Mallorca's politics are rarely dull and they are so because, for a place as small as Mallorca is, its politics are disproportionately large, the consequence of so many parties, factions, self-interests and not infrequent silliness. These politics have been given a new shot in the arm by the announcement that one of the more interesting political figures on the island, Antoni Pastor, has joined the El Pi party.
Pastor, you might need reminding, is the mayor of Manacor. He is a former member of the Partido Popular who was excommunicated by the PP papacy for daring to disagree with the party's orthodoxies, primarily those to do with less than positive attitudes towards Catalan and the concept of regionalism, i.e. autonomous regional government. El Pi is the party formed from the johnny-come-latelys of Mallorca's politics, La Lliga (in existence for only a year or so prior to its merger) and the Convergència, the renamed, the rebranded, the remade former Unió Mallorquina (UM), the source of so much corruption head shaking.
El Pi's lords and masters are Jaume Font, like Pastor a former member of the PP and also like Pastor not exactly a great friend of the Balearics president, José Ramón Bauzá, and Josep Melià, who became leader of the old UM during its last, painful dying days, mainly because there wasn't anyone left or anyone who wasn't facing a rap and an appointment with m'lud. To these lords and masters must now be added the name of Pastor. Together they are a troika of political alternativism, albeit an alternativism that is inherently conservative in a Mallorcan style.
This conservatism has compelled the troika to make clear that, despite the presence within its midst of two prominent ex-PPites, El Pi is not some spin-off from the PP. It differs in its attitudes towards regionalism and Catalan. It supports both, and the PP doesn't, or doesn't appear to.
Pastor's teaming up with Font and Melià is not a complete surprise. In terms of the regionalist and Catalanist philosophies, it makes sense. In the political wilderness and due to remain there during his four years of expulsion until after the next regional elections, Pastor had nowhere to go if he wanted to really make his voice heard on the tiny Mallorcan political stage, crammed to overflowing with politics and politicians.
Joining El Pi is not a statement of personal ambition, says Pastor. All he is doing is joining, even if he is to be a vice-president of the party (Font is its president) and even if he might, though this is being denied, be being lined up as a candidate for the Balearics presidency in 2015. There is surely some ambition.
With all the travails that President Bauzá is currently enduring, those that might find him having to resign because of the alleged incompatibility between his business affairs and his position, the post of leader of the PP may well come up in the not too distant future. It had occurred to me that Pastor might just be recalled from the wilderness to fill that post. Though of different opinions to Bauzá on regionalism and Catalan, Pastor's opinions would tend to be those shared by a majority of Mallorcans. They are opinions of a conservatism that has existed since autonomy in 1983; they are ones that the PP used to hold and are ones that its veteran members still do hold.
It will not happen now, but Pastor as PP leader would, in my opinion, have given the PP a serious boost at the next elections. At present, it cannot guarantee that it will do as well as in 2011. It may even lose, though with the main PSOE opposition as toothless and leaderless as it is, this would be hard to imagine. With Pastor, it would have provided a more sympathetic face. That chance has now gone.
My guess would be that Pastor will be a presidential candidate. He is charismatic without being populist. His opposition to Bauzá has done him no harm. Quite the contrary. He has become something of a folk hero. The PP would of course diss him for having attempted to undermine Bauzá and for having been a traitor, but I doubt many would buy this. His problem though, and it is the problem for El Pi full stop, is that the "alternative" in Mallorcan politics has never been king but only ever kingmaker. The UM was the perpetual group of Nick Cleggs, forever the makeweights in coalition. A similar role would probably await Pastor and El Pi. An alternative it may be, but it is only an alternative of conservatism.
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
Showing posts with label Antoni Pastor. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Antoni Pastor. Show all posts
Saturday, March 16, 2013
Sunday, December 16, 2012
Culture Nights, Culture Years: The OCB
It may not have been 31 December on Friday, but this didn't stop there being an awards ceremony in honour of 31 December. And why would there be an awards ceremony to honour this date? Because 31 December, unofficially, is Mallorca day (note the lower-case "d" as a result of it being unofficial).
As anyone with a smattering of Mallorcan history can tell you, 31 December was the day in 1229 when King Jaume I invaded (didn't re-conquer; invaded and then occupied). The Jaume invasion introduced Catalan to the island of course, and the rest has been history; one very complicated history ever since.
733 years after Jaume invaded, on 31 December 1962, an organisation was formed. Oddly perhaps, given the times they lived in then, this was the Obra Cultural Balear, arch-defenders in Mallorca of all things Catalan. It is the OCB which was dishing out the awards on Friday. It does so every year, but this, being its 50th anniversary, meant there was more to make a song and dance about (a dance that was probably in good, traditional Mallorcan "ball de bot" style).
In fact, the 50th anniversary has been given special meaning, as 2012 has been a very good year for the OCB. Because there has been so much anti-Catalan stuff flying around, it has been able to assume new purpose, kicking up a fuss left, right and centre (mainly left though), the devil of the Partido Popular attempting to play havoc with the demons of tradition and the language and culture of the island.
For its ceremony, the OCB chose Manacor. And why Manacor? Ostensibly, because 2012 is also the 150th anniversary of the birth of a famous son of the town, Antoni Maria Alcover, man of words and ideas, man of story-telling (mostly in Catalan). The choice of Manacor was fortuitous, however, as the town is the centre of opposition to the PP that has come from within the PP, or rather from those now no longer members of the PP, as they have been expelled. And they include Manacor's mayor, Antoni Pastor.
The ceremony, also known as the night of culture, was, as the OCB spelled out, an occasion that demonstrated a "clamour for the rights and linguistic identities of Mallorcans". On 6 January, the whole thing will be broadcast by Catalonia Television, thus extending fraternal Catalan cultural greetings across the water to the mainland and reinforcing, the OCB would believe, as it believes also in the rights of the mythical Catalan Lands, the fraternity of Catalan culture. The gala was offered to the Mallorcan channel IB3, but it seems that the offer was turned down. From what I understand, groups like the OCB and its environmental chums, GOB, are pretty much verboten by IB3 (all to do with impartial editorial direction, determined by a PP plant).
But what of this grand gala, this night of culture? Who got the awards? Well, if I were to reel them off, you wouldn't have a clue who I was referring to, and to be honest, I hadn't heard of most of them myself. One whose name is familiar, and is familiar to this blog, was Francesc Vicens. You might recall that he is the musicologist who has written, among other things, a book about pop music in Mallorca. The book's title is "Paradise of Love", and I wrote about this recently (http://alcudiapollensa.blogspot.com.es/2012/09/los-kinks-mallorca-and-sixties-pop.html).
As for the others, there were groups who defend Catalan in education, one of which helped to organise a day of protest recently, an actor called Antoni Gomila (from Manacor) who referred to the theatre as being the "backbone" for the expression and consolidation of Catalan language and culture, and a band from Valencia called Obrint Pas that mixes punk, ska and rock, all with a clear Catalan flavour.
So, there you are. What an evening of culture it must have been. And onlooking was Pastor, there with other former PP members of the town hall who await any further childish reprisals from the PP for having had the temerity to disagree with the party line. The auditorium in Manacor was packed. Whether one can read much into the attendance is hard to say, but the night of culture, it could be argued, demonstrates the serious divisions in Mallorcan society, ones created by the assault on Catalan. But how serious really are they? It suits the OCB to emphasise them, but then the OCB has its belief in the Catalan Lands and so therefore, and ultimately, some sort of independent Greater Catalonia. This is not something that has wide support in Mallorca. Indeed, it has very little popular support, and among politicians formerly of the "popular" party, I very much doubt that Pastor supports the idea either.
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
As anyone with a smattering of Mallorcan history can tell you, 31 December was the day in 1229 when King Jaume I invaded (didn't re-conquer; invaded and then occupied). The Jaume invasion introduced Catalan to the island of course, and the rest has been history; one very complicated history ever since.
733 years after Jaume invaded, on 31 December 1962, an organisation was formed. Oddly perhaps, given the times they lived in then, this was the Obra Cultural Balear, arch-defenders in Mallorca of all things Catalan. It is the OCB which was dishing out the awards on Friday. It does so every year, but this, being its 50th anniversary, meant there was more to make a song and dance about (a dance that was probably in good, traditional Mallorcan "ball de bot" style).
In fact, the 50th anniversary has been given special meaning, as 2012 has been a very good year for the OCB. Because there has been so much anti-Catalan stuff flying around, it has been able to assume new purpose, kicking up a fuss left, right and centre (mainly left though), the devil of the Partido Popular attempting to play havoc with the demons of tradition and the language and culture of the island.
For its ceremony, the OCB chose Manacor. And why Manacor? Ostensibly, because 2012 is also the 150th anniversary of the birth of a famous son of the town, Antoni Maria Alcover, man of words and ideas, man of story-telling (mostly in Catalan). The choice of Manacor was fortuitous, however, as the town is the centre of opposition to the PP that has come from within the PP, or rather from those now no longer members of the PP, as they have been expelled. And they include Manacor's mayor, Antoni Pastor.
The ceremony, also known as the night of culture, was, as the OCB spelled out, an occasion that demonstrated a "clamour for the rights and linguistic identities of Mallorcans". On 6 January, the whole thing will be broadcast by Catalonia Television, thus extending fraternal Catalan cultural greetings across the water to the mainland and reinforcing, the OCB would believe, as it believes also in the rights of the mythical Catalan Lands, the fraternity of Catalan culture. The gala was offered to the Mallorcan channel IB3, but it seems that the offer was turned down. From what I understand, groups like the OCB and its environmental chums, GOB, are pretty much verboten by IB3 (all to do with impartial editorial direction, determined by a PP plant).
But what of this grand gala, this night of culture? Who got the awards? Well, if I were to reel them off, you wouldn't have a clue who I was referring to, and to be honest, I hadn't heard of most of them myself. One whose name is familiar, and is familiar to this blog, was Francesc Vicens. You might recall that he is the musicologist who has written, among other things, a book about pop music in Mallorca. The book's title is "Paradise of Love", and I wrote about this recently (http://alcudiapollensa.blogspot.com.es/2012/09/los-kinks-mallorca-and-sixties-pop.html).
As for the others, there were groups who defend Catalan in education, one of which helped to organise a day of protest recently, an actor called Antoni Gomila (from Manacor) who referred to the theatre as being the "backbone" for the expression and consolidation of Catalan language and culture, and a band from Valencia called Obrint Pas that mixes punk, ska and rock, all with a clear Catalan flavour.
So, there you are. What an evening of culture it must have been. And onlooking was Pastor, there with other former PP members of the town hall who await any further childish reprisals from the PP for having had the temerity to disagree with the party line. The auditorium in Manacor was packed. Whether one can read much into the attendance is hard to say, but the night of culture, it could be argued, demonstrates the serious divisions in Mallorcan society, ones created by the assault on Catalan. But how serious really are they? It suits the OCB to emphasise them, but then the OCB has its belief in the Catalan Lands and so therefore, and ultimately, some sort of independent Greater Catalonia. This is not something that has wide support in Mallorca. Indeed, it has very little popular support, and among politicians formerly of the "popular" party, I very much doubt that Pastor supports the idea either.
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
Wednesday, August 22, 2012
MALLORCA TODAY - Pastor invited to Santa Margalida La Beata
Santa Margalida town hall has invited Antoni Pastor, the mayor of Manacor, to attend the La Beata procession next month. This is highly symbolic as President Bauzá has been invited only on the understanding that his visit does not bring with it huge security measures (which it almost certainly would) and as Pastor, now officially expelled from the Partido Popular, is considered a great defender of Catalan, having gone against the Bauzá and party line on the language issue.
See more: Ultima Hora
See more: Ultima Hora
Friday, June 15, 2012
The Soul Of Mallorca: Catalan
To no one's surprise, Antoni Pastor voted against the Balearic Government's changes to the language law which will remove the pre-requisite of speaking Catalan for employment in the public sector. To no one's further surprise, he now finds himself suspended from the Partido Popular and may find himself expelled from the party.
Towing the party line and all that. The reaction of the government and the PP is not so different to that which would obtain in Westminster. Politicians with long and serious faces make pronouncements about the seriousness of going against the wishes of this or that party leadership, political analysts dissect the dissent in terms of "black" Wednesday or Thursday, or whatever day it happens to be for the government, and everyone promptly forgets about it all.
It isn't normal for a Westminster party to expel an MP if he or she votes against it. Not towing the party line can be a career-limiting move but it doesn't normally end totally in tears and the party membership card having to be torn up and tossed into the dustbin of a political career potentially in ruins. In Mallorca, it would seem that it is normal insofar as anything about local politics can be said to be normal, and very little is.
Pastor has voted with his conscience. In a democratic set-up, conscience should be allowed to play a part, but it doesn't unless the "free" vote is applied. On a major policy issue, such as the language, there is no room in the PP's democratic set-up for conscience. You do as you are told, except the leadership knew full well that Pastor wouldn't do as he was told.
Jaume Font, a former ally of Pastor's in the PP and now leader of the breakaway La Lliga, has praised Pastor for his courage, which may well translate as an invitation to come and join him. He might just do that, though one still fancies that he wouldn't. Suspended or not, expelled or not, Pastor still has a great deal of support within the PP rank and file, a point made by one of the party's more important figures, the speaker of the parliament Pere Rotger.
Pastor knows he has this support and as importantly so does the PP party leadership. He is a nuisance, and nuisances to political parties tend to end up in exile, either actually or metaphorically. But he won't be in exile, he will continue to be a parliamentary deputy (as an independent) and mayor of Manacor where he has the support of a majority of other PP councillors. What does the party leadership do about that? Expel the whole of the Manacor branch of the party?
If Pastor is ultimately kicked out of the party, on the face of it this would end any ambitions he might have of becoming its leader. I'm not so sure that it would, though. Pastor's stance is one of a battle over what is the soul of Mallorca. This soul, I used to believe, was one that was largely indifferent and one that would merely shrug its shoulders. It still is but it is far less so than it was, and there are clear examples that the soul of Mallorca is an issue over which many Mallorcans feel strongly. The parents who have rejected overwhelmingly to have their children taught in Castellano instead of Catalan are a case in point.
It is not beyond the bounds of possibility that the PP in the Balearics would undergo a volte-face in official attitudes towards Catalan and regionalism. If the next election were to loom with question marks over Bauzá being able to get re-elected, there might just be a reassessment, and it would be one that might see Pastor brought fully back into the fold. One suspects that this is what he may be counting on and would be why he wouldn't join up with Font. There again, the one great advantage Bauzá has is that there is no coherent opposition worthy of the name. PSOE remains in a state of some disarray, while other parties don't really count.
Three years, though, are a long time. Long enough for there to be change and long enough for the battle over Mallorca's soul to leave some bodies. The question is - whose? Bauzá's or Pastor's? And at the same time as the battleground in the islands starts to become littered with the fallen, another front opens - the European Parliament has heard a complaint from teachers' representatives regarding what they call the institutional harassment of Catalan by the Bauzá government.
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
Towing the party line and all that. The reaction of the government and the PP is not so different to that which would obtain in Westminster. Politicians with long and serious faces make pronouncements about the seriousness of going against the wishes of this or that party leadership, political analysts dissect the dissent in terms of "black" Wednesday or Thursday, or whatever day it happens to be for the government, and everyone promptly forgets about it all.
It isn't normal for a Westminster party to expel an MP if he or she votes against it. Not towing the party line can be a career-limiting move but it doesn't normally end totally in tears and the party membership card having to be torn up and tossed into the dustbin of a political career potentially in ruins. In Mallorca, it would seem that it is normal insofar as anything about local politics can be said to be normal, and very little is.
Pastor has voted with his conscience. In a democratic set-up, conscience should be allowed to play a part, but it doesn't unless the "free" vote is applied. On a major policy issue, such as the language, there is no room in the PP's democratic set-up for conscience. You do as you are told, except the leadership knew full well that Pastor wouldn't do as he was told.
Jaume Font, a former ally of Pastor's in the PP and now leader of the breakaway La Lliga, has praised Pastor for his courage, which may well translate as an invitation to come and join him. He might just do that, though one still fancies that he wouldn't. Suspended or not, expelled or not, Pastor still has a great deal of support within the PP rank and file, a point made by one of the party's more important figures, the speaker of the parliament Pere Rotger.
Pastor knows he has this support and as importantly so does the PP party leadership. He is a nuisance, and nuisances to political parties tend to end up in exile, either actually or metaphorically. But he won't be in exile, he will continue to be a parliamentary deputy (as an independent) and mayor of Manacor where he has the support of a majority of other PP councillors. What does the party leadership do about that? Expel the whole of the Manacor branch of the party?
If Pastor is ultimately kicked out of the party, on the face of it this would end any ambitions he might have of becoming its leader. I'm not so sure that it would, though. Pastor's stance is one of a battle over what is the soul of Mallorca. This soul, I used to believe, was one that was largely indifferent and one that would merely shrug its shoulders. It still is but it is far less so than it was, and there are clear examples that the soul of Mallorca is an issue over which many Mallorcans feel strongly. The parents who have rejected overwhelmingly to have their children taught in Castellano instead of Catalan are a case in point.
It is not beyond the bounds of possibility that the PP in the Balearics would undergo a volte-face in official attitudes towards Catalan and regionalism. If the next election were to loom with question marks over Bauzá being able to get re-elected, there might just be a reassessment, and it would be one that might see Pastor brought fully back into the fold. One suspects that this is what he may be counting on and would be why he wouldn't join up with Font. There again, the one great advantage Bauzá has is that there is no coherent opposition worthy of the name. PSOE remains in a state of some disarray, while other parties don't really count.
Three years, though, are a long time. Long enough for there to be change and long enough for the battle over Mallorca's soul to leave some bodies. The question is - whose? Bauzá's or Pastor's? And at the same time as the battleground in the islands starts to become littered with the fallen, another front opens - the European Parliament has heard a complaint from teachers' representatives regarding what they call the institutional harassment of Catalan by the Bauzá government.
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
Thursday, June 14, 2012
MALLORCA TODAY - Pastor is suspended from PP public duties
The rumpus caused by Antoni Pastor voting against the government over changes to the language law continues. Pastor has been provisionally suspended from all public duties. Meanwhile, Pastor has received support of a sort. The president of the parliament, Pere Rotger, one of the PP's grandees, has said that there are plenty of people within the local party who think like Pastor.
See more: Diario de Mallorca
See more: Diario de Mallorca
Wednesday, June 13, 2012
MALLORCA TODAY - Pastor faces expulsion from the PP
The mayor of Manacor, Antoni Pastor, who voted against the Partido Popular partly line in the Balearics parliament yesterday in rejecting the government's law that will mean that Catalan is no longer a a pre-requisite for employment in the public sector, faces being expelled from the party. Pastor has defended his position by saying that the party is causing social division through its language policies and he has also been defended by other parties, e.g. La Lliga, whose leader Jaume Font (formerly a PP member) praised his courage.
Wednesday, April 25, 2012
Grotesque Chaos Denied: The Partido Popular
Ah yes, the memorable moments of party political conferences. Neil Kinnock and his "grotesque chaos", Hatton heckling and Heffer on the hoof out of the hall. Peter Lilley's "little list". John Redwood making a total nit of himself at a Welsh Conservative Party thrash. David Steel's "prepare for government". Tory Boy Hague, a boy old before his time. Thatcher, the lady's not for an adaptation of a Christopher Fry play title. Iain Duncan Smith, the "quiet man". "Speak up, Iain!" "Speak up, Duncan!"
Conferences were once designed for bloodletting, as in the good old days of Kinnock versus Militant. They have over the years lost their way. Like football sanitised its now sadly lost legacy of Ron "Chopper" Harris, so the party conference forgot that its main purpose was for two-footed, over-the-top, from-behind dissent.
To the rescue, one had hoped, was going to come Mallorca's own warring party - the Partido Popular. It has performed the astonishing. It won an election and then promptly started engaging in internal bickering and strife, albeit the internal bickering and strife had been put on self-serving hold while there was the diversion of sending the Balearics version of PSOE packing.
If the grand tradition of party conferences descending into their own grotesque chaos was to have been shown to be alive and kicking in Mallorca, then it would have required the PP's Antoni "Chopper" Pastor, one-time Real Mallorca second-team defensive strongman, to do the kicking. But Pastor has gone and let us all down. Not only will he not be putting in for the manager's job, he has voluntarily opted to place himself on the subs' bench. He is not going to stand against the president and he is also leaving the party's leadership (he is a vice-president at present).
This all sounds like honourable stuff by the honourable member for Manacor (its mayor in fact). He doesn't wish to be a problem. Now is not the time for tension. The language issue, and he is a great defender of Catalan, an issue that has brought him into conflict with President Bauzá, is, he says, not a priority.
When set against tackling the Balearics' deficit and economy, the language issue most definitely isn't a priority. But if it isn't, why has Pastor spent much of the past few weeks helping to elevate it to the status he has and making it an issue of discontent within the PP?
Everything had been gearing itself up for an occasion, the party's regional congress in June, when we could have wished for a thoroughly entertaining barney of ideological difference. But no, the Honourable Pastor, the shepherd of Manacor, will instead merely be watching his flock by night and by day.
It could of course be that Pastor realised that he might be on a hiding to nothing. It could also be that he appreciates that making a rumpus now, in the midst of crisis, could have lost him popularity. There is still time for him, however. Time and support for what he represents are on his side, and he probably knows this.
If he had spent some time analysing the findings of the annual survey of identity in the Balearics by the research organisation Gadeso, he would have noticed that 50% of the population, which probably includes him, is in agreement with maintaining the current model of autonomous government, one threatened both by Bauzá's coolness towards regionalism and by calls to repatriate responsibilities for certain policies to Madrid. He would also have noticed that, on language, a majority is against the Bauzá government's removal of Catalan as a requisite for employment in the public sector and against the so-called free selection of teaching language (i.e. parents have the right to opt either for Catalan or Castellano).
He would have realised that what this survey shows is that the Partido Popular in its Balearics guise has its own idiosyncrasy, one determined by the language and regionalism issues. Pastor is more in step with these sentiments than is Bauzá. And so are some other leading figures from the PP who have joined the Pastor-initiated Moviment per la Llengua.
Pastor may have deprived us of some grotesque chaos come congress time, but he may well be banking on the fact that if Bauzá is given enough rope he will hang himself on issues that may be less important in the immediate term but are as important in the longer term to the people of the Balearics. The next regional elections are three years away, but there is still time for Pastor.
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
Conferences were once designed for bloodletting, as in the good old days of Kinnock versus Militant. They have over the years lost their way. Like football sanitised its now sadly lost legacy of Ron "Chopper" Harris, so the party conference forgot that its main purpose was for two-footed, over-the-top, from-behind dissent.
To the rescue, one had hoped, was going to come Mallorca's own warring party - the Partido Popular. It has performed the astonishing. It won an election and then promptly started engaging in internal bickering and strife, albeit the internal bickering and strife had been put on self-serving hold while there was the diversion of sending the Balearics version of PSOE packing.
If the grand tradition of party conferences descending into their own grotesque chaos was to have been shown to be alive and kicking in Mallorca, then it would have required the PP's Antoni "Chopper" Pastor, one-time Real Mallorca second-team defensive strongman, to do the kicking. But Pastor has gone and let us all down. Not only will he not be putting in for the manager's job, he has voluntarily opted to place himself on the subs' bench. He is not going to stand against the president and he is also leaving the party's leadership (he is a vice-president at present).
This all sounds like honourable stuff by the honourable member for Manacor (its mayor in fact). He doesn't wish to be a problem. Now is not the time for tension. The language issue, and he is a great defender of Catalan, an issue that has brought him into conflict with President Bauzá, is, he says, not a priority.
When set against tackling the Balearics' deficit and economy, the language issue most definitely isn't a priority. But if it isn't, why has Pastor spent much of the past few weeks helping to elevate it to the status he has and making it an issue of discontent within the PP?
Everything had been gearing itself up for an occasion, the party's regional congress in June, when we could have wished for a thoroughly entertaining barney of ideological difference. But no, the Honourable Pastor, the shepherd of Manacor, will instead merely be watching his flock by night and by day.
It could of course be that Pastor realised that he might be on a hiding to nothing. It could also be that he appreciates that making a rumpus now, in the midst of crisis, could have lost him popularity. There is still time for him, however. Time and support for what he represents are on his side, and he probably knows this.
If he had spent some time analysing the findings of the annual survey of identity in the Balearics by the research organisation Gadeso, he would have noticed that 50% of the population, which probably includes him, is in agreement with maintaining the current model of autonomous government, one threatened both by Bauzá's coolness towards regionalism and by calls to repatriate responsibilities for certain policies to Madrid. He would also have noticed that, on language, a majority is against the Bauzá government's removal of Catalan as a requisite for employment in the public sector and against the so-called free selection of teaching language (i.e. parents have the right to opt either for Catalan or Castellano).
He would have realised that what this survey shows is that the Partido Popular in its Balearics guise has its own idiosyncrasy, one determined by the language and regionalism issues. Pastor is more in step with these sentiments than is Bauzá. And so are some other leading figures from the PP who have joined the Pastor-initiated Moviment per la Llengua.
Pastor may have deprived us of some grotesque chaos come congress time, but he may well be banking on the fact that if Bauzá is given enough rope he will hang himself on issues that may be less important in the immediate term but are as important in the longer term to the people of the Balearics. The next regional elections are three years away, but there is still time for Pastor.
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
Sunday, January 15, 2012
Rebel Yell: Mallorca's Catalan civil war
Simón Ballester, known also as Simó Tort, was born in Manacor some time in the first half of the fifteenth century. In the middle of that century, Ballester, supported by, among others, chiefs from Muro and Inca, led an uprising against the governor of Mallorca. The revolt failed, he fled to Menorca but in 1457 was returned to Mallorca and was executed.
Antoni Pastor, the mayor of Manacor, will not anticipate being executed. But he faces a sort of political death, if only a political death within the Partido Popular as it currently is. He is threatened with proceedings against him for going against the party line on language policy and having made himself the leader of internal opposition within the party and the principal defender of Catalan within the party - all against the wishes of President Bauzá.
When Ballester led the uprising in the fifteenth century, it was to Palma that he took his revolt. Together with others from the regions of Mallorca, he was at the head of opposition to an "odious" governor, barricaded in Palma.
The war that has broken out in the PP has more than just the similarity of Manacor being the source of the revolt. It is being styled as a war between Palma and the regions. If President Bauzá and his administration had believed that PP-led town halls would acquiesce to changes to law which will downgrade Catalan, he was clearly very much mistaken.
As with Ballester, who could count on Inca to back him, so Inca has rode to Pastor's side. The town's mayor has expressed a "predisposition" to back him but perhaps more significantly so has Cristòfol Soler, still an Inca politician and formerly, for a brief while in the 1990s, a PP president of the Balearics.
Other towns to declare for Pastor are Pollensa and Sa Pobla. In the case of Sa Pobla, arguably the spiritual centre of Catalan in Mallorca and certainly one of the most radically pro-Catalan towns, mayor Biel Serra is unequivocal in his defence of Catalan.
What is emerging in what is becoming a quite extraordinary story is that Mallorca is being mapped according to where support for Pastor resides. Alcúdia might well follow, if only because Miguel Ramis, an ex-mayor, seems himself to be disposed to go along with Pastor. Though close to Bauzá, Ramis is also a political rival, which largely explains why, in the end, the PP's local secretary-general was overlooked for the job as national tourism secretary-of-state. Ramis does still wield a good deal of power in Alcúdia.
But what you have is two of Mallorca's five large towns, Inca and Manacor, coming together, as they did in the fifteenth century. This leaves Calviá, where Carlos Delgado, the main inspiration behind the attack on Catalan, was mayor, as well as Marratxí, where Bauzá was formerly mayor, and Llucmajor. Each of them is PP-led and each of them is a neighbour of Palma. Were they all to declare for Bauzá, you would have an even more extraordinary situation, that really would look like battle lines being drawn.
To add to the extraordinariness are the allies that Pastor can call on. One is the Obra Cultural Balear. This isn't simply an organisation that defends and promotes Catalan, it is in favour of independence for the Catalan lands, of which Mallorca is one. It is an organisation which can itself call on some perhaps unexpected supporters; former president Soler is a member.
Bauzá, who is being accused of empire-building, wishing to destroy Balearics autonomy and of sheer, naked ambition, has got himself one almighty fight. Spokespeople for the party are making conciliatory and diplomatic noises - the language policy is not a crusade against Catalan, it is open for discussion, there won't be any expulsions from the party - but whether Bauzá is inclined to be quite so conciliatory will become clear very soon.
This latest battle of Mallorca might yet just blow over and prove to have been a passing annoyance for the president to have to deal with. Or it might not blow over, even were there to be some accommodation of the challenges to the law that are coming in from all over the island.
Simón Ballester made at least three attempts to attack Palma and rid the island of its odious governor. He didn't succeed and he paid the ultimate price. From his base in Manacor, the rebel leader of the twenty-first century will be wondering if the time is approaching for civil war and for attempting to tear down the walls of Bauzá's empire.
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
Antoni Pastor, the mayor of Manacor, will not anticipate being executed. But he faces a sort of political death, if only a political death within the Partido Popular as it currently is. He is threatened with proceedings against him for going against the party line on language policy and having made himself the leader of internal opposition within the party and the principal defender of Catalan within the party - all against the wishes of President Bauzá.
When Ballester led the uprising in the fifteenth century, it was to Palma that he took his revolt. Together with others from the regions of Mallorca, he was at the head of opposition to an "odious" governor, barricaded in Palma.
The war that has broken out in the PP has more than just the similarity of Manacor being the source of the revolt. It is being styled as a war between Palma and the regions. If President Bauzá and his administration had believed that PP-led town halls would acquiesce to changes to law which will downgrade Catalan, he was clearly very much mistaken.
As with Ballester, who could count on Inca to back him, so Inca has rode to Pastor's side. The town's mayor has expressed a "predisposition" to back him but perhaps more significantly so has Cristòfol Soler, still an Inca politician and formerly, for a brief while in the 1990s, a PP president of the Balearics.
Other towns to declare for Pastor are Pollensa and Sa Pobla. In the case of Sa Pobla, arguably the spiritual centre of Catalan in Mallorca and certainly one of the most radically pro-Catalan towns, mayor Biel Serra is unequivocal in his defence of Catalan.
What is emerging in what is becoming a quite extraordinary story is that Mallorca is being mapped according to where support for Pastor resides. Alcúdia might well follow, if only because Miguel Ramis, an ex-mayor, seems himself to be disposed to go along with Pastor. Though close to Bauzá, Ramis is also a political rival, which largely explains why, in the end, the PP's local secretary-general was overlooked for the job as national tourism secretary-of-state. Ramis does still wield a good deal of power in Alcúdia.
But what you have is two of Mallorca's five large towns, Inca and Manacor, coming together, as they did in the fifteenth century. This leaves Calviá, where Carlos Delgado, the main inspiration behind the attack on Catalan, was mayor, as well as Marratxí, where Bauzá was formerly mayor, and Llucmajor. Each of them is PP-led and each of them is a neighbour of Palma. Were they all to declare for Bauzá, you would have an even more extraordinary situation, that really would look like battle lines being drawn.
To add to the extraordinariness are the allies that Pastor can call on. One is the Obra Cultural Balear. This isn't simply an organisation that defends and promotes Catalan, it is in favour of independence for the Catalan lands, of which Mallorca is one. It is an organisation which can itself call on some perhaps unexpected supporters; former president Soler is a member.
Bauzá, who is being accused of empire-building, wishing to destroy Balearics autonomy and of sheer, naked ambition, has got himself one almighty fight. Spokespeople for the party are making conciliatory and diplomatic noises - the language policy is not a crusade against Catalan, it is open for discussion, there won't be any expulsions from the party - but whether Bauzá is inclined to be quite so conciliatory will become clear very soon.
This latest battle of Mallorca might yet just blow over and prove to have been a passing annoyance for the president to have to deal with. Or it might not blow over, even were there to be some accommodation of the challenges to the law that are coming in from all over the island.
Simón Ballester made at least three attempts to attack Palma and rid the island of its odious governor. He didn't succeed and he paid the ultimate price. From his base in Manacor, the rebel leader of the twenty-first century will be wondering if the time is approaching for civil war and for attempting to tear down the walls of Bauzá's empire.
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
Saturday, January 07, 2012
Gloves Off: Dissent in the PP
Not unexpectedly the gloves have come off. The divisions in the Partido Popular in the Balearics have been laid bare by the party's dissenter-in-chief Antoni Pastor. The gathering for a press conference of the mayor of Manacor and leaders from all other parties in the town displayed a most unusual unity of right and left as Pastor led the attack on the linguistic policies of President Bauzá.
It has been coming of course. It's just that it has arrived some eighteen months after the fracture within the party caused by language and attitudes towards regionalism became evident. Pastor insists that his stance, in particular the rejection of the regional government's removal of Catalan speaking as being a pre-requisite for employment in the public sector, is nothing personal and is not aimed at any specific individual. He would say this, though. There are two people at whom this is all aimed: President Bauzá and the architect of the drive to "castellanizar" the Balearics and of anti-regionalism, Carlos Delgado.
On Monday there is to be a meeting in Binissalem of the party's regional directive. Pastor is banking on getting support from important figures within the party, and it is being admitted that the euphoria surrounding the PP's victory at the regional election in May last year has all but evaporated as concern grows regarding Bauzá's leadership.
And leadership could well be the key to the disaffection. If there were to be a leadership challenge to Bauzá, where might it come from? Manacor in all likelihood.
Why, though, is this all coming to the surface now? One reason is that changes to language law run counter to what was once agreed as policy by the PP at a party congress. Delgado, who lost the argument then, is said to be behind a redefinition of the local party's ideology. But why should there be any surprise? It was clear before the regional election that the party was heading in a particular direction, and plenty within the party, including Pastor, were happy enough to stand for election.
To me, none of this comes as a surprise. It was clear in 2010 that there were divisions and that it was simply a matter of time, once the election was won, that they came into the open.
A problem for Pastor and for other dissenters is that there are more important issues that should be concerning the party and therefore the government. Fighting battles over language policy may not sit well with the public who would rather energies were devoted to tackling the economy. There again, the same could be said for Bauzá and Delgado.
The handling of the economy has not been raised by the dissenters, but after some seven months in office, what has Bauzá achieved? Other than to pursue cost-cutting, very little. In terms of stimulating the local economy, the government has put all its eggs into the one basket of tourism law reforms. But, with the obvious exception of the hoteliers, pretty much any organisation that matters, plus the likes of Palma town hall, has voiced objections to the law.
It says something for the democratic process that the law is open to challenges and to suggestions, but it also says something about the draft itself and quite possibly about attitudes towards its architect. It is, after all, Delgado's law. Were the law enjoying something like smooth passage towards being adopted and were there some indication that the government had any other notion as to how to get the economy going, then dissent of a linguistic nature would seem petty.
The lack of economic initiative and the arguments over language notwithstanding, Pastor and those who might support him run a great risk. It is one of being styled as being out of date. Bauzá has himself been styled as conducting an experiment in the Balearics, one that is more in tune with circumstances as they now exist, and one such circumstance is the degree to which regionalism, as it is currently practised, is sustainable.
Furthermore, Bauzá has sought, and largely achieved, a transformation of the PP. He has gone to great lengths to make sure the party is clean and that its image is not tarnished by the corruption of the past. In challenging the new broom, therefore, his opponents run the risk of being associated, even inadvertently, with the past.
Here is the risk for Pastor, therefore. But he obviously considers it a risk worth taking. For Bauzá the stakes are higher. Can he manage to keep his party together?
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
It has been coming of course. It's just that it has arrived some eighteen months after the fracture within the party caused by language and attitudes towards regionalism became evident. Pastor insists that his stance, in particular the rejection of the regional government's removal of Catalan speaking as being a pre-requisite for employment in the public sector, is nothing personal and is not aimed at any specific individual. He would say this, though. There are two people at whom this is all aimed: President Bauzá and the architect of the drive to "castellanizar" the Balearics and of anti-regionalism, Carlos Delgado.
On Monday there is to be a meeting in Binissalem of the party's regional directive. Pastor is banking on getting support from important figures within the party, and it is being admitted that the euphoria surrounding the PP's victory at the regional election in May last year has all but evaporated as concern grows regarding Bauzá's leadership.
And leadership could well be the key to the disaffection. If there were to be a leadership challenge to Bauzá, where might it come from? Manacor in all likelihood.
Why, though, is this all coming to the surface now? One reason is that changes to language law run counter to what was once agreed as policy by the PP at a party congress. Delgado, who lost the argument then, is said to be behind a redefinition of the local party's ideology. But why should there be any surprise? It was clear before the regional election that the party was heading in a particular direction, and plenty within the party, including Pastor, were happy enough to stand for election.
To me, none of this comes as a surprise. It was clear in 2010 that there were divisions and that it was simply a matter of time, once the election was won, that they came into the open.
A problem for Pastor and for other dissenters is that there are more important issues that should be concerning the party and therefore the government. Fighting battles over language policy may not sit well with the public who would rather energies were devoted to tackling the economy. There again, the same could be said for Bauzá and Delgado.
The handling of the economy has not been raised by the dissenters, but after some seven months in office, what has Bauzá achieved? Other than to pursue cost-cutting, very little. In terms of stimulating the local economy, the government has put all its eggs into the one basket of tourism law reforms. But, with the obvious exception of the hoteliers, pretty much any organisation that matters, plus the likes of Palma town hall, has voiced objections to the law.
It says something for the democratic process that the law is open to challenges and to suggestions, but it also says something about the draft itself and quite possibly about attitudes towards its architect. It is, after all, Delgado's law. Were the law enjoying something like smooth passage towards being adopted and were there some indication that the government had any other notion as to how to get the economy going, then dissent of a linguistic nature would seem petty.
The lack of economic initiative and the arguments over language notwithstanding, Pastor and those who might support him run a great risk. It is one of being styled as being out of date. Bauzá has himself been styled as conducting an experiment in the Balearics, one that is more in tune with circumstances as they now exist, and one such circumstance is the degree to which regionalism, as it is currently practised, is sustainable.
Furthermore, Bauzá has sought, and largely achieved, a transformation of the PP. He has gone to great lengths to make sure the party is clean and that its image is not tarnished by the corruption of the past. In challenging the new broom, therefore, his opponents run the risk of being associated, even inadvertently, with the past.
Here is the risk for Pastor, therefore. But he obviously considers it a risk worth taking. For Bauzá the stakes are higher. Can he manage to keep his party together?
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
Friday, December 30, 2011
MALLORCA TODAY - Language law sparks off opposition
The Balearic Government's proposals for reforming the language law, which would elevate the role of Castilian at the expense of Catalan, have been met with opposition in different quarters. The PP mayor of Manacor, Antoni Pastor, a fierce critic of the proposals, says that there are many others within the PP who feel as he does but are not willing as yet to say so. Santa Margalida town hall has reacted by saying that a new councillor position for language policy will be created, expressly to combat government proposals. The government, meanwhile, is saying that changes to town and street names will not be obligatory but that it will be up to individual town halls to decide. More recipe for confusion therefore?
Thursday, December 29, 2011
MALLORCA TODAY - Criticism of government language law
Proposals by the Balearic Government to amend the language law have brought about criticisms, specifically to do with the removal of a requirement to be able to speak Catalan for workers in the public sector and with the introduction of Castilian names for towns, streets and highways. Criticism has come, for example, from Manacor where the Partido Popular mayor Antoni Pastor has defended the use of Catalan in the public sector. This is further evidence of the split within the PP in the Balearics, led by Pastor, whose criticisms of the government and of President Bauzá and tourism minister Carlos Delgado in particular have yet to receive a response from the government.
Wednesday, December 28, 2011
MALLORCA TODAY - PP fault lines in Mallorca appear
Further to discussion on this blog as to divisions within the Partido Popular in Mallorca and the Balearics, the focus of dissent in the party, Antoni Pastor, the mayor of Manacor, has opened the debate up regarding the party's direction and attitude towards regionalism. He has criticised President Bauzá for adopting the ideas of Carlos Delgado, the tourism minister who is firmly anti-regionalist, and for going against a tradition of regionalism in the local party. It now looks as though Pastor may well run against Bauzá at the next party congress to decide the leader of the party.
Thursday, October 28, 2010
Pastoral Care: The Partido Popular's woes
The Partido Popular is the natural party of Balearic government. Since autonomy and the creation of the first government in 1983, it has been the dominant party, save for the two periods of administration under coalitions led by the socialists (PSOE/PSIB). It should regain power in the elections this coming May, but it is doing everything it can to prevent this.
If the PP's leader, José Ramón Bauzá, were a football team manager, he would now face the terraces of his party shouting "you don't know what you're doing". He has managed to alienate different factions, firstly by his policy of selection, secondly by making a pig's ear of the language issue and upsetting the Catalanists, thirdly by seeming to be controlled by the right-wing mayor of Calvia, Carlos Delgado, fourthly by appearing to set the local party on a lurch to the right and one that goes against the notion of regionalism and fifthly by, to the utter amazement of many, overlooking the likes of the mayor of Manacor and the ex-mayor of Inca as candidate for the presidency of the Council of Mallorca in favour of someone called Maria Salom, a member of Congress in Madrid.
It's an impressive charge sheet, one to which can be added the hand of the party centrally in helping to make Bauzá's decisions for him, as with Salom, an apparent lack of openness in selection and an underlying tension of not so much a north-south divide but a Palma-Calvia versus everywhere else schism.
It is this final element that underpins the problems that Bauzá has brought upon himself. It is hardly a new issue. Other parties in Mallorca have faced the same internal antagonisms caused by the dominance of the Palma-Calvia axis. The nationalist Unió Mallorquina (UM) party, undergoing one of its regular periods of bloodletting, did this in spectacular style some while back when "choosing" Palma man Miguel Nadal to succeed Maria Antònia Munar as party leader. Its leadership election saw the then mayor of Alcúdia, Miguel Ferrer, vanquished at the end of a process that had at one point seen Nadal take his bat home in a fit of pique, only to return to the fray and be anointed by Munar.
The polemic within the PP is concerned not only with regionalism in terms of the interests of Mallorca and the islands but also in terms of the towns around the island. Martí Torres, the PP mayor of Santa Margalida has said that the "rest of Mallorca's municipalities should carry as much weight as Palma or Calvia". Other PP mayors in the "comarcas" (regions) have said similar things.
Torres is a supporter of one Antoni Pastor, the mayor of Manacor. Where Bauzá is the ashen-faced manager of the PP, Pastor is a bald-headed refereeing Pierluigi Collina, blowing his whistle on the in-fighting, while also contributing to it, but hoping to bring back some "morals" to the PP. Crucially though, Pastor is the flag-waver for the PP and its regionalist tendency, the left wing of the party which has become disgruntled enough to have suffered a defection to the nationalist UM. The issue of regionalism, bound up in matters to do with language policy, domination or not by Madrid and equality for the towns of Mallorca outside of Palma and Calvia, is the local party's Europe question. It is one that divides the PP down the middle, and Bauzá has proved to so far be incapable of creating unity. Quite the opposite. He has promoted division.
The Palma-Calvia dominance is entirely to be expected. With 70% of the island's population residing in Palma and Calvia it couldn't be anything other. Palma, as the capital, is "serious". It is the centre of commerce as well as government. It is from where and to where you should anticipate the professional and political elite to have emerged and to have gravitated. But the Palma connection has problems. Especially for the PP. The former president Jaume Matas, embroiled in corruption allegations, and the grandfather of Mallorcan politics, Gabriel Cañellas who was not without his own problems when it came to accusations (he was absolved), are both Palma men.
This history should not be underestimated. It colours what is happening in the PP at the moment. It may be under the surface, but it is there all the same. The regions might once have produced some old farmer who got lucky as the local mayor, but they are now bringing forth a new and more professional political class in different parties - the businessman Fornes in Muro, the admirable Llompart in Alcúdia, the impressive Pastor in Manacor.
The old boys' network is still very much at play, especially in the towns around the island. There is still a sense in which politics are the adults' version of playground spats among peers who have grown up with each other. This isn't about to go away, but nevertheless there is a further sense in which some growing up has occurred and that a new political maturity away from the Palma epicentre is bedding in, but is still being pushed onto the subs' bench.
Bauzá threatens to undermine his party through a Palma and Calvia-centric arrogance, one allied to Madrid, and by alienating a coherent and confident left wing in the regions. The goal for election victory in 2011 is wide open, but unless he sets about repairing the damage, the cuddly current president, Francesc Antich, can even now, much against expectation, anticipate stroking home the penalty shoot-out winner.
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
If the PP's leader, José Ramón Bauzá, were a football team manager, he would now face the terraces of his party shouting "you don't know what you're doing". He has managed to alienate different factions, firstly by his policy of selection, secondly by making a pig's ear of the language issue and upsetting the Catalanists, thirdly by seeming to be controlled by the right-wing mayor of Calvia, Carlos Delgado, fourthly by appearing to set the local party on a lurch to the right and one that goes against the notion of regionalism and fifthly by, to the utter amazement of many, overlooking the likes of the mayor of Manacor and the ex-mayor of Inca as candidate for the presidency of the Council of Mallorca in favour of someone called Maria Salom, a member of Congress in Madrid.
It's an impressive charge sheet, one to which can be added the hand of the party centrally in helping to make Bauzá's decisions for him, as with Salom, an apparent lack of openness in selection and an underlying tension of not so much a north-south divide but a Palma-Calvia versus everywhere else schism.
It is this final element that underpins the problems that Bauzá has brought upon himself. It is hardly a new issue. Other parties in Mallorca have faced the same internal antagonisms caused by the dominance of the Palma-Calvia axis. The nationalist Unió Mallorquina (UM) party, undergoing one of its regular periods of bloodletting, did this in spectacular style some while back when "choosing" Palma man Miguel Nadal to succeed Maria Antònia Munar as party leader. Its leadership election saw the then mayor of Alcúdia, Miguel Ferrer, vanquished at the end of a process that had at one point seen Nadal take his bat home in a fit of pique, only to return to the fray and be anointed by Munar.
The polemic within the PP is concerned not only with regionalism in terms of the interests of Mallorca and the islands but also in terms of the towns around the island. Martí Torres, the PP mayor of Santa Margalida has said that the "rest of Mallorca's municipalities should carry as much weight as Palma or Calvia". Other PP mayors in the "comarcas" (regions) have said similar things.
Torres is a supporter of one Antoni Pastor, the mayor of Manacor. Where Bauzá is the ashen-faced manager of the PP, Pastor is a bald-headed refereeing Pierluigi Collina, blowing his whistle on the in-fighting, while also contributing to it, but hoping to bring back some "morals" to the PP. Crucially though, Pastor is the flag-waver for the PP and its regionalist tendency, the left wing of the party which has become disgruntled enough to have suffered a defection to the nationalist UM. The issue of regionalism, bound up in matters to do with language policy, domination or not by Madrid and equality for the towns of Mallorca outside of Palma and Calvia, is the local party's Europe question. It is one that divides the PP down the middle, and Bauzá has proved to so far be incapable of creating unity. Quite the opposite. He has promoted division.
The Palma-Calvia dominance is entirely to be expected. With 70% of the island's population residing in Palma and Calvia it couldn't be anything other. Palma, as the capital, is "serious". It is the centre of commerce as well as government. It is from where and to where you should anticipate the professional and political elite to have emerged and to have gravitated. But the Palma connection has problems. Especially for the PP. The former president Jaume Matas, embroiled in corruption allegations, and the grandfather of Mallorcan politics, Gabriel Cañellas who was not without his own problems when it came to accusations (he was absolved), are both Palma men.
This history should not be underestimated. It colours what is happening in the PP at the moment. It may be under the surface, but it is there all the same. The regions might once have produced some old farmer who got lucky as the local mayor, but they are now bringing forth a new and more professional political class in different parties - the businessman Fornes in Muro, the admirable Llompart in Alcúdia, the impressive Pastor in Manacor.
The old boys' network is still very much at play, especially in the towns around the island. There is still a sense in which politics are the adults' version of playground spats among peers who have grown up with each other. This isn't about to go away, but nevertheless there is a further sense in which some growing up has occurred and that a new political maturity away from the Palma epicentre is bedding in, but is still being pushed onto the subs' bench.
Bauzá threatens to undermine his party through a Palma and Calvia-centric arrogance, one allied to Madrid, and by alienating a coherent and confident left wing in the regions. The goal for election victory in 2011 is wide open, but unless he sets about repairing the damage, the cuddly current president, Francesc Antich, can even now, much against expectation, anticipate stroking home the penalty shoot-out winner.
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
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