The Imploding Partido Popular

In the end he didn't wait to have his fate decided for him by Partido Popular head office. Tomeu Cifre, threatened with being removed as mayoral candidate in Pollensa because of legal cases hanging over him, got his retaliation in first and announced that he would be forming a separate political entity that will fight for election in May.

Though he hasn't handed in his PP card, Cifre made it clear that he could no longer support the PP of José Ramón Bauzá, who he accused of "authoritarianism" and of "losing people along the way". He was referring to issues such as language policy, with which he has disagreed. The PP needed to change course, he suggested.

His first step is to ensure that he has sufficient support to enable him to establish his new political group, though there has been talk of him allying himself with the UNPI (Unió Pollencina Independent party), which is undergoing something of a revival. Whatever now emerges, he has the support of three of the four other PP councillors. David Alonso is the only one who has stayed loyal to the PP.

While Cifre has had his disagreements with Bauzá, the threat of not being allowed to re-stand as mayor does appear to have precipitated his decision. But if this is the case, why did he appear all chummy with Bauzá when his selection as mayoral candidate was made some weeks ago? Never underestimate the stage management of the smiles and the pats on the back or the propensity for political hypocrisy.

Being under threat of not being able to stand as a candidate or having had that threat carried out has caused chaos in parts of Mallorca. The Bauzá PP ethical code, one not supported by Mariano Rajoy, whereby a candidate who is "imputado", i.e. under investigation but not charged, has led to the mayors of Alaró and Vilafranca stepping down and forming their own parties.

The code, part of Bauzá's drive to clean up the PP in Mallorca, has been criticised because being "imputado" does not automatically mean that wrongdoing has been done or will lead to the courts. Many is the example of an "imputado" later having his or her case dropped. But unfairness of the code is being used to voice discontent with Bauzá when it should be his policies that drive mayors to form their own political entities. Herein is the hypocrisy.

In one municipality, Costitx, this has been the case. The PP there have simply had enough of Bauzá, and it is a sentiment that is widespread across Mallorca. Had the PP taken the bold step and replaced Bauzá, it might now be expecting to fare better in the elections in May. But it didn't take this step.

To come back to Pollensa, at a time when most of the left in Pollensa have come together to form one group for electoral purposes, it is the right which is now fragmenting, and so, as ever, there will be an abundance (too great an abundance) of parties, a point I have made repeatedly in identifying Pollensa as a town which is different from others in its sheer dysfunctionality and one which, interestingly, the Alternativa per Pollença has also now alluded to.