Which Is The Bolshiest (Town) Of Them All?

Mirror, mirror on the wall, which is the bolshiest town in Mallorca of them all? Which town is the Queen who demands of her magical mirror the appropriate answer of you are the bolshiest of them all?

I can't vouch for every single town in Mallorca. In fact, I can vouch for very few of them. But in the league table of municipal bolshiness, contenders occasionally emerge from towns such as Sóller when the beach isn't ready or from Capdepera (for the same reason). Only occasionally though. There really are only three that matter, the three being the Man City, Man United and Arsenal of Mallorcan bolshiness: Pollensa, Manacor and Santa Margalida. And when the Queen that is Pollensa speaks to the magical mirror, it is Pollensa which is the bolshiest of them all.

Not a single day passes in Pollensa without some manifestation of this bolshiness, most of it directed at the town hall. One of these days, the mirror may upset the Queen of Pollensa and declare that the Snow White of Manacor or Santa Margalida is the bolshiest of them all, but for now the Pollensa Queen can be assured of the mirror's response.

On the same day, i.e. today, there is not one but two fine examples of the Pollensa bolshy art. The left in the town has joined forces to form a platform. Not a stage platform, but a bolshy platform. One might be inclined to suggest that there is some aptness therefore to the bolshy claim to fame over and above just merely being bolshy; a Bolshevik style revolution is underway in Pollensa.

Well, not really. It is the usual suspects of Pollensa's left combining with some organisation known as the union of students of the Catalan lands to be generally bolshy. Whatever gripe there is in Pollensa at present, it is on the platform.

Primarily, one imagines, this has all come about because of the fines that have been doled out to the protesters who took unkindly to El Presidente Bauzá's visit a few weeks back; fines which have included one for a leading representative of one part of the platform, the Mallorcan socialists. This may have been what has triggered off the formation of the platform, but into the mix has gone pretty much anything else you care to mention - health, education, terraces; the weather is probably also on the list. 

And what will this platform be doing? Its first manifestation will be a manifestation, as in the Spanish meaning of manifestación, i.e. a demo. The target? The Partido Popular, the target for growing levels of bolshiness anywhere that isn't the arrogant, superior Palma or the country-club set of Calvià. The PP's name is basically mud in the regional municipalities. 

The reason for Pollensa having assumed its clear lead in the island's bolshiness league isn't that difficult to figure out. It is largely a legacy of the last, disastrous administration, but the new one is hardly proving to be an awful lot better; or at least this is how the bolshy tendency would have it. Furthermore, there are that many political groupings, all vying to demonstrate their bolshy credentials that you have the situation that now obtains. Bolshy has gone ballistic.

The other example of today's bolshiness relates to the town hall's Facebook page. It is accused of being a form of one-way communication that doesn't therefore invite interaction and isn't therefore in tune with a demand for greater participation. The only Facebook page for the town hall that I can find doesn't actually have anything on it, so quite what the complaint is referring to I'm unsure. But the fact is that were the town hall to open up its Facebook page to all and sundry, you know full well what would happen. Bolshy would go ballistic on Facebook as well. Indeed, I know why the town hall isn't opening up in the way that has been called for. It is worried about the control that it would have over a Facebook page, and it has every good reason to be so.

Being held to account is fair enough, and it is a failure to be held to account that lies behind Pollensa's bolshiness. In this respect, it contrasts with Manacor, where they just can't stand Bauzá, or Santa Margalida (ditto, but also the political parties can't stand each other). However, and despite contemporary means of communication, there surely has to be some control. If not, then bolshiness will prevail, and ultimately, such bolshiness would be not far short of anarchy. Just ask Trotsky.


Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.