Have You Got A Moment?

I recall that when Francina Armengol was given the keys to the presidential suite at the Council of Mallorca in 2007, she was going to usher in a new way of doing things. Her door, she said, would always be open, by which she didn't mean that the general public could just wander in off the street and have a good old nosey around. Rather, Francina was all for doing things differently; she was an open and communicative president and not the one from whom she had taken over (now residing at his majesty's pleasure). Eight years later, we find Francina in pole position (if not actually first in the polls) to become Bauzá's successor, and so she has been reflecting on ... the need for a new way of doing things. These new ways come in eight-year cycles, it would appear. "Another way of doing politics is possible," she informed a gathering of PSOE-ites in Valencia. "Through dialogue rather than imposition." "Through participation and ..." At this point, lights will have gone on in the minds of the fellow PSOE-ites. Participation. Now, where have we been hearing about this?

Suddenly, everyone's talking about participation, and they have to thank (and/or fear) Pablo Iglesias for doing so. Yes, there is a new and participative way of doing things, and someone had beaten Francina to the idea by several months. Her version, whatever it might in fact be, is political catch-up blended with ample dollops of opportunism. What are Podemos good at? Participation. Right, we'll have some of that for ourselves. And, blow me, only a few days later, PSOE in Calvia were unveiling their own participative re-invention. Under the slogan - "have you got a moment" - they've come up with a mobile app through which residents can answer three questions, such as "what is it that most concerns you about Calvia?" A multiple choice gives various options for answering - corruption, safety, taxes, tourism, etc. More than this, they are planning on having "participative budgets", so that the folk of Calvia can decide where money goes for certain things.

This isn't as revolutionary as it might sound, as they already do this in little old Algaida, where the council is PSOE-controlled and which is the home town of Francina's predecessor as leader of PSOE, her good chum and former president of the Balearics, Francesc Antich. So, it's been Algaida which has been the source of inspiration for Francina; has it? Possibly, but new ways of doing things haven't simply shifted towards citizen decisions as to how 300 grand are spent; new ways have emerged because things have been turned on their head. And Francina knows full well by whom and why she has to get the participation craze as well. As Little Eva might have sung (but didn't): "Everybody's doing a brand new political dance now. Come on, baby, do The Participation".