Francina And Miss Bossy Boots

At the end of a hard day in parliament, does President Armengol take to the family terrace, pour a refreshing and long G&T and think to herself - what a bunch of Charlies I've been landed with?

Sweet and friendly Frankie wouldn't of course contemplate such unkind thoughts. She's too sweet and friendly to do so. But at some point she may have to turn sour and add a dash of Angostura bitters to the cocktail. Yes, she can rail against Rajoy from afar, though come over all sweetness and light in his presence - it's called diplomacy - but it's the ones nearer to home who will be bothering her. And none more so than the fire-breather of Podemos, Laura Camargo, the wearer of the trousers among the Podemistas. Alberto Spart Jarabo may be the principal agitprop face of Podemos, but behind the grey shirts of the Jarabo wardrobe (apart from a teachers' defending green t-shirt) there is the power dressing of Laura, the Mallorcan mother superior in the Church of Pablo Iglesias.

The schools have gone back with "normality" (insofar as Mallorca's schooling can ever be described as normal), but the "vuelta al parlament" was anything but normal. Frankie had returned, with her name tags neatly sown into the necks of her autumn collection, and then in stormed Miss Bossy Boots, insisting on having the peg nearest the door. You could see it just by the photos. Oh the body language. Party spokespeople trooped in one by one to speak with Francina. The contrast with Laura and the Partido Popular's Marga Prohens was telling. Marga can do all the shouty stuff in parliament, but there is more in common between her and Francina than between Francina and Laura, and Francina knows it. They are cut from similar political fashion catalogues. Not so Laura.

The new parliamentary term about to start and Laura was issuing the demands. Get rid of so-and-so as a senior official or we'll withdraw our support. This is how government works in the new age of politics. Podemos aren't actually in government, but they want to run it. Do as we say or we'll bring you down. "I made thee, and I can break thee." And when it came to parliament actually gathering, beforehand there were Podemistas in front of the building - green t-shirt to a man, woman, fierce beard in at least two cases, and Alberto Jarabo. A tirade was launched against the national government's education law. "Elitist, divisive, sexist, doctrinaire Catholicism, anti-democratic, centralised, mercantilist, class-oriented and contrary to the culture and languages of each region of Spain." By implication, because of the staunch defence of Mallorca's teachers demonstrated by the very wearing of the green t-shirts, the Podemistas were levelling much the same accusations against Francina, education minister March and PSOE. The government, of which they aren't formally a part, was not doing enough to stop the implementation of the national education law.

Strangely perhaps, David Abril of the Més Luddite wing and someone not unfamiliar with a green t-shirt himself came to the aid of Francina. Podemos, he said, are "equivocating". They are not a party of the government nor are they the opposition, while they have privileged mechanisms of control. They should join the government if they're that bothered was the tone of his message.

Sensing, correctly, that not all is sweet and friendly, the PP's temporary leader, Miquel Vidal, also came to Francina's side. He would like a meeting to discuss issues on which the PP and the government can agree, such as financing and indeed a new way forward for education, thus breaking definitively with the disastrous dogma of José Ramón Bauzá. Was this simply a suggestion of a new way of doing politics, a sweeter and friendlier way, or was it Vidal recognising that if (when) the government collapses in a heap, the PP might be needed in order to pick up the pieces? Francina and Marga looked so much happier together.