a societal preference for rule-bending. All power may well indeed corrupt, and inappropriate behaviour by politicians may indeed be taken as a signal to others in local society to misbehave, but I would argue that it is this society that begets the politics of the island, not the other way round. It has spawned Maria Munar, a figure of the UM from its inception, a Cruella de Vil who has kidnapped a doe-eyed and naïve democracy and bundled it into the back of an official limo, secreted inside a massive wedge of cash. Antich has been criticised for booting the UM out of the coalition. Booting out? He should have launched them into the far reaches of the universe. He was absolutely right to disassociate himself and the PSOE from them.
Balearics Day is the celebration of one of the most important elements of the post-Franco era, that of autonomous government. A generation on from the worthy intentions of autonomy and what does one have? A political party that can allegedly turn a ministry into its own bank. The celebration should inspire not a debate as to the technicalities of local government but soul-searching as to the intertwined mores of sectors of Mallorcan society and the political class. A generation on and one wonders what has been learned. Autonomous government was a clear statement of the rejection of Francoism. But let's not forget that Franco despised and mistrusted political parties. He did away with them, and The Scream lasted for decades.
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
President Antich, in a speech to coincide with Balearics Day, has not engaged in public self-flagellation but he has offered his apologies to the people of the islands. He is resisting calls for an early election, preferring to appeal to other parties to come together. Minority rule and motions of no confidence may make this resistance futile, but the mechanics of government - and the constant harping on about the allegedly dysfunctional nature of coalition - are secondary gloss over the more fundamental issue of corruption, both within politics and within Mallorcan society. More than fretting over the electoral system, the corruption scandals should be informing a debate as to what brings them about. Balearics Day should be the focal point for what the past twenty-seven years have represented, as they have culminated in the current chaos.
Autonomous government brought with it responsibility, that of acting in accordance with democratic principles. But the revelations of the past months have suggested that this lesson has not been learned or, over the course of the past generation, has come to be forgotten. Autonomous government also brought with it the Unió Mallorquina, the party at the centre of most of the rumpuses. It was formed around the same time and in readiness for the first local elections in 1983. That it, a party designed to serve "nationalist" interests on the island, should have been exposed as one serving only its own interests is a deeply alarming condemnation of not just the wider political system but also the social system of networks and nepotism. There is a horrible sense in which "nationalist" is aligned with the self-preservation of the insular webs of family and favours. Which is not to single out the UM, far from it, but it is now symbolic of a sick system created by regionalisation that has politicised a societal preference for rule-bending. All power may well indeed corrupt, and inappropriate behaviour by politicians may indeed be taken as a signal to others in local society to misbehave, but I would argue that it is this society that begets the politics of the island, not the other way round. It has spawned Maria Munar, a figure of the UM from its inception, a Cruella de Vil who has kidnapped a doe-eyed and naïve democracy and bundled it into the back of an official limo, secreted inside a massive wedge of cash. Antich has been criticised for booting the UM out of the coalition. Booting out? He should have launched them into the far reaches of the universe. He was absolutely right to disassociate himself and the PSOE from them.
Balearics Day is the celebration of one of the most important elements of the post-Franco era, that of autonomous government. A generation on from the worthy intentions of autonomy and what does one have? A political party that can allegedly turn a ministry into its own bank. The celebration should inspire not a debate as to the technicalities of local government but soul-searching as to the intertwined mores of sectors of Mallorcan society and the political class. A generation on and one wonders what has been learned. Autonomous government was a clear statement of the rejection of Francoism. But let's not forget that Franco despised and mistrusted political parties. He did away with them, and The Scream lasted for decades.
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
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