Not Flying The Flag

(Which is the Balearic and which is the Mallorcan flag?)

Flags do have the power to cause controversy. In the recent past there have been incidents at the Son Real finca near Can Picafort where the national flag was raised and then taken down again by local militants, in the Ses Casetes enclave in Playa de Muro where a Francoist flag was flown, and in any number of towns on Mallorca where the Aragon-Catalan flag has been raised outside public buildings. Now, the Balearic Government is planning on legislating. Hanging a "senyera" Catalan flag outside these public buildings will be made illegal and subject to a hefty fine, and the use of the Balearic flag by political groups and other associations will also be outlawed.

Flags do have a tendency to be used for not entirely honourable purposes. A few years ago there was an attempt in the UK to, as it were, reclaim the Union Flag because of its association with far-right groups. Different flags in Mallorca (well, variants on the one senyera theme) have similarly been hijacked by different political groups, though not necessarily in either a dishonourable or an extremist fashion.

The government is putting an end to the hanging of the senyera outside schools and other buildings in order, it says, to guarantee "impartiality", to prevent its display as a means of expressing "personal ideologies" and to also stop any confusion among members of the public. Quite what the general public would be confused about I am unsure, but the government is keen for it to not be, hence no senyera in the future.

This is not an attempt to limit freedom of expression, says the government, simply a way of showing neutrality. At least one union, the STEI teachers' union, disagrees. The new law will harm freedom of expression and will mark a return to Francoist times, the union argues. There again, as has been remarked by some (not least a notable letter-writer to "The Bulletin"), the teaching profession in Mallorca is dominated by leftie types, typically sympathetic to Catalan.

The flying of the senyera has been an act of protest against the government's language policy and against its indifference towards regionalism, and it has been a protest mainly of the left. However, the variants of the senyera have been adopted by forces on the right. The government, though it is being criticised roundly for its new law, is being even-handed in this respect. Notable adopters of the Balearic flag (or is it the Mallorcan flag) have included the right-wing anti-Catalanist Círculo Balear and the Balearics Family Policy Institute, a body that is not exactly left-wing either. 

The Balearic and Mallorcan flags are both based on the senyera. The two flags are slightly different but they share the common theme of the original Aragonese flag. If the government wanted to do something about stopping the flying of the senyera, it had to be seen to be fair, and so the different versions are to all be subject to legal restraint. The suspicion is, though, that it is the banning of the flying of the senyera that is the real motivation behind the law in that it will remove a physical symbol of defiance to the government and a symbol that has become increasingly embarrassing to a government that has failed utterly in reintroducing Castellano as the principal language of instruction into local schools.

The government has made an unnecessary rod for its own back with its attitudes towards matters Catalan. It certainly hasn't gained popularity or support, as can be seen from the rejection of Castellano by parents, because of its policies. It insists, though, in adding to the weight of that rod and in adding to disenchantment among members of the public who might otherwise support it by introducing a law that is, in some respects, rather vindictive. It is vindictive because it hasn't won the argument on language and hasn't come anywhere near winning it.

The justification for the senyera ban makes sense in that there should be neutrality, but unfortunately, this is not how some will perceive it. Far from being neutral, the ban will be seen as discriminatory, one forced by a government and political party that has its own ideology and posture.

The whole argument over the flags might seem a bit potty, but it isn't. Flags, be they the senyera or Balearic variants or the Spanish national flag, are personal. They represent identity and nationhood (or quasi-nationhood). The government might just have been wise to have left well alone.


Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.