Mick And The Illegal Refugees

The Banbury Boy, Mick of the Consell, has been receiving plaudits. Allow me if I may to quote from Joan Riera writing in "Ultima Hora". "Miquel Ensenyat is becoming a rising star within the Balearic left. In a few months he has achieved extraordinary success by uniting all the left that governs the island institution ... He is demonstrating empathy and leadership skills that might even create jealousy within his own party." Joan was thus issuing a warning while at the same time praising Mick for soaring above the "mediocrity that is the norm in a land like Mallorca". More than anything he has achieved what the mediocrity of the regional government has been unable to. At the Council of Mallorca there aren't the interminable squabbles that are the consequence of a PSOE-Més-Podemos ménage à trois.

It isn't perhaps all that surprising. Unlike for the government, when the negotiations were taking place to decide who should be president of the Council, there was an absence of posturing and thinly veiled threats. Mick emerged as the Més president in harmony with his vice-presidents, Francesc Miralles (PSOE) and Jesús Jurado of Podemos. Consensus and dialogue may not extend as far as the Partido Popular, as one its spokespeople said last week, but when it comes to the comrades Mick is all ears.

It was all the more unfortunate, therefore, that this ringing endorsement of Mick's ability to govern in alliance with something that doesn't resemble a primary school playground should run up against dark forces of the German right-wing. Mick will now be issuing instructions that someone takes a good look at Google before attending symposia on the progressive development of international law with certain Germans.

What happened, you see, was that the week before last there was a symposium on this subject that took place in Palma. There was a nice photo of participants which showed Mick next to a dapper chap dressed all in black. Which might seem rather appropriate. He was Karl Albrecht Schachtschneider. Among other things, Karl Albrecht is an expert on "secessionist processes", which in good Mallorcan left-wing nationalist terms - which Mick is - means the likes of Catalonia becoming independent. However, Karl Albrecht has also associated himself with the likes of the AfD, Alternative für Deutschland. If you are unaware of what it stands for, then Karl Albrecht's views on immigration might provide a clue. He said recently that refugees have no right to enter Germany. They are illegals.

Apart from inadvertently having found himself photographed next to a voice that edges to the far of the German right-wing, Mick was also next to someone whose views on refugees are totally opposed to those of Mick, who has of course been needing to explain why he went to Chios on a fact-finding mission as part of the process of handing over Council aid for refugees.

When this all came to light last week, there were mutterings of it having been a "desastre" for Mick. Some of the jealous ones might well have been pleased.

Oh well, even the most empathetic of leaders can have their off days. Put it down to experience.