The Week The Past Caught Up - Again

Ciudadanos, the Citizens, is a relatively new political party. It was born in Catalonia eleven years ago. (Oh Catalonia, root of all Spain's malaise.) This new-born political formation was modern, business-oriented, anti-corruption, wedded to Spanish unity, a counterpoint to any thoughts of Catalan secession and also to any Catalan dominance. It still is all of these things. It has proved to be moderately successful in taking its brand of Partido Popular-lite politics (the PP minus the corruption and with less austerity) onto a broader plain. It has modestly conquered Spain. It partially reigns (sic) on the plain, not just Spain's but also Mallorca's. And that's the problem.

Its leader, the one-time swimming champion, the occasional "little twerp" Albert Rivera, discovered last week that he was being compared to José Antonio Primo de Rivera. And who is he? Not is; was. José Antonio was the son of Miguel Primo de Rivera y Orbaneja, the first dictator, the forerunner of you know who. José Antonio was also, and more pertinently, the founder of the Falange. It clearly ran in the blood. For his sins (and there were sins), José Antonio was charged with military rebellion and conspiracy by the still Republican government. He was shot on 20 November, 1936.

Shall I compare thee in a fascist way? Who made the comparison? Was it Podemos? Was it one of the wilder Catalan elements? The Ruffian, Gabriel Rufián of the Esquerra Republicana de Catalunya, perhaps? It was neither. It was the number two in PSOE. Adriana Lastra, Pedro Sánchez's right-hand (left-hand) woman, opined that Rivera had arrived kicking and screaming with his new-born party as a form of Adolfo Suárez reincarnate - Suárez, the godfather of democratic transition. But as the new-born grew, he started his own transition. Into José Antonio Primo de Rivera.

The C's, said Adriana, have moved to the right of the PP, which was a massive condemnation in its own right. The party has "no respect" for the style of autonomous government in Spain, that which filters down to the regions - Catalonia being one of them. Every day, Adriana continued, the C's move more to the right. Was she in fact claiming that the C's are a far-right party? When presented with this question, Adriana realised quite what she had been saying. She withdrew her remarks and apologised. But she had made them nevertheless.

Rivera does have the ability to get under people's skin. He is a sort of Aussie cricketer sledger type of politician, but then so are various others, not least The Ruffian, his left-wing opposite in Catalonia. But the Falange? Really, what was she thinking? Well, she was thinking what all too many think. The latest bout of Catalan soul-searching and navel-gazing has unleashed what is always there just beneath the surface ready to break into the light of day. The past. Spain can't do without it. A national form of self-pity characterises society and not just political society.

There was a time, certainly during Zapatero's period as prime minister, when a new-found maturity appeared to have been attained, a dispensing of the past but also an attempt at the reconciliation that was denied by the amnesia of the post-Franco amnesty. Rivera and the C's were a product of the Zapatero era. Forward-looking. But unfortunately they aren't. They, as with all other parties, are stuck with their historical memories. Puigdemont has merely taken these to an extreme and has in the process facilitated the remembrance of the past. None of them can move forward because they are all victims of this debilitating self-pity.

From a motorway bridge in Barcelona the other day, seven dolls were hanged. Heads down, they bore the logos of the C's, the PP and the Catalan wing of PSOE. The release of political prisoners was the demand that accompanied them. Of course Junqueras and the rest should be released. Wrongs there have been, but incarceration achieves nothing more than fuel the memories of the wrongs of the past. And in the midst of this are the C's, whose modest successes are giving other parties the jitters. Notably those towards the left.

In the Balearics, the membership of the C's has shot up by 20% in the past few weeks. Such a statistic will not have gone unnoticed and has not gone unnoticed by the promoters of nascent Balearic independence - Més, to whom, so the right-wing press regularly insist, can be added the name of Francina Armengol. What fools there can sometimes be on the right in drawing such an assumption.

The C's in the Balearics, and in particular their scholarly leader Xavier Pericay, are on the end of a campaign to discredit them. The main reason for this is the C's insistence that there is political pro-independence indoctrination in Balearic schools. The campaign has been started by the Unió Obrera Balear, in which the one-time hunger-striking teacher from Llucmajor, Jaume Sastre, is a key player. A poster reads: "Who are the new Inquisitors who wish to intimidate and make purges among the teachers of the Balearics?" There are photos of Pericay and Olga Ballester of the C's.

And so, the past goes even further back. From the Falange to the Inquisition.

The Curious Case Of Catalonia In London

One imagines that Carles Puigdemont has other things to consider rather than the state of Catalonia's tourism. He won't, over the past few weeks, have been thinking what will happen when, for instance, Catalonia pitches up at London's World Travel Market (WTM). Others have been thinking about this. Who will be there?

Under the acting government of Soraya Sáenz de Santamaría, tourism has been shifted from the Catalonia ministry for business and knowledge to the Spanish national ministry of energy, tourism and the digital agenda. The minister for Catalonia's tourism is therefore Álvaro Nadal. Will he be in London representing Catalonia's tourism and Spain's tourism, moving between the different stands and changing his hat as he does so? Catalonia has its own stand. For some years now, it has represented itself at shindigs like WTM. Have the officials from the Catalonia Tourism Agency been stood down and replaced by ones from Madrid? The situation is, to say the least, somewhat bizarre.

Catalonia attracts more tourists than any other region of Spain. Its tourism is therefore important to it as well as to Spain. Right at the moment it is doing a good impression of crashing and burning. Travel agencies in Spain were reporting earlier this week that sales for Catalonia have fallen by 15% over the past month. This decline isn't being attributed to the terrorist attack. That, remarkably, has had little lasting impact. The political situation is the cause.

With Spanish consumers one can understand this. There will be at least an element of deliberately shunning Catalonia: a travel boycott, if you like. For overseas visitors it is maybe less understandable. There's political instability, there have been the huge rallies, but it's not as though anyone's died. There were, however, those images of the police on 1 October.

The impact is far greater than with the terrorist incident. According to one source, since the referendum on 1 October, bookings for international flights to Catalonia have fallen by 22%. An estimate of up to 30% lost tourist spending for the final three months of the year has been given. The Exceltur alliance for tourism excellence suggests that Catalonia could lose 1,800 million euros over the next few months. Confecat, the hotels and restaurants confederation in Catalonia, is calling on the authorities to take immediate remedial measures. The question is - which authorities?

Then there is next year, which will be what WTM will be particularly concerned about. The way things are going, the Balearic Islands could suddenly find themselves competing closely for the number one slot in terms of tourist numbers. The Balearics won't be "borrowing" as many tourists from Turkey and wherever because of geopolitics in Muslim countries. The islands will be borrowing them instead from Catalonia. That's a prospect that should go down well with certain members of Més who are supportive both of limits to reduce tourist saturation and Catalan independence.

It will be intriguing to see how Catalonia plays at WTM. Nadal should do everything he can to try and mitigate the damage for the sake of the economy of both Catalonia and Spain. But with the situation as confused as it is at present, he may find himself confronted with an even more bizarre set of circumstances than will arise in London. The next big travel fair is Fitur in Madrid in January.

If the Balearics do indeed "borrow" tourists from Catalonia, it seems at present that they won't be UK tourists. Worryingly for both the Balearics and Catalonia is information from the GfK market research consultancy. According to its latest report on bookings for 2018, there has been up to a 10% drop in the sale of package holidays to the Balearics and also to parts of Catalonia. This is based on data which is now around a month old, but it may reflect a general trend for next year. Ibiza's sales are down ten per cent, Mallorca's by nine, with Menorca holding up better with a five per cent decline.

This decrease is being largely attributed to the tourist tax, though in the case of Catalonia, one suspects its tax is less of an issue than the political situation. On top of the tourist tax, there are higher prices and the outbreaks of so-called tourismphobia; all issues that Biel Barceló is to be faced with in London.

The GfK report indicates increases of up to 50% in bookings for destinations without tourist taxes. One of these is Greece, but if holidaymakers have indeed been choosing destinations for this reason, then they will be in for a shock in Greece, where a tourist tax of a similar scale to that of the Balearics is being introduced next year.

One concern for UK travellers coming to Mallorca - passport control queues - is at least being addressed. Among its investments in Palma airport, Aena is to install eighty passport scanners - forty in arrivals and forty in departures.

In A Crisis Way

There have always been crises. Suez had its crisis, Cuban missiles had their crisis. Oil had a crisis. But in a less media frenetic age crises seemed to somehow stand out more. They really were crises. They could command attention as single events. Crisis wasn't all around. It was in one place at one time.

Crisis, to borrow a phrase of the moment, is the new normal. In truth, it's the old normal. It's just that crisis wasn't as all pervading as it can appear to be now. Welcome to the world of crisis. Nothing is secure. Nothing is as you would like it to be. Nothing is normal. And, to paraphrase another maxim (one originated, probably, by The Firesign Theatre), nothing you know is right. Everything you know is wrong, primarily because what you thought you knew is fake - fake news.

Perhaps current crises are themselves fake. There is a collective imagination that perceives them like they are simulations. They don't really exist. Crisis is a requirement of political power. Big Brother invents crises as means of consolidating power, but then Big Brother may not himself have existed. We are not all Winston Smith.

The crises are not inventions. They are a question of degree. They require adjectival modification. Are they major, are they minor? Regardless of scale, however, place them side by side and they surpass the major league. They enter mega territory. A collision of crises; crises of critical mass. Yet while they revolve around us, acquiring ever greater force, we carry on as normal, assuming we know what this normal is. In a crisis way, in a constant crisis way, it's hard to know for sure. Everything we know is not quite as it should be.

Economic crisis - the most recent one, that is - was not at one place at one time. Crises rarely do in fact occupy one time or place. They endure and they are diverse. That most recent economic crisis, despite greatly improved circumstance, still endures and it engulfs most territory and people along with it. Spain's economic crisis provided the context for political convulsion. We are experiencing the fallout from the explosion, or rather implosion. Podemos is a legacy of crisis and of heads being beaten in the squares occupied by the "indignados". The disruption of the political status quo was as much if not more a consequence of economic crisis as it was the abhorrence of corruption.

Nationally and regionally, the evidence is there to be seen and to be experienced. A Madrid government is inherently feeble thanks to that political convulsion. In the Balearics, the government hangs together with a constant whistling to keep up spirits to the tune of "consensus and dialogue". Crisis defines political administration, but even in its enfeebled state, this administration can broker greater crisis. It wills it upon itself in acts of securing power - the power of the state, the power of the nation.

In a Gladstone Irish way, Catalonia was a "question". A question, depending on escalation or de-escalation, can become a crisis or a solution. While still a question, economic crisis was a context for Catalonian demands for greater financial autonomy. The region, beset by debt and racking up ever more, sought a way out. It would be bought out with a higher slice of tax revenues. All the while, though, there lurked the possibility of independence crisis in the shadow of this Catalonian question. Escalation finally came. And it was a joker to be played by both sides. Now, the King has become embroiled. A crisis, which might have de-escalated had it not been for heads being broken with batons, has been permitted to escalate, to consume, to overtake. There's no faking the Catalonia crisis. There's no avoiding a sense that one side - Madrid - fabricated a crisis while lacking a popular mandate. That political convulsion had determined this. A crisis in the name of some of Spain but by no means all of it.

Practicalities can be neglected at such times. But for Catalonia there are significant ones. Its tourism stands to lose out to a far greater degree than because of an act of terror. International sympathy might lie with Barcelona and the Catalans, but sympathy can look the other way. There are so many options for the traveller. Yet he or she observes options being reduced. There is an unnerving sense of at least a "question" in the Balearics, the ultimate product of economic crisis, allied with the crisis of terrorism. The islands' government was moulded and shaped by that economic crisis. Its component parts are not equals. One part, PSOE, is as enfeebled as the PP in Madrid. It bows to the shadows in the dark of parliament's corridors and facilitates an incoherence of tourism policy that might just escalate.

Crisis is normal. And crisis is a continuum, the product of the controllable and of the out of control.

Catalonia: Spirit Of The Beehive

In July 1909 there was an uprising in Barcelona and other cities in Catalonia. Workers revolted against being called up as reservists for Spain's war in Morocco. This developed into a revolt against the military, against colonialism, against the church and against Spain. The Guardia Civil fired at demonstrators on Las Ramblas. The Spanish government declared a state of war. The army was sent in. Troops were moved from cities such as Valencia because the local soldiers refused to shoot at their own people. Up to 150 civilians were killed; there were eight army and police casualties. Five ringleaders were executed. There was widespread condemnation of events in Europe. The king, Alfonso XIII, stung by the foreign reaction, dismissed the prime minister, the Mallorcan, Antoni Maura. The whole episode lives in the memory as Tragic Week, Setmana Tràgica.

There are any number of historical examples which can be drawn on to explain the tragedy of Catalonia, a play of epic proportions that has been enacted over centuries, one without end, constantly repeating its plots, shifting in time and context. On Sunday, over 800 people were injured. There were at least no deaths. There will be no executions. King Felipe will not dismiss Mariano Rajoy. Contemporary times require contemporary outcomes, but contemporary times inspire even greater reaction. Gil Scott-Heron was not right: the revolution is televised. It is captured on phones. It is on social networks. The condemnation comes from societies who can witness for themselves. The mute words of Europe's politicians aren't needed, albeit that they should be. What occurred on Sunday was a tragic event for Catalonia, a tragic event for Spain.

Victor Erice's 1973 film The Spirit of the Beehive took as its symbolic theme the emotional disintegration of Spain during the Civil War. This symbolism was captured by one family's experiences. Families were split and divided. In the Franco years there was silence that repressed these emotions, prevented the experiences being reconciled. So much symbolism. Families in Catalonia divided. Catalonia divided. Spain divided. Emotions high as disintegration - that of Spain - is unveiled amidst scenes of police brutality, of the Mossos pitted against the forces of the state, reluctant to turn on their own people, of firefighters in cordons attacked by these same police.

Invoking legality and the Constitution no longer suffices. Deeds have been done. Blame can be attached and will be attached. In the recent past, had Mariano Rajoy acceded to Catalonia claims made by Artur Mas for greater autonomy, especially of a financial nature, Sunday would never have happened. Rajoy's unwillingness to show favouritism in the unending tragedy of Catalonia inspired Sunday. Mas was not a radical. He became so. He passed the baton to Carles Puigdemont, abetted by a more extreme left. I am reassured that my assessment is correct. A friend who has lived in Barcelona for almost forty years and who lectures on politics said in an email that had Mas received a "few more shekels", all of this could have been avoided. The economic affairs minister, Luis de Guindos, attempted to play the autonomy and financial cards. But it was too late.

It used to be all about autonomy. Independence wasn't, even ten years ago, something that Catalonia's people were agitating for. Support for it ran at about 12%. On Sunday there was 90% yes. The referendum was obviously a fiasco. It couldn't have been anything else, given the removal of ballot boxes, the suggestions of double voting, the fact of illegality. The result will of course be questioned, but the numbers are almost irrelevant. Puigdemont has a mandate.

How ever greater was this tragedy when one thinks back a few weeks. In the same city that had experienced terror and where there was - for some fleeting moments -a unity of Spain and Catalonia and of monarchy and republicanism, there were now the scenes of the Guardia Civil reminiscent of Tragic Week. What in God's name was Rajoy thinking? He has served up independence. He has aroused international sympathy. He should go. He has to go. He cannot be the one to attempt to plot the way from here. Felipe won't do it. Someone else must.

And what of Spain in the eyes of the world? That carefully crafted Marca España brand has been wounded along with the 800. Greater damage has been caused than that by terrorists. The brutality had echoes of 15-M and the evictions from the squares. The gag law was brought in to prevent repetition, but it was irrelevant. With or without that law (a Rajoy law), criticised for being inherently anti-democratic, what happened on Sunday would still have happened.

A Tragic Sunday, and now it is essential that sense prevails. If not, the spirit of the beehive will fester. It has been allowed to develop. For a few shekels more, it would not have done.

Legitimising Tourismphobia

You probably won't have heard of the Fundéu BBVA. It is a foundation that was created in 2005 by one of the main news agencies, Efe, and the BBVA bank. Fundéu stands for Fundación del Español Urgente. It coordinates its work with the Real Academia Español, the director of which is the foundation's president. The academy supplies the last word on Spanish usage; its dictionary is of biblical proportions in defining what is correct.

"Urgente" means urgent, but in the context of the foundation it has nuance. Emergent is another meaning. Unlike English, for which words are dreamt up and become common usage without any body truly determining their legitimacy or not, Spanish (like French and other languages) has a form of language arbitration. It is the academy which is the arbiter.

Efe's involvement is key to the purpose of the foundation. The news agency seeks to clarify emergent usage and how it is presented. The foundation has, therefore, issued an edict in respect of one of the new words of the moment. "Turismofobia" is perfectly legitimate usage. Moreover, it is not necessary to place it within quote marks or alternatively to italicise it. Turismofobia is here, because Efe and the foundation have decided that it is.

The anglicisation of this - tourismphobia - has been rarely used. I don't know that I can claim to having been the first to have used it, but in 2011, when I did for the first time, it most certainly was new and seemingly unheard of in English. Six years ago, however, it had emerged in Spanish. And Spain, from what I could ascertain in April last year, was still one of the very few countries to have discovered this phobia. Italy was probably in fact the only other. In that country there has most obviously been the phobia in Venice.

Being Spain, there has to be acknowledgement of separate languages. In Catalan it's the same, save for the substitution of a vowel, but Basque is something else. It is "turismo borroka", and I'm reliably informed that "borroka" means fight as opposed to phobia. The actual meaning isn't especially important; the existence of the term is what is.

The Spanish word is, in a way, somewhat misleading. Regions such as Madrid, Andalusia and the Canaries insist that "turismofobia" isn't present. But it is in Catalan-speaking regions and now also in the Basque Country. Nevertheless, the word is on the lips of many a Castellano speaker, including leading hoteliers and politicians: the national minister for tourism, Alvaro Nadal, regularly refers to it.

Accepted and repeated usage brings with it ever broader awareness and diffusion. Tourismphobia has become a social reality, even if it is impossible to say how deep the phobia is or indeed how widespread it is. But the mere fact of its media legitimacy reflects its presence. And there are those who are only too willing to exploit this presence.

Arran in Mallorca maintain that they are not about tourismphobia. Tourism is not going to disappear, they acknowledge, but it needs to be controlled and regulated. It is causing many problems, just one of which relates to workers. Their conditions need to be improved.

In truth, there aren't many sectors which would disagree with the need to improve conditions, including the hoteliers. But the Arran manifesto of expropriation of this, that and the other is quite plainly ridiculous. What will the workers be doing if a sizable chunk of tourism was to disappear? This manifesto, it needs noting, isn't Arran's. It comes from the political party the group claims not to be formally linked with - the CUP in Catalonia.

The bout of tourismphobia that has been recently witnessed is, in my opinion, as much to do with the politics of the agitating far left as it is with tourism per se. Tourism provides a useful and convenient means through which to express this agitation. There are almost quaint echoes of the chaotic situation during the Second Republic, when anarchists were as crucial to the downfall of the Republic as others. Arran are sort of current-day heirs of that anarchy.

It is no coincidence that the Basques are now in on the act. San Sebastian is a city which has witnessed significant tourism growth in recent years. Similar fears about saturation exist there as they do in Palma, but San Sebastian isn't on the same media radar as Palma or Barcelona. Hence, there is the group Sortu, who want to place it on this radar.

It is Catalans and Basques who are fuelling this phobia, and it has to be seen within the context of independence demands. The CUP isn't an irrelevant party: it has ten seats out of 135 in the Catalonian parliament. It has its agenda and it wants to spread it to Mallorca.  

Tourismphobia, Efe has clarified, is here. The question is whether it is here to stay.

The Movement Of Andalusia

In a study of the municipality of Calvia at the turn of the millennium, it was shown that of residents with mainland Spanish origins, 42% of them were from Andalusia. The city of Granada had itself provided 17% of this Spanish group; 6.5% of the entire municipal population.

There may well be more up-to-date numbers, but I'm guessing that they won't have changed markedly. Otherwise, have social attitudes moved on over the intervening years? The question is asked because the author of the study, Miguel Ángel Miranda González, pointed towards social issues caused by immigration into Calvia. The tourism boom and the urban developments of the 1960s fostered the migration. The original Mallorcan population was and is comparatively tiny because of inward migration, and not just that from Andalusia.

Miranda observed in his study that the Mallorcan people as a whole, and so not only Calvia, have been unable to integrate waves of immigrants into their social structures. As a consequence, these groups maintain their interests distinct to those of the Mallorcan people. The observation is interesting if only because it offers a different take on the normal integration debate. Immigrants struggle to integrate because the means of doing so are unavailable.

I would suggest that this has changed to some degree. Calvia of course has institutionalised "foreigners" at town hall level. Other municipalities, if not having gone as far as Calvia, now have councillors with responsibilities for foreigners, and by foreigners, one means anyone not from Mallorca (including perhaps people from the rest of the Balearics).

The Andalusians were foreigners. Nowadays, and perhaps also as a mark of greater integration and acceptance, there are various Andalusian associations. Different town halls have welcomed their active participation in colouring the local cultural mix. The Feria de Abril* is the best example of this. Palma's is now in its 27th edition. Other municipalities also have an April fair, based - more or less - on the traditions of Seville.

They came because of tourism and construction. The association with tourism is still very evident. Many mainland seasonal workers come from Andalusia, and they've been doing so for years. They are re-engaged by employers who find in them a reliability and appetite for work that belie a long-held image: the lazy ones from the south (of Spain).

The emigration had started, though, before the great boom of the 1960s. Andalusians did not initially arrive in Mallorca in great number, although the Balearics was to become one of the main regions for Andalusian migration. They went mostly to Catalonia. In 1949, a newspaper referred to "authentic troglodytes", people from "underground settlements" in provinces such as Jaén and Granada. They were looked upon with suspicion by the authorities and by workers: employers could get away with paying them less. The authorities were to take action. Some 15,000 Andalusian immigrants were expelled from Catalonia between 1952 and 1957.

But still they came, the so-called "trains of hope" carrying them from a region which, for all the wealth of its great cities and of its own tourism, was historically poor and grindingly so. In certain respects it still is: Andalusia receives the biggest handout of state funding through the system that in the Balearics is considered to be so iniquitous (for the Balearics). In 1930 there were 70,000 Andalusians in Catalonia. The great migration, and it was enormous, increased this number to 840,000 by 1970.

Andalusia is curious because of its politics. It is the only region of Spain to have had an unbroken socialist government since the establishment of the regional democratic communities. That socialism, one has to assume, is a reflection of enduring difficulties in one of the country's poorer parts. The politics of Andalusia played a significant role in creating the regional communities and autonomous governments. The drafters of the 1978 Constitution originally intended to establish autonomy for Catalonia and the Basque Country. It was the Andalusians who led the objections. All regions were to gain this autonomy.

But what was it that made the Andalusians fight for this autonomy. Partly it was a sense of Andalusia's own unique circumstances and history, but just as important was the deep-rooted animosity that has existed and still does between Andalusia and Catalonia. The aspirations of an independent Catalonia encounter no greater opposition than in Andalusia. Catalonia, it has been suggested in Seville circles, wishes to create an apartheid for Spain.

The one-time president of Catalonia, Jordi Pujol, once wrote that the Andalusian is not consistent, he is anarchic and he is harmful. This can be taken as an indication of a xenophobia said to reside within Catalan attitudes. It is also an indication of the fact that Catalonia, more than the Balearics, objects to the financing system. And there is also that historical migration. The trains of hope which led to Barcelona and to the ports and so to Calvia.

* Palma's Feria de Abril concludes tomorrow, while Cala d'Or's runs from today until Sunday.

Reforming Spain's Constitution?

How many of you are aware that the Spanish constitution makes possible, albeit hypothetically, the merger of two of Spain's regions - the Basque Country and Navarre? While radical elements long for such a union, the likelihood of it ever happening is all but zero. But the fact that the theoretical possibility even exists reflects historical anomalies that can creep into constitutions. In Germany there is one such. Bavaria, hypothetically, could declare itself independent.

These examples reveal that constitutions, generally considered to be inviolate, contain aspects that may or do require reform. As a form of pact between state and citizen, a constitution shouldn't necessarily remain set in stone. Circumstances do, after all, change, and where Spain is concerned, the constitution has been subject to more or less constant amendment over some two hundred years.

During the nineteenth century, there were various attempts at revision. The first actual constitution was that of 1812, a manifesto of liberalism that was doomed to failure but which was to be a fundamental factor in that century's development. Ferdinand VII revoked it and thus ushered in the clashes between liberals (joined later by republicans) on one side and the conservative monarchists on the other. Both parties were rife with their own intrigues and differences. From the conservatives came Carlism, a Catholic fundamentalism which fostered civil wars. The upheavals through the nineteenth century and into the twentieth century bred what was to become Francoism. The 1812 constitution, it might be said, had been the unwitting launch pad for a dictatorship which naturally abandoned the constitution of the Second Republic.

The current constitution, dating from 1978, has been amended twice. Both the amendments were responses to influences outside Spain's borders. In 1992, European citizens in Spain were allowed to vote in and stand for municipal elections. There was little or no disagreement with this. Five years ago, there was dissent. Budgetary stability, demanded by Brussels, became a constitutional mandate. It was seen as a stitch-up between the two main political parties - the Partido Popular and PSOE. Austerity was in effect enshrined into the constitution. This very act was as influential as any other in bringing about the rise of Podemos, whose targets included austerity and what was perceived as the corrupt, cosy co-existence of the casta parties - the PP and PSOE.

Mariano Rajoy faced calls for constitutional reforms during his first period in office, all of which he ignored. Then, prior to the first election last December, he surprised many by announcing that he was open to reform. Getting rid of the Basque Country-Navarre hypothesis was one item on the agenda, a seemingly obscure one but also important. Rajoy inferred that territorial issues would be considered. If that had been intended as a sort of sop to Catalonia, then it had no effect.

Rajoy's shaky hold on government gives this Constitution Day greater relevance than others over the past almost forty years. The Catalonia question and the legality of a referendum dominate the debate in which Podemos (and its friends) support the principle of separatism if a majority wishes it, while the PP and Ciudadanos want no truck with the idea. PSOE, its powers lessened, has an idea for a federal model, one that it has never satisfactorily elucidated. This, at least, was what Pedro Sánchez had been advocating.

There are other demands for reform. Juan Pedro Yllanes, the judge who now sits in Congress on behalf of Podemos in the Balearics, is one to call for a truly independent judiciary. In principle it is independent, but as an example of how it is deemed not to be, Rights International Spain last year referred the judicial system to the United Nations special rapporteur on independence; government meddling was the reason for doing so. Lurking in the wings is the monarchy and a referendum on that. Podemos's charter makes clear the party's demands for referendums on various constitutional matters, but then Podemos isn't in government.

A year ago, Rajoy said that a request from union leaders for Congress to debate constitutional reform was both sensible and necessary. How true he might now be to his words will be put to the test. He says he's open to more talks with Catalonia but not on independence. What the "territorial issues" might therefore be is anyone's guess; so are any other potential reforms.

In the Balearics the main call for reform is for the Sánchez federal model. Francina Armengol has referred to this many times, but her overriding concern is financing, something which doesn't require constitutional change. Rajoy knows that there is pressure for financial reform for the regions. He may feel that that this is a step worth taking in easing pressure to alter the constitution. He is, obviously, a conservative, for whom constitutional reform would be largely anathema, much as he might have said that a debate is necessary.

Rentals' Websites To Charge The Tourist Tax

The Balearic and Catalonian governments are moving closer together on various issues, such as regional financing, and they are both on the same page when it comes to holiday rentals' websites. Under the law accompanying its 2017 budget, Catalonia will introduce a clause that will make websites charge the region's tourist tax. Not only will this raise extra revenue (some 7.5 million euros to add to the around 43 million that Catalonia already raises), it will act as a further means of detecting illegal apartment rental.

In the same way, the Balearic legislation on holiday rentals will stipulate that sites such as Airbnb have to charge the tax. Moreover, they will also be obliged to only market properties which have a registration number which verifies that they are legally registered - this registration is due to be extended to apartments, under tough quality conditions, which are currently "illegal" if they are marketed for holiday/tourism purposes.

Neither the Balearics nor Catalonia will find the demand to charge the tourist tax straightforward. That's because Airbnb and other similar sites, e.g. Homeaway and Rentalia, insist that they do not offer tourist activity, and there is an association in Spain - Adigital - which presents this case. The websites are just, according to its president, "technological intermediaries between the supply and demand".

This argument is already being used in challenging proceedings against Airbnb and Homeaway in Catalonia and Valencia for illegal promotion of tourist accommodation. As they are not offering a "tourist" service as such, then how can they be flouting regulations?

Here is a further example of how definitional technicalities can let abuse slip through the net. Spain's urban leasing act (aka tenancy act) is another, as it enables flagrant abuse of rental legislation.

In Ibiza, meanwhile, there are moves being made on the understanding that the regional government is permitting (or will permit) island councils to adopt specific regulations for rentals. The town hall of Santa Eulària has announced that it is to prohibit holiday rentals in apartment buildings. The Council of Ibiza is looking at adopting an island-wide regulation that would do likewise, a key justification for doing so being the threat to "co-existence" of residents and tourists.

With holiday rentals seemingly such a significant factor in increasing the overall number of tourists, it looks likely that further fuel will be added to the saturation debate. It is anticipated that by the year end, the Balearics will have received more than 14 million tourists for the first time; in fact, well over - the number could nudge 15 million.

The Many Days Of 12 October

Spain's National Day, Spain's National Holiday, Spain's Day of Hispanicity, the day of the Guardia Civil, the day of the Virgen del Pilar, the day of Columbus's arrival in the Americas. Make your choice. Yesterday was all of them.

They still refer to the "Día de la Hispanidad" - Hispanicity - albeit that a 1987 decree sort of abandoned the notion. As a national day, the Hispanicity concept was one that first surfaced outside Spain: in Argentina to be precise. In 1931, a one-time Spanish ambassador in Buenos Aires proposed that there be one. By that time, Argentina had been celebrating Columbus for some forty years. In 1913, they came up with the Fiesta de la Raza - the festival of the race, the Spanish race. That's another option to add to the 12 October list.

Hispanicity, a form of international nationalism, now seems a gloriously anachronistic and archaic concept. At the time that it surfaced, Spain was entering yet another of its periods of turmoil. Perhaps Hispanicity was something to cling to, an attempt to boost a nationalist morale that had been shattered by, among other things, the losses to the Americans at the end of the previous century.

Five years after that ambassador, Ramiro de Maeztu, proposed the name, what happened? Well, I think we all know what happened. Under Franco, allied to the image of the Virgen del Pilar, here was the perfect means to express what "Spanishness" meant - deeply conservative, highly Catholic, militaristic, fascist.

With the exception of the latter, this was a meaning that had characterised Spain for decades previously, though goodness knows there had already been fascistic tendencies in a line from Ferdinand VII to Primo de Rivera; earlier than even Ferdinand it might be said. A further characteristic was turmoil; it was pretty much the normal state of affairs during the nineteenth century, as liberalism vied with conservatism and usually came off worse.

Was this a fair assessment of Spanishness? And what assessment can be made nowadays? The Civil War has defined Spain ever since. Yet here was a country which had more than 120 years previously given the world the notion of liberalism. Here was a country which during the last century spawned three of the greats of the world of art - Dali, Miró, Picasso - heirs to the crown of arguably the greatest of all, Francisco de Goya. It was a country of suppressed sophistication, a factor which perhaps contributed (and still does contribute) to the fascination that Spain has for the foreigner.

On the surface, Spanishness was also its enduring images, such as the bullfight and flamenco, ones that the Franco regime was only too willing to promote. But there was what lay under the surface. Writer after writer sought to dissect and analyse it. Ernest Hemingway, Laurie Lee, George Orwell. Not all the writers have taken the Civil War as a theme, but many have and still do. Victoria Hislop's "The Return" is a more contemporary example.

The war continues to inform and inspire the foreign writer. It's unsurprising, given that fundamentals of that time continue to inspire national (and independence) debate. The fascism and militarism no longer exist. Hispanicity, in the sense of some form of fading global power, has faded further. The images have altered. The bullfight has been replaced by the beach. Tapas and football are Spain's global brands. But the struggles remain between conservatism and liberalism, the monarchy and the republic, the church and the secular authorities.

The tensions within Spanishness are created by anti-Spanishness. Some of it is vehement, just as it has been since the days, three hundred years ago, of Felipe IV and his Catalan repressions. Some of it is less so, but in its current-day guise it can cause a collision between one of the global brands and a key reason for the tensions. Barcelona's Gerard Piqué will retire from international football. Pro-Catalan, pro-independence, he says he feels unwanted by the national team. The national team: Spain, España, Spanishness writ large for the current day.

The National Day was against the background of the political chaos caused by the two elections. In truth, this chaos is a re-emergence of how it always was. The years of transition, the boom years under González and Aznar and the stability of politics might be seen as their own anachronisms; Spain has historically not done stability. And into the chaos have come throwbacks to the 1930s - those divisions between left and right, wholly unreconcilable and with the corruption which defined attempts at mock democracies prior to the war.

But there is one thing which is now very different and which undermines any psychological yearning for Hispanicity. It is Europe. Yes, Spain has done well by Europe, but the country is grateful. Catalonia would also be grateful. A new Spanishness of regional acceptance and forgiveness might just breed a new form of nationhood.

From Cuba With Love: Havaneres

In 1860, a composer by the name of Sebastián de Iradier Salaverri went to Cuba. He himself was from the Basque Country and was born in the small town of Lanciego. Sebastián was to die five years after his voyage to Cuba. He didn't live to appreciate quite what he had done, because musically Sebastián had in effect created a musical genre.

One hundred years after he wrote his defining song, a version of it was to be sung by someone who was very much responsible for a musical genre. In the 1961 film "Blue Hawaii", Elvis Presley adopted a somewhat less raunchy style than the one he had been previously famed for. He sang a song that was like a lullaby, but it was an upbeat lullaby with a lusciousness that may have been appropriate for Hawaii but which had been created in Cuba. The song was "No More". Don Robertson and Hal Blair were credited as the writers, but a third name was credited as well - Sebastián Iradier. The song was his. Its original title was "La Paloma".

This is a song that has been recorded hundreds of times. It has been renamed, reinterpreted and reproduced in different languages. Notable among those who have sung it in Spanish is Julio Iglesias. An English version of the original was to be recorded by Nana Mouskouri. What all these versions shared, including the one transported to Hawaii for Elvis, was the genre that Sebastián Iradier was responsible for - the habanera.

Strictly speaking, Sebastián didn't invent the genre. He popularised what already existed. Some twenty years prior to his composing "La Paloma", an article had appeared in an Havana newspaper "La Prensa". It spoke of "the love in the dance". The habanera was both song and dance, something rooted in Cuban culture.

In 1875, the opera "Carmen" by the French composer Georges Bizet was premiered in Paris. It featured a habanera - "Love Is A Rebellious Bird" - and so the style, it might be said, had entered the musical mainstream, where it has stayed ever since.

The habanera, through its clear association with Spain because of the one-time colonial relationship and Sebastián Iradier's song, was to follow different pathways. One of these led to Catalonia where other musical traditions from the Americas, such as rumba, were to undergo a Catalanisation. A popular culture of the Catalan "havanera", a song typically sung in a tavern, took hold, but as with other aspects of Catalan culture it was to suffer from Franco's repression.

Despite this, in 1948 a book was published of the scores of various songs, and these were to help what was a havanera branch line of the so-called "Nova Canció", the new song of the Catalans that was a movement from the 1950s.

In 1966 in a tavern in the tiny fishing village of Calella de Palafrugell in Girona (Catalonia), they held a small song festival. That 1966 "cantada" has become one of the most celebrated occasions in marking out the rediscovery of Catalan folk music tradition. There is still an annual festival, a gathering of havaneres. The tiny village, and it remains tiny, attracts some 30,000 people each July. This year, as will be obvious, marks the fiftieth anniversary of one of the more extraordinary moments in contemporary cultural development.

The havanera and groups of havaneres crossed over the sea to Mallorca. Local groups began to be formed and were part of the peculiar mix of traditional and modern that characterised Mallorcan popular music by the late 1960s. That was an era of cheesy pop, of angst-filled folk and of the truly bizarre - I really must tell the story some time of Los 4 de Asís, the quartet of singing Franciscan monks.

Havaneres are now highly popular. Groups such as Sotavent, who come from Alcudia, are regular performers at fiesta time. These aren't exclusively fiestas in coastal areas, but these are where you might most typically run across havaneres. And in one coastal area - Puerto Soller - they've been holding a gathering ("trobada") of havaneres: the seventh such festival. This is a gathering just like it was fifty years ago in a tiny fishing village in Catalonia.

* The video comes from an IB3 "Alcudia special" from 2010. Some of you may be able to recognise town hall councillors past and present.

Spain's Government: What Now?

Among the numerous party leaders and spokespeople who had their say in the investiture debate last Friday, there was one who would have been largely unknown, not just to anyone from outside Spain but to many within it. This was Iñigo Alli. He was speaking for the Unión del Pueblo Navarro, a regional party that has two deputies in Congress. Alli's intervention would not have been considered important, but amid the fractiousness of the occasion his words were measured and telling. He concluded by observing that over a period of 75 days the main political parties had been incapable of arriving at a solution for government. He urged them to now conduct themselves with humility and generosity in seeking such a solution. They were words that could have been spoken by millions who have no wish for an election re-run and who are growing weary of this very incapability.

There is no denying that the election on 20 December brought about massive upheaval. A PSOE spokesperson in Mallorca, Cosme Bonet, has rightly noted that the consequence of the vote in December requires a new form of analysis: the established way and order was cast asunder five days before Christmas. It was perhaps too much to anticipate that 75 days would be sufficient to arrive at this new analysis. But the question then arises as to how long should be sufficient. If no accord is reached by the start of May, there will be a further hiatus of 54 days before a new election, and it would hold no guarantee of any significant voting change or of creating the means for there to be accord. For month after endless month Spain would be under limbo-government with a nominal administration and an equally nominal opposition.

Faced with this absurdity, humility and generosity are indeed needed. But a pact with such saintly virtues seems as distant as it has been for the now four score days since the election. Given the positions stated and postures adopted during the investiture debates, there seems as if there can be only outcome. Notwithstanding the belief that accommodation can be made with Pedro Sánchez and Albert Rivera held by Mariano Rajoy, whose posturing was as unseemly as anyone's and was an affront to the post that he occupies, neither PSOE nor Ciudadanos (C's) appear inclined to wish to make such accommodation. The only game left in town - for Sánchez - is Podemos.

When the press provide, as they have been for several weeks, their graphics of how different pact permutations would look, these gloss over the enormous complexities of the 20 December upheaval. The media, both in Spain and overseas, can oversimplify a situation that is vastly more nuanced than is suggested by adjectives applied to political parties. In this facile framework, Podemos is constantly referred to as "anti-austerity". It is, but the very use of this discards everything else that it represents. It isn't totally meaningless, but if there were to be simplistic adjectival usage for each party, then why are the C's not given the adjective anti-Catalonian independence? This is a policy every bit as central to the C's narrative as the dismantling of austerity economics is to Podemos.

The Catalonia question is just one that hovers in a Damocles fashion above those who would be in power, an ever-presence prepared to strike and cut limbs from a body for government being crafted like some Frankenstein's monster. Pablo Iglesias of Podemos referred to there being no monsters in his ranks, but there are several monsters of policy constantly poised to render a beast of governmental agreement lifeless. The invective directed at Rivera and the C's over the Catalonia question cannot suddenly be forgotten or forgiven.

PSOE, the C's and Podemos need each other, but they will be unable to arrive at a deal unless there is some humility and generosity. An accord with Sánchez is not impossible - Podemos acolytes made that clear - but how might it come about? There may end up having to be some issues on which they will agree to disagree, such as Catalonia. Podemos hasn't got this far to now spurn the opportunity of influencing national policies, and so one suspects that there may well be a tripartite agreement similar to that which exists in the Balearics. Podemos would commit to a series of policies for a "government of change" but would stay out of the government as such.

Such an arrangement is not working wholly satisfactorily in the Balearics, but it was one which recognised that upheaval to the established way and order had occurred. It is one by which Podemos is not directly accountable or responsible for government, but under the new analysis that Bonet has called for, there is arguably something to commend it. Anything has to be better than the current state of non-government. Doesn't it?

The Muddled Ideology Of Holiday Rentals

Catalonia has a system whereby apartments for holiday rental can be openly marketed. It is a system that operates reasonably well, with accommodation subject to classification according to its standard (which has to meet set levels) and which is also transparent in terms of tax liabilities - revenue on the property, IVA (VAT) and tourist tax.

Despite this system, Catalonia still has a problem with accommodation that has not been registered and is therefore marketed illegally. One of the main means for this marketing is a P2P website, and two such websites - Airbnb and HomeAway - have been hit with fines totalling 120,000 euros by the Barcelona city administration because of what it calls the illegal advertising of tourist apartments.

For Airbnb, this is not the first time that it has fallen foul of a Catalonian administration: the government previously fined it 30,000 euros. But the Barcelona sanction is tougher as it also includes a sort of naming and shaming without actually naming. Plaques denoting legal accommodation have been appearing. If there is a property without one that is being rented out to tourists, then neighbours can readily identify it. 

HomeAway, for its part, has said that it will take legal action, insisting that the city administration's attitude is contrary to principles of free competition and also criticising the public announcement of sanctions without having been formally notified of them. Airbnb, in total disagreement with the fine, has attacked Barcelona for not supporting private individuals who wish, in the language of the P2P phenomenon, "to share" their homes, and adding that it should follow the example of European capitals and regulate in order that private individuals can share.

What Airbnb is getting at here is that the system should be like it now is in London, where new legislation, effective from May last year, allows anyone to rent out on a short-term basis. The previous restriction under the 1973 Greater London Council Act was considered "outdated" as well as a "bureaucratic headache".

Airbnb, by referring to support for private individuals, is also making a thinly veiled comment on the political ideology at Barcelona council. Ada Colau, who became mayor following the municipal election last spring, was a founder of Guanyem, a political party/movement not dissimilar to Podemos and one, therefore, with much the same advocacy of the rights of the citizens.

Barcelona, and especially its La Barceloneta area, has witnessed a massive increase in the availability of private apartments, and in the case of La Barceloneta, these have attracted a youth tourism of a (now former, perhaps) Magalluf style. It was an issue that demanded attention, but in going after Airbnb and HomeAway, while at the same also having an agenda that is not supportive of hotelier interests, Colau's administration appears to be behaving in a manner that is contrary to the rights of the citizens: a muddled ideology, therefore.

In Mallorca, these rights were once expressed by the former mayor of Santa Margalida, Toni Reus, who is from the Mallorcan socialist wing of Més, just as tourism minister Barceló is. Reus said that it was a human right for anyone to rent out property for whatever reason, and he was thinking of the town's resort, Can Picafort.

But while Barceló seems likely to introduce a more permissive system of regulation, he is also concerned about the sheer numbers of tourists coming into the islands in the summer and who are the result of the massive availability of private accommodation, much of it not registered. Airbnb has over 300 rentals in Mallorca (many of them without photos to avoid detection), but it is only one sharing website: there are many others, in addition to websites which are blatantly offering illegal holiday rentals.

One understands that the Balearic government isn't particularly interested in pursuing owners with single properties, but it is interested in the large-scale operators. In the case of Airbnb and others, it is hard to know which type of owner may be advertising and wishing to share.

The sanctions to be imposed in Barcelona, where there are also major concerns with overcrowding, could well cross the sea to Mallorca if administrations here were minded to adopt that city's example, but the same ideological muddle would follow in their wake. Podemos might be in less of a muddle if it follows the attitude of its counterparts in the Canaries who are opposed to anything that prevents tourist rental when it represents an important source of family income.

Ideologically, there shouldn't be restrictions (with the caveat of earnings being declared), but Barceló also has an eco-agenda to pursue as well as the proposal for rentals to be permitted only in certain parts of resorts or Palma. His new legislation is complicated enough, but it has been made more so because of the sharing economy and the rights of the citizen. Deny such sharing, and a basic right is denied.

The Reluctant Anniversary: 1715 and all that

There was a demo in Palma on Saturday evening. Not far from the yacht club, the royal one that is, they were protesting against the occupation. It has lasted three hundred years. In all this time there have also been three hundred years of resistance, said the poster. The fight continues, the poster added, these same announcements adorning the banner held by those leading the protest. For the most part they seemed like earnest young men with beards and glasses. Their number was not great. The local police looked on. By-passers sauntered by. Oh, it'll be another demo, these uninterested observers might have thought, while wending their way to the bars of La Llonja and Santa Catalina, possibly having taken advantage of Black Friday bargains. Of the protesters, there weren't sufficient to match the 300 years of both occupation and resistance.

This occupation, in case you are wondering, is that of the Bourbons and the Spanish army. Three hundred years ago, Felipe V, the first of the Bourbons, issued a decree as one of the series of Nueva Planta, aimed at dealing with what he saw as the sedition of the Catalans and their allies in the Crown of Aragon, of which Mallorca was one. On 28 November, 1715, this particular decree established the post of the Captain General, representative of the king, who enforced military rule of the island. Three hundred years later, resistance, such as it is, is to this very decree.

While the resistance was marching, the occupying force was holding a guard of honour. A Catalan press headline read: "The Spanish army occupies the centre of Palma and fills it with Spanish flags to celebrate the Nueva Planta decree." An accompanying photograph usefully revealed these flags that were lining the street of the Palau Reial, the palace itself being the current residence of the Council of Mallorca.

On the 300 years of occupation, 300 years of resistance Facebook page, there are posts that highlighted the guard of honour and also announced the march. It had 326 likes (as of Sunday) and had shown zero per cent upward like movement since last week. It also announced the commemorative act that was to follow the march. At 7pm on Saturday, they gathered at the headquarters of the Council. Among their number was its president, Miquel Ensenyat, who said that this was "a day of solemnity, which we remember and not celebrate".

The sponsors of the protest, organisations whose names appeared on the poster that is, included Arran, the left-wing Catalan independence youth movement, the successor to the Maulets, an organisation that tended to have more of a revolutionary fervour. Arran, as of two years ago, could count on no more than 700 or so members spread across Catalonia, Valencia and the Balearics.

The Catalonian drive towards independence has its historical roots in the same series of decrees that established the Captain General, but it is this history where similarity ends. Enthusiasm for independence in Catalonia is not matched in Mallorca. Here, it barely exists.

The protest march received little attention in the media. The commemorative act, on the other hand, received some. But then events involving presidents, be they the Council's or the regional government's, will tend to, regardless of the event. The guard of honour, meanwhile - a beefed-up changing of the guard of honour which takes place on the final Saturday of most months - merited some more attention. But not a great deal. The army might have been keen, but there appears not to have been general enthusiasm. On balance, it was perhaps wise to let the occasion pass without too much fuss. There were around 300 people; more than took part in the protest.

In a way, such an important date in the island's history deserved far greater coverage. But while there have been any number of events at local town and village level which have considered what happened three hundred years ago, 28 November, 1715 has been allowed to come and go with barely a murmur: they were far more concerned about the last bargains for Black Friday in Palma. Ensenyat was right in suggesting that there wasn't anything to celebrate, and this could be said for both "sides", such as they are. If you are representatives of the state, then you are hardly going to want to go around appearing triumphalist for something which occurred three hundred years ago. Mark the anniversary, let a band play here or there, and leave it at that.

That Saturday marked a 300th anniversary should say a lot. It was a long time ago. As such, its relevance is mostly as a matter of historical record. There are those who would wish to make more of it, those who continue the resistance and the fight. Their numbers, though, are minimal. History is not forgotten, it may not be totally forgiven, but this is not 1715.

The Immutability Of Institutions

Institution. The word implies permanence and authority. The Parliament of Great Britain, later and now the Parliament of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is one such. It's over 300 years old. It is a word that attaches itself to the non-political as well. Around 70 years after the establishment of Parliament, "The Times" was founded. Longevity and the authority of its words have afforded it institutional status. Sporting bodies are institutions. The Marylebone Cricket Club emerged at the same time as "The Times". Its authority is such that it still clings to being the keeper of the Laws of Cricket. It is a word that also has anthropomorphism. Individuals become institutions, sometimes described as national treasures. Longevity is at play here as well, as is often a touch of gravitas. Known for his comedy, Stephen Fry nonetheless has gravitas derived from being all-knowing and a polymath.

Institutions imply immutability. They don't change. And yet, they do change. Parliament at one time expanded to accommodate Ireland. More recently, it might have undergone fundamental change by losing part of Great Britain. It might yet lose it. "The Times", the first newspaper in the world to bear the name, took the bold step of not devoting its front page to small ads in 1966. It was an institution moving with the times, albeit belatedly. The MCC ceased to be the governing body of English and global cricket when its authority passed to the (then) Test and County Cricket Board and the International Cricket Council. A few years later, women were allowed to become members. The individuals as institutions constantly evolve. Fry is no longer one half of Fry and Laurie or of a cameo in "The Young Ones". One day he'll no longer be with us. Institutions die.

On Tuesday, I attended a discussion in Puerto Pollensa regarding the effects of a UK withdrawal from the European Union that had been organised by Europeos por España. The discussion drew few firm conclusions. Speculation dominates the debate. There is no institutional rule book that governs withdrawal. It has yet to be written.

The EU is an institution that has evolved from its early years as the European Coal and Steel Community. It has been constantly changing, acquiring authority. Yet for all this, it lacks longevity, just as it lacks an element of affection that applies to the national treasure institutions. Its authority is now predicated upon its size and the institutions within it, but its lack of longevity is what should make it susceptible to more radical change than normally occurs with institutions. Could those who signed up to the Single European Act and then Maastricht have been fully aware of how the EU would evolve?

What this act and treaty did was to introduce flexibility in terms of, for instance, freedom of movement but at the same time they limited flexibility. Rules applied to all, an apparently essential facet of any governing institution, but one that is nevertheless debatable. And is debatable in the UK. The EU has been an institution that has evolved via experimentation, as there was no obvious benchmark to guide its development. Institutions, despite being democratic, can't wholly abide dissent that loosens authority, but they should and they must accept this. Otherwise, their authority is in any event weakened through an unwillingness to countenance change. The UK should be granted flexibility. This way, the institution is strengthened, not weakened.

Clinging to authority and power regardless ultimately leads to a form of despotism. The institution is immutable because a powerful cadre insists that this is so. And where does this lead to? The MCC gave up its power. It was a nonsense that a members' club in St. John's Wood should maintain it, especially in the post-Packer era. The power was released to the ICC, an institution not above suspicion but not, as yet, subject to the implosions within FIFA and the IAAF.

FIFA is, in a sense, not dissimilar to the EU. It has evolved from moderate beginnings into a global power, but it has come at a price: that of quasi-despotism and being unloved in many quarters. And now, the demands are for change and for accountability and transparency. Institutions, as a rule, don't care greatly for any of these.

There is a further institution which, in its democratic era, does not have longevity. The authority of the Spanish state, contained in the Constitution, is considered immutable. But the recency of its drafting is what makes it, or should make it, subject to amendment. At the same time as Podemos, Ciudadanos and others have been effecting a shift in mentality towards transparency, Catalonia (some of it) is desirous of change. Flexibility, if this is what the people of Catalonia truly want, should be applied through a harmonious agreement that would strengthen links with the Spanish nation. Nothing should be immutable.

Whose War Is It Anyway?: Catalonia

There was a graphic the other day which showed the sphere of military influence that a "hypothetical" independent Catalonia would require. It featured a couple of fighter planes over the sea between the mainland and the Balearics. They were within this theoretical Catalonian military force field, as also were - pointedly - the military installation on the summit of the Puig Major and indeed the whole of the Balearics.

Hypotheses are edging closer to be realities, yet these realities are unreal. These are truly odd times. Catalonia's parliament, having determined that Spain's Constitutional Court no longer has any legitimacy over Catalonia's affairs, is racing, within the next 30 days, towards the drafting of laws for a separate social security system, a separate treasury and, most significantly, a separate constitution. The appearance is given of independence having already been declared. What next? A separate law for the military and a Catalan invasion of the Balearics reminiscent of 1229? Maybe they'll name the lead fighter plane Jaume I.

The bizarre nature of what is going on can be summed up both by the parliament's pre-independence rejection of Spain's constitution and by Spain's chief prosecutor at the Audiencia Nacional (High Court) having ordered the state's security forces to report on possible offences of sedition and rebellion against the state. The two offences carry, respectively, sentences of up to 15 and 30 years. The High Court doesn't, so it would seem, have powers to prosecute the likes of presidents of regional governments, but it can order investigations, which it has done.

One of the forces which has been given the order is the Catalonian police force, the Mossos d'Esquadra. The fact that it, along with the National Police, the Guardia Civil and the secretary-of-state for security have all been sent a similar instruction by the court should be enough to give Catalonia's leaders the heebie-jeebies. But it is an order which raises rather more concern. Where do the Mossos stand in all this? It's a Catalonian police force, and it was approved as such under Spain's constitution. A Catalonian "constitution" would presumably reiterate and reinforce this, but would this be accepted, while if Catalonia rejects the Spanish constitution, does this not invalidate the provisions of the constitution and the Catalonian statute of autonomy which enabled the Mossos to be transferred to Catalonian jurisdiction in the first place? Moreover, once police forces become embroiled, the whole saga of independence takes on a rather different complexion, as it also does when there is reference - as with the graphic - to military matters.

With reasonable certainty, one can say that the Balearics are not about to become involved and to throw the door open to a Catalonian air force (if it had one, which it doesn't) and allow it to use Palma's Son Sant Joan. Though there are elements within the regional government and the Council of Mallorca who are sympathetic to the notion of the Catalan Lands, their numbers are small, while the populace is not sympathetic. Nor are most politicians, such as from PSOE and even Podemos. Cast as left-wing, on the independence issue Podemos has little truck with it, and that's because it rejects notions of nationalism full stop, be they Spanish, Catalonian or anyone else's.

Balearic politicians have spoken in favour of Catalonia being able to determine its own future, but they, as with many observers from overseas, I suspect, miss the point about how Catalonia arrived at the mad situation in which it finds itself. This is is not just about self-government, self-determination and independence. It has as much if not more to do with Artur Mas.

By the time this article appears, Mas may have been sworn in once more as president of Catalonia. His investiture was on hold because the left-wing CUP voted against it, despite being in favour of independence. The reason it had voted against Mas was that it is concerned that the whole issue, and indeed the whole of Catalonia politics, is focused on one person, i.e. Mas. The CUP wants someone else. It may be right to wish this, but how could Mas walk away or be pushed away from a process which is largely of his own making? 

Mas, at one time cast as a somewhat dull technocratic politician, has dug a hole from which he cannot exit. He has successively become more fanatical about independence when this wasn't once the case. He was pushed towards this by Rajoy's flat refusal to renegotiate Catalonia's financing, but he has also used independence to divert attention from corruption allegations and to seek to bolster his own power. Both he and Rajoy are at fault, but observers from overseas should be under no illusion that the Catalonia affair is all a romantic drive towards independence. It isn't, as it became - for different reasons - Mas's crusade and Mas's war.

The Nation As Victim

Next Monday is Spain's National Day. It is a day that will be celebrated with some joy by travel agents and hoteliers. The Monday is pleasantly convenient for the sale of the "puente" weekend breaks, and in Mallorca there is no tourist tax to worry about. Yet.

It will be a day when there will be powerful affirmations of the Spanish nation: all of Spain, Catalonia included. One nation. But while the oratory will be fine and while it will plead for unity, where, amidst all this rhetoric, will be the sentiments of Spanish people? Pride in the nation quite possibly or even probably, but what sort of nation?

The Catalonia question and the ancillary local one of Mallorca's varying shades of regionalism and nationalism are but two examples of a nation not entirely whole. There are further ones, the Basque Country most obviously, and lesser notions of self-determination in, for instance, Galicia or the Canaries. What these all have in common is history, with the histories of Catalonia and Mallorca inextricably linked in ways that others are not. History, the past are invoked. But to what degree is history claimed by Spaniards, those of the nation for whom demands for secession by parts of the nation appear baffling?

We all of us carry our history with us. I am variously English or British. But in neither guise, despite all the history, do I pay attention to it. I don't think about being English or British, I just am. William the Conqueror, Wars of the Roses, Henry VIII, Elizabeth I, Cromwell, Palmerston, Gladstone, Disraeli, Churchill, the world wars. They all feature but I spend no time in considering any of this in contemplating Englishness or Britishness. And nor, I suspect, do most English people. Scots, Welsh, Irish, I concede, will be different.

Spain's National Day celebrates the moment when land was first discovered in the Americas. In one way it is odd, as the discoverer wasn't Spanish, albeit there are those who would argue that Columbus was - Gabriel Verd, for instance, who is convinced that Columbus came from Porto Colom. Regardless of where he was from, the discovery was what put Spain on the map. Literally. Spanishness invaded the Americas, its central and southerly parts. 1492 was a momentous year. The New World was found and the final Muslim enclave in Granada fell. It ushered in the rivers of gold and the period of imperial and national power that wasn't to endure.

Despite the obvious significance of 1492, for Spaniards, if they consider themselves in historical terms at all, the dates are much more contemporary. 1936 and 1975 define Spain more than do 1492 or 1715. For the Catalonians and for Mallorcans, however, this latter date is defining. 

Catalonia's National Day is quite different in its commemoration to that of Spain. It remembers defeat - in September 1714 - at the hands of Castile and the Bourbons. The consequences of this defeat - the removal of powers, the Nueva Planta decrees, the ending of the wider crown of Aragon, the repression of Catalan - go to the heart of independence. Money also plays a vital role as well, but in terms of sentiment, the events of three hundred years ago influence the secessionist narrative. Just as they also play a part in the sentiments of those in Mallorca who feel a common bond with Catalonia and so also the notion of a nationalism within a grouping of the Catalan Lands.

A prime advocate of this bond is Miquel Ensenyat, the president of the Council of Mallorca. He has been accused, however, of playing the victim card, of styling Mallorca in terms of the persecutory nature of the Nueva Planta. It is this, the notion of the victim, which explains much when it comes to how individuals define themselves. The English were never victims. The Spanish were victims up to a point, but for almost all the period after the Napoleonic Wars of the early nineteenth century until Franco sought to put an end to it, Spain was a nation at war with itself and so brought about its own downfall from power.
 
Though not all Mallorcans will define themselves in the way that Ensenyat does and though likewise not all Catalonians will dwell on matters three hundred years ago, those events do go a long way to explaining how things now are and, as importantly, to explaining how collective mindsets differ. Catalonia is the nation as victim. By extension, so is Mallorca. For the English (British) and the Spanish, there isn't the same collective impulse. Indeed, it is the reverse, because of their times of domination.

It may seem baffling that, in a contemporary society, there is a drive to independence or to expressions of greater nationalism, but if the collective psyche is not one of the victim, then it will be baffling, as there is not the same baggage of the past.

From Banbury Cross To Extremadura

Extremadura is a region of Spain north of Andalusia that nestles next to Portugal. The name comes from "extremo", the generally accepted view being that it was the land furthest from Castile and Leon at the time of the re-conquest and so the furthest but also first line of defence against the Islamic occupation. It is at the extremity of Spain, which implies a certain remoteness and distance, and, more than just geographically, it is. This is a land which is one of the poorest regions of Spain. Its population is roughly similar to that of the Balearic Islands (around 1.1 million), yet its area is vastly greater. Its economy is predominantly services based and great strides are being made to develop its tourism - it is actually one of the more innovative and proactive regions of Spain in this regard. But it is also agricultural, known for the production of tobacco and charcuterie. And its farmers have found themselves in the middle of one almighty great political spat.

Miquel Ensenyat, the president of the Council of Mallorca, was born in Banbury. It is unlikely that the infant Miquel ever became familiar with the competing versions of the Banbury Cross rhyme, but had he, then he would have known the one involving Tommy buying a penny white loaf, a penny white cake and a two-penny apple pie. In the rural Oxfordshire of the eighteenth century, they wouldn't have been reliant on handouts through a redistributive system of tax income, but were the rhyme to be updated and placed in a Spanish context, Tommy would be buying his penny white loaf with a penny derived from Balearic tax revenue, and Tommy, moreover, would have relocated: to Extremadura.

While the children of the Balearics go to school with colouring crayons of thirty-year vintage, the children of Extremadura arrive at their schools with brand new tablets. This was an observation made by Miquel in an interview for "El Mundo" which has blown up in to that almighty great spat. A further one had to do with the farmers of Extremadura. They get paid salaries so that they can go and sit in a bar. This was not an original observation, as some years ago the leader of the UDC (Catalonia Democratic Union), Josep Antoni Duran, had said this of the Extremaduran farmers.

In one respect, drawing on a remark by Duran, might seem odd. The UDC is not what you would call left-wing, unlike Miquel and his party (Més, aka the PSM, Mallorcan Socialists), but the UDC is a Catalonian nationalist party, and it is this nationalism which forms part of the row and the exchanges of opinion between Ensenyat and the PSOE president of Extremadura, Guillermo Fernández Vara, to which have been added the views of any number of other politicians, both in the Balearics and Extremadura.

The spokesperson for the Extremadura government, Isabel Gil Rosiña, has referred to the creation of "unnecessary tensions" raised by people who want to "separate", by which she means nationalism and independence - Catalonian independence, something which Ensenyat favours, as he also favours a political federation of the Catalan Lands of which the Balearics would be a part.

At the heart of all of this, as it has been for years and so since Duran made his original remark about the Extremadura farmers, is money. Nationalism aside, it is the system of financing which is what Ensenyat was referring to, one under which the Balearics (and Catalonia) end up in effect subsidising regions of Spain such as Extremadura. The Balearics, with an almost identical population, raises vastly more in revenues than Extremadura does.

Vara, for his part, says that the children's tablets are not paid for with Balearic money but with the region's own finances, part of which come from the fact that, for all that it isn't that wealthy, it creates more energy than it needs. It benefits from the tax pot, but it gives back in a different way. Regardless of this and regardless also of nationalism, the system of regional financing is one that generates considerable heat, which is why President Armengol is so keen to pursue a better deal from Mariano Rajoy.

Armengol and PSOE have been embarrassed by Ensenyat's comments, though they are saying very little about them. Biel Barceló of Més has said they were "unfortunate" but prefers to attach the blame to Madrid. The people of Extremadura and the Balearics are not responsible for conflict or disputes over financing, Madrid is.

The fallout from the spat is unlikely to claim Ensenyat, although Xavier Pericay of the anti-nationalist Ciudadanos has said that he should resign. Jesus Jurado of Podemos, represented at the Council of Mallorca, has been equivocal in his support of Ensenyat, but he says of him that he doesn't mince his words. Perhaps not, but sometimes they might be chosen with greater care.

The Big Fat One: Greater Catalonia

We all know El Gordo, the big, fat Christmas lottery with the interminable, monotonous infant chanting of the numbers. We don't all know Germà Gordó, but he wants us all to know him. He is Catalonia's minister of justice, and he believes there should be a big, fat Catalonia - the complete Catalan nation of Catalonia, Valencia, part of Aragon, Roussillon and the Balearics. (What have the Andorrans and the few knocking around in Sardinia done to deserve being excluded?)

El Gordó made his remarks at the weekend at the Catalan Summer University, a gathering held in the Roussillon town of Prades, west of Perpignan. The construction of a state, he said, in reference to an independent Catalonia, should not forget the entire nation, by which he meant the above listed regions. This "state" could grant its nationality on their citizens: the Catalonian nationality of a hypothetically independent Catalonia and an even more hypothetically Greater Catalonia, the sovereign nation of the mythical Catalan Lands.

To say that the suggestion has not gone down terribly well would be a massive understatement. The Valencians, in particular, are absolutely furious. If you think the linguistic wars of Mallorca are all a bit baffling not to say weird, these are nothing compared with Valencia's. As far as some Valencians are concerned, the Valencian language was formed separately from Catalan. Ultimately, everything, obviously including the notion of the Catalan Lands, comes back to language. Or not, as the case may be.

In trying to clear up the controversy that has been caused, the Catalonian government spokesperson, Neus Munté, has said that when El Gordó was referring to the entire nation, he was referring only to a strengthening of a common linguistic bond. In so doing, she has really only made matters worse as this clearly wasn't all that was being referred to, while the whole linguistic bond thing is wrapped up in regionalist sentiments, such as that in Valencia, which dispute the existence of such a bond.

But the issue does go wider than language, and it has to do with Catalonian ambition. For many, the Catalonian wish for independence extends beyond its borders and so not to the creation of a greater nation but something akin to a Catalonian empire, with Barcelona at its centre issuing commands.

Mallorca and Mallorcans are contrary. Many a Mallorcan supports Barcelona's football team, way more than support Real Mallorca. Many a Mallorcan clings to a Catalan heritage, bequeathed by Jaume I. But these same Barcelona-supporting, Catalan culturalists want nothing to do with Barcelona political dominance. They also, despite defending the teaching of Catalan and its preferential use in the public sector, say they speak Mallorquín and not Catalan. And they will say it with some intensity, just as they will be equally insistent in saying that they are Mallorcan. Despite all the history, which can get extremely tedious when it comes to arguments regarding linguistic roots, Catalonia's claim to one-time nationhood and so on, Mallorcans have a pick 'n' mix attitude: Catalonia and Catalan when they suit, Mallorca when it doesn't and, more often than not, Spanish as well. And just like the Valencians, there'll be arguments about separate language development.

So when a politician like El Gordó comes along and starts talking about Mallorca and the Balearics being part of a Catalan nation, the Mallorca part of the mix pulls the drawbridge up and repels the invader with its own volleys of rejection, almost as vociferous as those that have emanated from Valencia. The fact is, however, that there is not a cat in hell's chance that such a Catalan nation would ever be formed. President Armengol says that the debate kicked off by El Gordó is "sterile", and she's right, because there is no potency. Repeated surveys into identity have shown that support for the Catalan Lands is all but non-existent. Even some Catalan nationalists in Mallorca will admit that this is the case and that the notion simply would never fly.

This being the case, why is the suggestion even made? Partly of course it is all to do with history. But if history is so sure, why isn't it Aragon making the claim for nationhood, because that's where Jaume was king and that's what Mallorca (and Catalonia) were once a part of - the Crown of Aragon? The history, though, can get tedious. It can be interpreted and used to support whatever claim is being made. It can also, obviously, seem not of the present day or of the future.

But more fundamentally, and this is how the issue is perceived by many Mallorcans, it all has to do with Catalonia having ideas above its station, one that hasn't in fact yet been attained - an independent state. That, independence, does not have widespread support in Mallorca, while Greater Catalonia has virtually none.

Making A Virtue Out Of A Tourist Tax

When Catalonia originally drafted provisions for its tourist tax, the tariffs were higher than those which were eventually implemented. The government had initially spoken of revenues in the region of 100 million euros per annum being raised. This was before tariffs were scaled back. It accepted arguments that rates were too high and too universal. Down came the rates and down also came the number of nights for which it would be applied - to a maximum of seven. In addition, out went any charge for under-16s. The total revenues raised in 2013 and 2014 were, therefore, significantly lower than had initially been envisaged: 38.5 million and 41 million, respectively.

Catalonia's volume of annual tourism is roughly 50% greater than the Balearics. Despite this lower volume, some numbers that have been mentioned regarding a new Balearic tax bear similarity to that which was tossed around with the old eco-tax - approximately 80 million euros a year. On this basis, the Balearic tax would need to be at least double that of Catalonia's; more in fact because of the different volumes.

Catalonia's tax caused some discussion but it was never that fierce. Perhaps this was because the government took the view that more modest rates were appropriate and sufficient. Whatever the reason, Catalonia never lost the PR battle because a PR battle never really ensued. And now, despite the tax, tourism performance has improved. More visitors go to Catalonia than ever before. The tax has had no discernible negative impact.

A point I have made previously regarding a Balearic tax is that it involves Mallorca. Well, obviously it does, but Mallorca is a magnet for international media - both wishing to praise and condemn - in a way that Catalonia is not. The Costa Brava was every bit at the front of the mass tourism movement as Mallorca was, it is still every bit as attractive to visitors from the prime markets of the UK and Germany as it was, yet it does not inspire the same interest. Mallorca is Mallorca: in turn, a jewel and victim of its own success where the media is concerned. If Mallorca has a tax, it will be pounced on, slated, ripped apart amidst insinuations of rip-off. And if it is a tax at a higher rate than Catalonia's, which it would have to be in order to achieve the revenue targets that have been mentioned, it would be compared with Catalonia's in order to reinforce the rip-off point: Mallorca is just plain greedy.

In principle I am not against a tourist tax, so long as it is clear why there might be one. Catalonia was always clear why it wanted one - it is a commercial tax, a scheme designed, in essence, to extract money from tourists who pay for Catalonia to try and attract more tourists. This justification is a reason why I do find it surprising that there hasn't been more of a furore. Why should tourists fund tourism promotion? I can think of no moral reason why they should. But where does morality come into the equation either in Catalonia or elsewhere? The strength of an argument that Mallorca would suffer competitively is lessened by the fact that competitors have taxes: Catalonia is one; France, Bulgaria and Croatia are others; Turkey has its tourist visa; various cities across Europe have taxes; Greece will up its accommodation VAT rate significantly, a tourist tax by another name.

Just because other destinations have a tax isn't a justification for Mallorca. Yet this is how it might appear. PSOE have linked the issue of the tax to a redefinition of financing from Madrid, a process that will not fundamentally alter unless there is a change of government. However, there is already an indication that the PP government has agreed to up direct investment funding significantly (a separate issue to the financing through tax redistribution): it would be in the order of what a tourist tax might actually raise. If this comes about, a tourist tax might then take on a punitive appearance.

If there is to be a tourist tax, it should be symbolic as much as fiscal, a means of tourist involvement, a means not of lessening tourist loyalty but of strengthening it. A tax should be a statement of tourist appreciation of what Mallorca offers. It should not be onerous, certainly no higher than Catalonia's, but it should be "sold" through a grand campaign to explain its purpose. In this, I am inclined to agree with the environmentalists GOB that it should be reserved for the environment, as emotionally this is an easier sell than, say, tourism promotion. Harness social media, flood hotels, airports and ports with publicity, invite tourist suggestions as to use, make tourists part of the tax process not simply contributors. Allow them to be participants. The "new politics" is all about participation, so why not extend this to the island's visitors?

The Benefits Of A Tourist Tax

Catalonia, in case you need reminding, is the only region of Spain which has a tourist tax. It is not an "eco" tax, it is a tourist tax plain and simple, one designed to raise revenue, much of it allocated to purposes for which it was intended: improvements to the tourism offer, promotion, and tackling seasonality. The Catalonian Government has published, in detailed graphical form, the sources of revenue from the tax - by type of tourism accommodation and by areas of Catalonia.

To cut to the chase, the tax had swelled the government's coffers to the tune of 82.3 million euros from the time it was introduced (November 2012) to the end of last year. The revenue is not as great as had at one time been estimated, but this is because the tariffs were reduced from those that had initially been proposed, while a maximum limit of seven nights to which the tax could apply was introduced and under-16s were excluded.

The graphics are revealing in two ways. If one takes the figures for the Costa Brava, the revenue raised by hotel establishments amounts to just over two-thirds. Of the rest, there is significant revenue from camping and from what is simply referred to as "apartment". Camping in Catalonia is a very important aspect of the region's tourism. It is something which in Mallorca doesn't exist in commercial terms: the product of 1986 legislation that made camping all but commercially unfeasible. As for "apartment", a good amount of this will be from private apartments which have been regulated for commercial exploitation under the Catalonian system of standards of accommodation (similar to the "keys" categorisation which applies to the official tourist apartments in Mallorca). There is, of course, no such system for private apartments in Mallorca.

So, Catalonia, which attracts roughly 50% more tourists per annum than the whole of the Balearics, benefits by some 40 million euros a year because of what is a relatively modest tax. It is a tax about which many in the local tourism industry had their doubts, including the president of the travel agencies' association. Yet he, Martí Sarrate, has said that the tax has not affected tourism. Indeed, the revenues have proved to be a "good" thing. When making these observations, he added that a similar tax in the Balearics need not have the negative consequences that many believe that it would.

The possibility of a revival of the eco-tax in the Balearics is fairly and squarely on the political agenda and is a feature of the election battle. President Bauzá remarked the other day that its reintroduction would be an "error". He may be right and it may well indeed be unsuited to Mallorca because of the volume of negative international publicity that a tax would create. But even so, 40 odd million per year is a sum not to be sniffed at.