A Failure To Connect

It is staggering in a way that an opinion poll sixteen months before an election takes place can have created as much reaction as it has. It is less staggering when one appreciates that the similarities of the poll with one several months before. If the polls don't lie, then there is a clear pattern, and Balearic political parties know what it is. They are all potential winners and all potential losers. Everything is up for grabs.

The reactions from the left have been predictable enough. They have focused on the weakness of the Partido Popular and their need to break bread with Ciudadanos. It is, however, a sign of one's own weakness that one should divert the attention to the weaknesses of others. At least David Abril of Més was prepared to admit that the potential loss of three seats is a concern, even if he appeared to believe that there will be a different outcome in May 2019. He may not really be as bothered as he once was; he's said that he will be leaving politics after the next party congress.

Two others who had their say were Jaume Font of El Pi and Laura Camargo of Podemos. They represented a very clear difference, not just because of their politics but also because of how they come across. Camargo, and she is not alone in Podemos ranks, can appear aloof, as if she is talking down while at the same time hectoring. Podemos are littered with her sort, those who approach their task with an academic disassociation. In other words, people don't warm to them. (I'll make an exception with Pablo Iglesias. He can be charming, funny and likable.)

For a party which is supposedly meant to be the saviour of the common man and woman, Podemos can convey precisely the opposite impression. Camargo, when she was not describing a potential PP and C's alliance as a "disgrace", referred to restoring confidence of society in a "progressive majority" and to "reaching agreements on the roadmap for transformation and opening consultations in the citizens' assemblies". The words were understandable, but what was she really saying? That's part of the problem with Podemos. They speak Podemos-speak, and those doing the speaking can give the impression of being ever so slightly objectionable and supercilious. Alberto Jarabo is another.

Is a failure to connect with people as much a reason why Podemos have gone backwards (three fewer seats, according to the poll) as anything to do with the party's policies and occasional brinkmanship? Possibly. In Mallorca (and it should of course be the same anywhere) there is a need for politicians to connect with different constituencies. With Podemos, one can feel that they appeal to an elite rather than to the ordinary man or woman in the street, especially if this man or woman happens to be out in the sticks of the "part forana".

Here is where one can observe the great contrast between a Camargo and a Jaume Font. He is a veteran Mallorcan politician, a one-time mayor of Sa Pobla. It doesn't get any more solidly Mallorcan than a native of Sa Pobla. It isn't altogether surprising that Font should have a better approval rating than anyone else, including President Armengol who, for all her faults with talking in consensus and dialogue riddles, is not unlikable. Font is a man for the occasional quip. He is only really matched in this regard by Miquel Ensenyat, the Més president of the Council of Mallorca (another likable person). But he is also capable of making very cutting observations. He has done so with the holiday rentals zoning. Decisions for this should not be made from Palma.

This remark was not a throwaway. One could understand exactly where Font was coming from. As a former minister (when he was with the PP under Matas), he has been part of the Palma elite, but he remains the product of the part forana, an advocate for the ordinary Mallorcan. He knows how to connect, and he can do so in a manner that is genuine when compared with, say, a Podemos artificiality. Moreover, he needs no lessons from the left about the Catalan thing. He's a member of the Obra Cultural Balear.

The apparent impasse that the poll indicates is crying out for a leader who can really make a connection. The PP don't have one in Biel Company; Armengol is Armengol; Podemos have Mae de la Concha lurking in the background, about whom no one knows anything; Xavier Pericay of the C's is stuffy and professorial; Font can do it, but El Pi won't; Més seem to have no idea where they're going - how much they'd love Ensenyat to say yes, but he wants to stay at the Council of Mallorca. The connection cupboard is hardly full.

The Being Seen Imperative

There was a great opinion piece* in the magazine Preferente the other day. It was written by Ignacio Vasallo, who I suspect will need some introduction, even though he is one of the most prominent names in Spain's tourism industry. He was the first director-general of the national tourism promotion agency, Turespaña. He directed the first real marketing plans for Spain's tourism and was largely responsible for the logo that Joan Miró created for Turespaña ("El Sol de Miró"). His CV is extensive, so let's just confine the rest to the fact that in 2008 he was awarded the Gran Cruz de Isabel la Católica for his contribution to improving Spain's global image.

He is therefore someone with an immense amount of credibility, especially when it comes to observations about travel fairs. Turespaña is of course to be found at these fairs, flying the Miró flag for Spain and for regions of Spain, including the one that was Miró's adopted region - the Balearics.

The article to which I refer was entitled The Crisis Is Over. It had to do with how travel fairs, and especially London's World Travel Market, act as barometers of prevailing economic circumstances. In times of economic difficulty, the number of politicians and public officials who head off to London is small. When the economic climate is better, off they all go. Ignacio noted that most of these politicians and officials can't speak English and that they generally attend the fairs not so that they can have meetings with people whose language they can't speak but in order to be photographed and have these photos published back home.

He had more to say on this subject but it would be wrong of me to detail it all as I would basically be reproducing his article. But it is worth highlighting what he had to say about one particular delegation. It was from Arousa Norte, and there was apparently a subsequent photo in the local Arousa paper which featured (get this) 25 people. Yes, a whole 25 had gone to London.

I have to say that I needed to consult Mr. Google. I'd never heard of Arousa Norte either. It is, in case you're interested, on the Galician coast. Galicia, it is perhaps reasonable to say, doesn't loom large on the list of UK (or other countries) tour operator priority destinations. Santiago de Compostela maybe, but Galicia's coast? As a rule, no. Nevertheless, the Arousa delegation had apparently aroused that much interest in London that a whole page was devoted to it - all 25 of them. Well, you would need a whole page in order to fit them all in.

Apart from the cost of transporting these folk, there is the question as to why they're even there. Is it some sort of perk? With regimes like those in the Balearics, any hint of superfluous and unjustified public expense is normally subject to intense scrutiny, not least by political parties in the current anti-corruption meets sort of austerity climate. It isn't corrupt to send people off on these trips, but the attendance by many of them is highly questionable, especially if they do nothing more than hang around for a photo opportunity.

The contrast with the private sector is great. For starters, the private sector pays for itself to attend. The private sector, the tourism industry in Mallorca and the Balearics, speaks languages. Ignacio Vasallo knows about languages. He was also the director of Spain's overseas tourism bureaux in New York, London, Stockholm, Paris and Milan. Languages are pre-requisites for getting ahead in the tourism industry and for conducting meetings. The politicians and public officials by and large do not conduct meetings, except between themselves, and they could have these without ever needing to go near an airport let alone fly to London.

So, what is the point of any of them being at these fairs? Very little, except for the imperative of being seen and, even more important, being seen in photos by the folks back home. Here, look at the president, the vice-president, the other presidents, the mayors, the councillors, the ministers. How impressed we are all supposed to be. Or more likely unimpressed.

There is, it seems to me, a broader issue here: one to do with the vanity of the need to be seen in photos. There are times when it can appear that the sole purpose of Mallorcan society, and not just its political society, is to be photographed. And the more the people in the photos the better. Specifically where local politicians are concerned, I well recall the Alternativa per Pollença troublemakers being askance at the number of town hall politicians and officials in a photo for some reason that I now forget. The Alternativa was right, though. Why were they all there? And who were most of them? Does anyone really care? I, for one, do not.

* http://www.preferente.com/opinion/ignacio-vasallo/271720-271720.html