We've Known Each Other For So Long

The coalition regional government of President Antich is to struggle on without changes to its composition and without an election. The make-up of the parties is for Antich and his fellow socialists to be content with, an election would have made little sense other than as a last resort if no accord could have been reached.

There are two issues at play, two issues which are tending to be confused. The editor of "The Bulletin", saying that coalition government doesn't work, cites the examples of the two tourism ministers who have lost their jobs over the past months as evidence of in-fighting. In Miquel Nadal's case, there was no in-fighting; he had to go because of the allegations made against him. The left-wing Bloc members of the coalition government may have said that they could not continue in coalition with Nadal's party - the Unió Mallorquina - but that is not in-fighting, that is the moral high ground. As it is, the Bloc has swallowed its morals and opted to stay in the coalition. Moreover, the previous tourism minister lost his job because he sacked, without authorisation, two aides who both happened to be members of his party. This was not in-fighting; he resigned because he had exceeded his ministerial responsibility. And while we're at, reporting is not always as it might be. It is being said that the tourism ministers have gone in the last 18 months; they haven't, Francesc Buils went at the end of September last year. But be this as it may.

The corruption allegations are a separate issue to that of how well or not coalition politics operates. The electoral system may not be all that it might be, but the electorate is not turned off by its inadequacy as much as it is by improper behaviour by officials it elects. The same might be said to apply in the UK where the expenses scandal, though not corruption, was evidence of a discredited political class. To somehow meld the current corruption in Mallorca with the nature of coalition politics and to form an argument against the political system based on such a melding is quite wrong. Indeed, coalition politics, because of the spread of power, might be said to act as more of buffer to corruption. That it does not, or has not, just proves the point; corruption and the political/electoral system are two distinct issues.

Dysfunctional politics in Mallorca, as is being played out at present because of the corruption cases, is a cultural issue, not a political one per se. What we are witnessing is the apparent pervasiveness of a system of favours and of nepotism, allied to personal greed and immorality. We are also witnessing what might be said to be a continuance of societal and cultural practice, admittedly within a political framework, that stretches back to the nineteenth century. The "cacique" system was corrupt, one based on favours, as was the Franco administration, during which the wealthy and powerful received any sort of favours, most notably non-payment of taxes, a factor that had also been evident under "caciquismo".

Coalition politics is not the automatic consequence of Mallorcan and Spanish politics. At national level, a majority government is the norm, albeit that some assistance is required from other parties. But it is the consequence of an attempt to institute a seemingly more democratic style of government. President Antich, in reaffirming the current coalition, says that anti-corruption measures are to be brought forward. We wait to see what these might be, but one begins to edge towards a conclusion that only some form of independent checks and balances can overcome underlying dishonesty. This might take the form of commissions, not from the island, that have to monitor contracts and other awards. The environment minister Grimalt, still in his post and denying any wrongdoing, may have inadvertently put his finger on the problem. He said the other day that "Mallorca is small and here we all know each other". He was saying this in the context of his own reputation, but one can interpret this differently. Because they all know each other, and have known each other for so long, and because the island is small, the conditions are perfect for favours and nepotism to flourish. It's all too cosy, too liable to allow impropriety to exist. The faults with Mallorcan politics lie not with coalition governments but with the island's culture and society.


QUIZ
Yesterday's title - Canned Heat, "Let's Work Together", http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gQddWwQLyeU. Today's title - this come from ... great, great; no really, I mean it.

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