The Oligarchs Of Mallorca

Dave Spart isn't happy. The oligarchic caste has upset him. Not any Russians, just a descendant of the Mallorcan nobility or hidalgo class. The one who has incurred Dave's wrath is one Juan Gual de Torrella. He's the new president of the Balearic Ports Authority. Dave's been mostly happy with what the new Balearic Government has been up to - getting rid of trilingual teaching and what have you - but he is not going to let President Armengol overlook the fact that lurking behind her sweetness and friendliness is the Mallorcan member of the Spartist dynasty, prepared at any moment to harangue her with the dialectic of Pablo Iglesias: Dave is Alberto Jarabo, leader of Podemos in the Balearics, and Dave, though you really should know this, is also the decades-old, comedy left-wing agitator from the pages of "Private Eye".

The Spartist dynasty takes unkindly to hidalgic dynasties such as the one to which Juan Gual de Torrella belongs, and it's all, as you will doubtless guess, the fault of that old conquering sort from Aragon, Jaume I. The oligarchic caste was cast in the stone of Mallorca's dry-stone ways almost 800 years ago. It came, intent not so much on kicking the Muslims out for purely religious reasons but more so in order to control the Mediterranean: Mallorca, it was thought, would be the base for Aragon-Catalan power. As things turned out, Mallorca wasn't to prove to be all that important, but the oligarchs nevertheless had the island carved up and established a cliquish power base that was to endure for centuries.

Among their number were the Torrellas: well, one anyway. He was Ramón de Torrella and he secured for himself a pretty important position. Ten years after Jaume's conquest, Ramón was ordained as the first bishop of Mallorca. It didn't get much better for a mediaeval oligarch making his way in newly acquired land than to also have the ear of the Lord. Ramón's buried next to the Corpus Christi chapel at Palma Cathedral, and though he wasn't to know it, the Torrellas were to be responsible for a pope, and what a pope he was. Though born Roderic Llançol de Borja, Pope Alexander VI was from the Torrella dynasty, a part of which had headed back from Mallorca to mainland Crown of Aragon - Valencia to be precise. Alexander's principal claim to fame, apart from the illegitimate children he somewhat naughtily fathered, lay with the Borja name. In the Italian of the time, this became Borgia. Alexander's time as a pope was characterised by what Borgia came to stand for: nepotism, among other things.

The Borgias didn't necessarily have a great deal to do with Mallorca, albeit there were marriages - when they weren't poisoning one another or committing incest - that involved the odd member of the Aragon clan. Nevertheless, they were a part of the story that began with Bishop Ramón and which has run ever since: a story often characterised by the system of nepotism that they mastered.

There is no question that the descendants of Ramón de Torrella and others from the original Mallorcan noble class flourished and thrived thanks to nepotism and formed a culture which democratic society is only now attempting to tackle. Podemos don't like nepotism, and nor should they. But Juan Gual de Torrella hasn't been made president of the ports authority because of nepotism. He has got the job because he's eminently qualified for it. Nonetheless, Podemos sniff the culture of the oligarchs of yore; hence, the oligarchic caste accusation.

It is an accusation made for no other reason than Gual de Torrella's lineage. It is a weak jibe, as the noble, hidalgo class simply doesn't exert the power it once did. There are plenty of members of these old families knocking around but their influence is not as it was. Indeed, the wealth base of many is not as it was. Another member of the Gual de Torrella family, Margarita Gual de Torrella i Massanet, has said that "for hundreds of years, we (the family) lived in absolute splendour": lived, not live.

Podemos are right to challenge cultures of power, favouritism, nepotism, but they need to be careful and not make themselves appear vindictive. The only justification they have for opposing Gual de Torrella's appointment is the name. It's hardly an argument.

I have a reason, other than Podemos's discontent, to be interested in that name. I live on Gual de Torrella land. Or what was Gual de Torrella land. In 1933, when the Republicans were eyeing up land owned by the aristocracy, they listed this land for expropriation. Over 5000 acres of it. Albufera in Alcudia. It was the property of Joaquín Gual de Torrella. Dave Spart might now be happy to see what they did with it. Tourism for the masses. Not for the oligarchic caste.