Showing posts with label Demonstration. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Demonstration. Show all posts
Sunday, September 29, 2013
MALLORCA TODAY - Teachers demonstration brings Palma to a standstill
At least 60,000 people are said to have been taking part in a demonstration in the centre of Palma this evening in protest at the introduction of trilingual teaching into Balearics schools by the regional government and in support of the teachers strike, which will enter its third week tomorrow. In addition to unions, various other organisations have supported the demonstration, e.g. the pro-Catalan Obra Cultural Balear and pensioners association. The demonstration is said to be the largest ever staged in Mallorca and has brought Palma in the area in and around the Plaza España to a standstill.
Monday, December 31, 2012
MALLORCA TODAY - Demonstrators call for Catalan Lands independence
The annual demonstration to coincide with what some argue should be Mallorca's "day" (31 December) brought some 7,000 people onto the streets of Palma yesterday to call for independence for the Catalan Lands, of which Mallorca and Balearics would be a part. The reports of the number of demonstrators vary, the right-wing "El Mundo" put the figure at only 3,000.
See more: Diario de Mallorca
See more: Diario de Mallorca
Monday, March 12, 2012
MALLORCA TODAY - 1500 people protest in Palma against labour reforms
Yesterday, at around lunchtime, some 1500 demonstrators took part in a protest against national government labour reforms.
See more: El Mundo
See more: El Mundo
Tuesday, March 06, 2012
MALLORCA TODAY - Catalan defence demonstration in Sa Pobla
The recently formed Moviment per la Llengua with leading current and former Partido Popular politicians at its helm is to stage a demonstration in defence of Catalan and its use in the public sector in Sa Pobla on Sunday. The choice of Sa Pobla in this protest against Balearic Government reforms is symbolic as Sa Pobla has arguably the strongest association with Catalan among towns in Mallorca.
See more: Diario de Mallorca
See more: Diario de Mallorca
Thursday, June 03, 2010
Having A Mare: The mayor and the Puerto Pollensa revolution
Who would be mayor of a local town hall? Especially Pollensa.
There must have been a point, many years ago, when Joan Cerdà thought, if only I could be mayor of Pollensa. The people would look up to me. I would represent them all fairly and justly, always seeking to put their wishes into action. At some time in the past, the mayors of Sa Pobla and Santa Margalida probably had similar thoughts. They have ended up, respectively, being lambasted for hiring private detectives to spy on personnel and having their face superimposed onto a mock 500 euro note. Cerdà has ended up - ended up yesterday - holed up inside the municipal building in Puerto Pollensa while a thousand or so demonstrators gathered outside to demand some action by him and by his town hall administration. Even the thickest-skinned mayor must feel some hurt by such intense a protest. I felt sorry for him yesterday. Just as he was instructing the press to leave the office in which he was going to talk to the organisers of the demonstration, I took a photograph of him. He looked straight at the camera. It was a mixture of boiling-point and breaking-point. Who would be mayor of a local town hall?
On the march yesterday, and speaking to some leading lights, there was confirmation of what I have said about the demonstration: that its origins can be traced back to the successful opposition to the pedestrianisation scheme; that tourism economic hard times had been instrumental in provoking it; that there is a real issue in terms of the separation between the town and the resort. In an ideal world, the last of these might be overcome through the creation of - in effect - a separate mayor or at least a port delegate with some real teeth and some real money. Even more than the mayor perhaps, the current delegate - Francisca Ramon - is held in general contempt, and she was treated with huge amounts of it when she tried to address the masses. But she has no real power; it's not totally her fault, even if she may be considered to be little more than a town hall lackey.
The tourism hard times are the fault of neither the mayor nor the delegate, but Cerdà is somehow now being blamed - by implication (that of the deficiencies in the port) - for the tourism downturn. It's unfair, but he has done little to prevent such an impression. "First-class tax but third-class service," was a chant yesterday. The town hall takes - massively - but doesn't give back, and lets the local tourism industry suffer. That, at least, is what the protesters believe.
And the town hall have fanned more flames. Among the protesters were The Hustlers. I had suggested that the apparent music ban might be tagged onto the protest, and so it was. The band, and other musicians, are proposing their own showdown with the mayor. The timing of pursuing the ban was crass, to say the least. The mayor is also facing more pressure - to come today at the plenary session - regarding the Pollensa music festival finances and possible links to the Operación Voltor corruption case. He really couldn't will himself any more grief. But he's got it. Stacks of it. Who would be mayor of a local town hall?
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
There must have been a point, many years ago, when Joan Cerdà thought, if only I could be mayor of Pollensa. The people would look up to me. I would represent them all fairly and justly, always seeking to put their wishes into action. At some time in the past, the mayors of Sa Pobla and Santa Margalida probably had similar thoughts. They have ended up, respectively, being lambasted for hiring private detectives to spy on personnel and having their face superimposed onto a mock 500 euro note. Cerdà has ended up - ended up yesterday - holed up inside the municipal building in Puerto Pollensa while a thousand or so demonstrators gathered outside to demand some action by him and by his town hall administration. Even the thickest-skinned mayor must feel some hurt by such intense a protest. I felt sorry for him yesterday. Just as he was instructing the press to leave the office in which he was going to talk to the organisers of the demonstration, I took a photograph of him. He looked straight at the camera. It was a mixture of boiling-point and breaking-point. Who would be mayor of a local town hall?
On the march yesterday, and speaking to some leading lights, there was confirmation of what I have said about the demonstration: that its origins can be traced back to the successful opposition to the pedestrianisation scheme; that tourism economic hard times had been instrumental in provoking it; that there is a real issue in terms of the separation between the town and the resort. In an ideal world, the last of these might be overcome through the creation of - in effect - a separate mayor or at least a port delegate with some real teeth and some real money. Even more than the mayor perhaps, the current delegate - Francisca Ramon - is held in general contempt, and she was treated with huge amounts of it when she tried to address the masses. But she has no real power; it's not totally her fault, even if she may be considered to be little more than a town hall lackey.
The tourism hard times are the fault of neither the mayor nor the delegate, but Cerdà is somehow now being blamed - by implication (that of the deficiencies in the port) - for the tourism downturn. It's unfair, but he has done little to prevent such an impression. "First-class tax but third-class service," was a chant yesterday. The town hall takes - massively - but doesn't give back, and lets the local tourism industry suffer. That, at least, is what the protesters believe.
And the town hall have fanned more flames. Among the protesters were The Hustlers. I had suggested that the apparent music ban might be tagged onto the protest, and so it was. The band, and other musicians, are proposing their own showdown with the mayor. The timing of pursuing the ban was crass, to say the least. The mayor is also facing more pressure - to come today at the plenary session - regarding the Pollensa music festival finances and possible links to the Operación Voltor corruption case. He really couldn't will himself any more grief. But he's got it. Stacks of it. Who would be mayor of a local town hall?
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
Wednesday, June 02, 2010
Puerto Pollensa Protest - Manifestación - 2 June (2)
More photos from the protest. Includes various restaurant owners/managers, Garry Bonsall getting the petition signed and the mayor getting shirty.
Puerto Pollensa Protest - Manifestación - 2 June
Here are some photos from today's protest. Delegate Francisca Ramon and Mayor Joan Cerdà under pressure. Protesters outside the town hall building. Banners laid out in front of the building.
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