What Will Be: Rosa in the rough

Those of you with a modicum of understanding of the native will know that there are two main Spanish verbs "to be". The difference between "ser" and "estar" is basically one between permanence and temporariness. Consequently, you could say, were you a politician, "soy político" (or "política" if you happen to be female). You are always a politician; that's your job. But you could also say, were you a female member of the European Parliament, "estoy eurodiputada", as in you are now, at the moment, a member but won't always be. In the future, you will become something else, on a temporary basis. "Tú estarás" ... you will be (complete as applicable).

What does the future hold for European member of parliament Rosa Estarás? What will she be? Qué será, será? Or rather, qué estará, estará?

I admit to having Andy Gray moments when it comes to female politicos who get themselves into a spot of bother. That nice Cati Julve. How could she have become embroiled in something as decayed as a waste-collection scandal? Surely not. The same with Rosa Estarás. I mean, you expect blokes to be a bit dodgy, but women? What do they know about breaking the off-limits rules of what should or shouldn't be done in public life? Allegedly.

However, there is always golf to prove that a lady can go off-limits. Should be a man's game after all. Let a lady take to the fairway and she'll go out-of-bounds. Off-limits.

Plod have been ferreting around in the long grass of the rough and the out-of-bounds at Pula golf course in Son Servera. And what they have found, they allege, is that a whole bunch of Partido Popular politicos, chums of former president Jaume Matas, stayed at the golf course's hotel without paying a centimo. In Rosa's case, the police claim that she stayed at the hotel on 29 occasions over a four-year period; stays that equate to 28,000 euros.

Rosa, who succeeded Matas as leader of the PP and who handed over to José Ramón Bauzá, reckons that she paid for her stays. She also says that they were on account of a "strong friendship" with Pula's director. She might also claim that they were all just part of the normal course of government work. Maybe they were. But the impression is given that Pula was something of a holiday camp for the PP; Pula, the course where the Mallorca Classic was held and for which 17 million euros were paid by the PP-run government each year before the current PSOE administration put a stop to it.

You have to feel a bit of sympathy for Joe Ray (well, you would do were he more of a sympathetic character). Bauzá, making much of his desire to clean up the PP and not forward any candidates tarnished by hints of scandal, has to live with the constant revelations surrounding Matas's period in office. Now another one has come along, a ruddy great wooden driver of one that hammers a stake once again into the heart of his party.

There again, maybe too much can be made of Rosa's many vacations at Pula and those of other Matas confederates. All a bit of a jolly perhaps. It is hardly unknown for politicians to avail themselves of a spot of freeloading, if indeed this is what happened. Where is the line between friendship, legitimate governmental work and taking a freebie? This weekend just gone, much of Mallorca's political establishment decamped and went to Gràcia in Barcelona, where Sa Pobla's Sant Antoni spectacular was re-enacted. All a matter of Catalan comradeship or what exactly? Did they pay for their trips or were the trips paid for?

Also at the weekend, the lady mayor of Palma was in Geneva for the sixtieth anniversary of the Council of European Municipalities and Regions, whatever the hell this is, while the lady president of the Council of Mallorca was in Morocco for a meeting of the Euro-Mediterranean region (same what the hell question).

Just because they're women doesn't mean they can't be as good as men in enjoying the odd trip or two. Just as Rosa's being a woman doesn't mean she can't be as good as the blokes in enjoying some largesse, or some friendship, or some payments of her own, or some governmental work. What will be, will be. For now or for always.


Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.