Street Fighting Men: Balearic independence

The new year in Mallorca coincides with the celebration of the conquest of the island by Jaume I in 1229. On 31 December of that year, Jaume took what was then called Madina Mayurqa (Palma, as it is better known). It is a hugely symbolic date, and it is why it has been hi-jacked in the name of independence and by the arguments of language and the relationship with the Spanish nation.

The night of 30 December has become an annual event in which different sides of the arguments turn up in Palma to celebrate the conquest and in order to trade insults. This year things turned nasty. A pensioner and two police officers were injured when violence flared. There had been an indication of things to come. The building in Palma that houses the offices of the Fundación Nacional Círculo Balear, an organisation that, among other things, protests against the "imposition" of Catalan, had been daubed with graffiti. The organisation is now but one calling for political condemnation of independence activists who, during the demonstration, attempted to burn the Spanish flag.

The Círculo Balear's offices were targeted because it had said that it would participate in this year's Jaume celebrations. This was a red rag to the bull of its opponents who took none too kindly to the foundation's claim that the celebrations were being "Catalanised" and to a further claim that there is a growth in "nationalist violence".

The Círculo Balear was probably right when it came to denouncing violence, as this is what it got. As to the Catalanisation, there is a slight illogic to the argument. Jaume, though not from Catalonia, was instrumental in the introduction and promotion of the Catalan language. A Catalanised Jaume celebration seems entirely reasonable. Otherwise, though, reason seemed to be chucked out the window, or at least chucked across a square together with chairs from a café.

The demonstrators, the pro-Catalanists that is, combined behind the slogan "som una nació" (we are a nation), by which they mean the Balearics. Their ranks were swelled by the usual suspects of the nationalist-inclined left of local politics and groups such as the Maulets, an independence- and revolutionary-minded organisation. Their cause, in 2010, had been fuelled by the Spanish Supreme Court's denial of Catalonian nationhood and the rumpus inspired by the language policy of the Partido Popular in the Balearics.

Does the call for Balearic independence have any real substance? In terms of popular support, you would have to think that it doesn't. The prevailing mindset in Mallorca is conservative. There was little evidence of support, other than political, for Catalonia when the Supreme Court made its decision back in the summer which made it clear that Catalonia could not be a "state".

Nevertheless, there does appear to be a growing radicalisation. It is one that the Círculo Balear has drawn attention to, and a target of its concerns is the Obra Cultural Balear. The OCB, says Círculo Balear, has received over four million euros in grants from regional and central government during the past three years. Grants, it claims, with which the OCB "gives cover to the violent".

The president of the OCB, in a recent interview, said that he believed a Balearic state would be something from which much could be gained, not least from keeping all the "riches" that accrue from tourism and from having its own voice within a group of independent Catalan states. He is probably right when he also says that politically there is a bias towards the notion of independence. Only two parties, the Partido Popular and the Unión Progreso y Democracia, would be dead against it.

But you come back to the question as to whether there is sympathy within the public at large. The OCB is now rolling out a new campaign to try and generate such sympathy. Entitled "Mallorca m'agrada" (I like Mallorca), this is intended to create a "collective self-esteem" in promoting elements of identity that characterise the Mallorcan people. It remains to be seen what impact this might have.

While the notion of a Balearic state as part of a group of Catalan states may not be an issue that excites that many Mallorcans, there is another matter which just might. And that is the whole question to do with language. This spring's local elections could see the Partido Popular coming into power under its leader José Ramón Bauzá, someone who has so far proved to be capable of dividing not just the general public but also his own party where it comes to the Catalan-Castilian debate.

What Bauzá might do is to turn back decades of linguistic policy. It is potentially highly dangerous in terms of what it would represent symbolically. It is this issue that has the power to give the OCB, the Jaume I demonstrators and the independence activists the ammunition they need. For this reason, the local elections in May could prove to be highly significant. What occurred on the night of 30 December might, just might, be a precursor of what else could occur.


Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.