Biel Company is allegedly the president of the Partido Popular in the Balearics. For several months, despite his having been given this accolade, he was rarely to be seen or heard. He is now finally beginning to demonstrate that he is indeed the president and to allay any suspicions or fears that he had been run over by a tractor in his native Sant Joan while regressing to his former life as champion of the farming community.
If you are not already aware, then by goodness you are going to become aware that there is an election in sixteen months time. The long campaign has started. Biel will be hopeful that this campaign heralds the long goodbye for Sweet and Friendly Francina and her chums in Més and Podemos. His hope may be misplaced. Biel has not exactly been rallying the electoral troops to the PP side.
Doubtless recognising that his party is at present heading for another election disaster, Biel has come out fighting in the long campaign. If all else fails, and there is in fact nothing else to try and pin on the incumbent Balearic president, then it is necessary to call her a compulsive liar. Which he has. Francina's lying has to do with a demand that the PP repays some 150 grand of 2007 election subvention. As if anyone actually cares. It was ten years ago, it was the time of Matas. Get over it, and talk about matters in the present. But no, the compulsion - for both Biel and Francina - is to rake over the past, and where Biel is concerned, the raking appears to mainly have involved the soil of his own personal agricultural heritage.
Is Francina a compulsive liar? No, she is not. She does, however, suffer from a compulsive disorder. It is not treatable. It is called compulsive consensus. So essential has it become for Francina to insist that her government abides fully by the principle of consensus that she has clearly come to believe this. Unfortunately for Francina, no one else does. The evidence stacks up by the day and will stack up further as she and her governmental buddies go into full-on election mode. Yes, we have sixteen months of all this to endure.
If there is a compulsive liar, then last week once more revealed who it was, as if the revelation were in fact needed. Donald Trump is not just a compulsive liar, he is a compulsive lunatic. But at least with DT there is the entertainment factor, even though presidents are not usually judged by their ability to entertain us all royally. So, Biel needs to understand the true meaning of compulsive lying in a presidential sense. Francina isn't even on the first rung of the compulsion ladder; not when compared with the master who has scaled its heights in The White House.
Biel should really be devoting far greater attention to a different disorder - compulsive citizenship. All Balearic politicians suffer from this due to their constant invoking of the citizens, but where Biel is concerned he needs to take due note of the party that has named itself in the name of the citizens (there's compulsion for you) - Ciudadanos. Biel said that he wasn't worried about the rise and rise of the C's. Well, he's wrong not to be worried, especially as he needs to be very nice to them. The PP hasn't got a cat in hell's chance of recovering all the seats that Bauzá destroyed in 2015, so the C's have to be looked upon as very real, potential coalition allies after the May 2019 election.
This, however, will mean that Biel has to cosy up to the morose leader of the Cs, Xavier Pericay. And he has his own disorder - compulsive anti-Catalanism. On and on he drones in this manner. Sixteen more months we have of this. The citizens may as a result decide to switch off from the Citizens party. The citizens might also wish to know what the Citizens party has to offer them apart from not needing to have a Catalan qualification for being a nurse. Curiously enough, the wild man of Més, compulsive independentist David Abril, has hit the nail on the head in this regard. Rather than constant attacks on Catalan, he said, let's hear some policies.
Xavier will unquestionably be aghast to learn that the leadership of the Council of Majorca, one part of which (the presidential part) has compulsive Catalanism, let the Obra Cultural Balear (compulsive Catalanists and compulsive independentists) have the use of the Teatre Principal for free so that it could turn its annual awards ceremony into propaganda for the incarcerated Jordis of Catalonia, with the acting speaker of the Catalan parliament, Carme Forcadell, handing out the gongs.
According to the Council's vice-president for culture, PSOE's Francesc Miralles (not prone to the same compulsion of the president), the Council always lets the OCB have the theatre for nothing. But Francesc declined to comment on what took place and nor has he said anything about the fact that apparently the cost of transmission for this gala occasion was borne by the IB3 broadcaster and the government's culture ministry (run by Més).
Carme has since resigned as speaker, and when this became knowledge, our good friend Balti of the Balearic parliament (compulsive Republicanism) tweeted a message of support. "Health and Republic," said Balti, adding "strength from the companion islands".
Xavier will not have been impressed. Are any of us with all their various compulsive disorders?
Showing posts with label Francina Armengol. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Francina Armengol. Show all posts
Monday, January 15, 2018
Monday, July 10, 2017
PSOE In The Balearics Preparing For Election
PSOE, otherwise known as PSIB, will be holding their regional congress at the end of next week. Francina Armengol is assured of warm rounds of applause, having already secured her re-election as party general secretary. Four more years, they may well chant, this being how long she has been re-elected for. In under two years time, others (i.e. the electorate) will be invited to grant her four more years as president.
Not that it will be simple for her. The history of PSOE (PSIB) presidents of the Balearics - there have only been two of them, Armengol and Antich - demonstrates that pacts are necessary. For all her unconvincing words about the "progressive" pact of the left, the involvement of Podemos is as capable of arousing suspicions as used to be the case with the Unió Mallorquina. Podemos may be of the left (which the UM were not), but the pact has been no easier than when Maria Munar effectively called the Antich shots before the UM were finally destroyed by the anti-corruption prosecution service.
Past the halfway mark of the administration, Armengol now has to plot the route to the 2019 election. History tells us that she won't have to concern herself with a new or reconfirmed pact, because the Partido Popular will win; as it did in 2003 and 2011 after the two Antich administrations. However, it is not yet obvious that history will repeat itself. The PP has a new leader, Biel Company. More in tune with the PP of the old Balearic school, meaning that he is not a rabid anti-Catalanist in the style of José Ramón Bauzá, Company presents a more acceptable PP face. But under two years away from the election, it is by no means certain that he will secure the mandate.
Company and the PP find themselves in an awkward situation. The PP have backed the calls for a revised economic regime for the Balearics, and the national party - in the form of the Spanish government - appears willing to finally make this a reality. The ink won't be dry on any agreement until some time next year, but if it represents a favourable outcome, then the Rajoy government may well deal a blow to Company.
Doubtless aware of this possibility, the deputy prime minister, Soraya Sáenz de Santamaria, is crafting a higher profile for the government's delegate in the Balearics, Maria Salom. The PP's one-time Council of Mallorca president, Salom is to effectively be "relaunched", as is the delegation. What this means is that the national party wants to impress upon the Balearic public the key roles played by Salom and by Madrid in Balearic affairs. Consequently, as and when a new economic regime is confirmed, the spin machine will seek to ensure that it is Madrid which is seen to be delivering largesse. It will be the national government (i.e. the PP) which makes lives of Balearic citizens better and not Armengol and her regional government.
The problem for Rajoy, Sáenz de Santamaria and Salom (and also Company) is that the electorate might not buy the spin. The economic regime is fundamental to the next election. It's highly doubtful that Madrid will grant the Balearics all the items on the shopping list, but some key ones may be forthcoming. If the financing system were to be overhauled and the Balearics were able to keep more income tax and IVA (VAT) revenue than the islands currently give away, this alone would represent a massive result for Armengol. However, delivering a reformed financing system requires - as Rajoy has pointed out - an accord among regional presidents. Given that many regions benefit from Balearic tax revenue, they will be loathe to accede to Balearic demands.
Nevertheless, it would seem that some new and more beneficial arrangement will be hammered out next year. And lurking in the background is what Congress might have in store. With Pedro Sánchez restored to PSOE's national leadership and with the Rajoy administration on shaky ground, there may yet be a drive towards a provisional form of federalism, which is what Armengol has been advocating. One says provisional because federalism couldn't be rushed, but the principle would mean a different approach to tax revenue and regional powers.
More immediate than any reconstitution of the regional relationship with the state would be the nitty-gritty of the new economic regime. The Balearics have a justifiable, even moral claim for a system to compensate for insularity. Madrid does now appear to accept the argument, but for Armengol and PSIB there is greater urgency in mapping out the path to 2019. The party won't win on its own, which raises the issue of a future pact and therefore dealings with Podemos in particular. And already there are signs of shifts in policy, e.g. on tourism, that bear something of the Podemos mark. These shifts will be on the agenda at the congress, and I'll consider them in a following article.
Not that it will be simple for her. The history of PSOE (PSIB) presidents of the Balearics - there have only been two of them, Armengol and Antich - demonstrates that pacts are necessary. For all her unconvincing words about the "progressive" pact of the left, the involvement of Podemos is as capable of arousing suspicions as used to be the case with the Unió Mallorquina. Podemos may be of the left (which the UM were not), but the pact has been no easier than when Maria Munar effectively called the Antich shots before the UM were finally destroyed by the anti-corruption prosecution service.
Past the halfway mark of the administration, Armengol now has to plot the route to the 2019 election. History tells us that she won't have to concern herself with a new or reconfirmed pact, because the Partido Popular will win; as it did in 2003 and 2011 after the two Antich administrations. However, it is not yet obvious that history will repeat itself. The PP has a new leader, Biel Company. More in tune with the PP of the old Balearic school, meaning that he is not a rabid anti-Catalanist in the style of José Ramón Bauzá, Company presents a more acceptable PP face. But under two years away from the election, it is by no means certain that he will secure the mandate.
Company and the PP find themselves in an awkward situation. The PP have backed the calls for a revised economic regime for the Balearics, and the national party - in the form of the Spanish government - appears willing to finally make this a reality. The ink won't be dry on any agreement until some time next year, but if it represents a favourable outcome, then the Rajoy government may well deal a blow to Company.
Doubtless aware of this possibility, the deputy prime minister, Soraya Sáenz de Santamaria, is crafting a higher profile for the government's delegate in the Balearics, Maria Salom. The PP's one-time Council of Mallorca president, Salom is to effectively be "relaunched", as is the delegation. What this means is that the national party wants to impress upon the Balearic public the key roles played by Salom and by Madrid in Balearic affairs. Consequently, as and when a new economic regime is confirmed, the spin machine will seek to ensure that it is Madrid which is seen to be delivering largesse. It will be the national government (i.e. the PP) which makes lives of Balearic citizens better and not Armengol and her regional government.
The problem for Rajoy, Sáenz de Santamaria and Salom (and also Company) is that the electorate might not buy the spin. The economic regime is fundamental to the next election. It's highly doubtful that Madrid will grant the Balearics all the items on the shopping list, but some key ones may be forthcoming. If the financing system were to be overhauled and the Balearics were able to keep more income tax and IVA (VAT) revenue than the islands currently give away, this alone would represent a massive result for Armengol. However, delivering a reformed financing system requires - as Rajoy has pointed out - an accord among regional presidents. Given that many regions benefit from Balearic tax revenue, they will be loathe to accede to Balearic demands.
Nevertheless, it would seem that some new and more beneficial arrangement will be hammered out next year. And lurking in the background is what Congress might have in store. With Pedro Sánchez restored to PSOE's national leadership and with the Rajoy administration on shaky ground, there may yet be a drive towards a provisional form of federalism, which is what Armengol has been advocating. One says provisional because federalism couldn't be rushed, but the principle would mean a different approach to tax revenue and regional powers.
More immediate than any reconstitution of the regional relationship with the state would be the nitty-gritty of the new economic regime. The Balearics have a justifiable, even moral claim for a system to compensate for insularity. Madrid does now appear to accept the argument, but for Armengol and PSIB there is greater urgency in mapping out the path to 2019. The party won't win on its own, which raises the issue of a future pact and therefore dealings with Podemos in particular. And already there are signs of shifts in policy, e.g. on tourism, that bear something of the Podemos mark. These shifts will be on the agenda at the congress, and I'll consider them in a following article.
Saturday, December 31, 2016
The Charades Of Congress And Francina
Goodness, what fun that was, and it was only spoiled by them actually approving the investiture of Mariano. There I had been, encouraging them to keep on having failed elections and failed investitures and to see if they could go the entire period of the (notional) legislature, i.e. until 2019, with Mazza doing his acting. Still, there's always the next time, we can but hope.
Had there not been the investiture, the Yuletide would have been a time for dissecting the consequences of another failed election. They were to deprive us of a Christmastime charade, we all having got used to charades during the year. Take, for instance, the one involving Ant and Dec in March. The head boy of PSOE, Pedro Sánchez, and his buddy, the little C of the C's, Albert Rivera, concocted the preposterous notion of putting Pedro up for investiture. There was only the slight matter of 88 votes which prevented this cunning plan from being put into effect.
Ant and Dec went their separate ways. Albert, seeking anyone who would have him and the other C's, tagged along with Super Mariano and eventually succeeded in helping to push Old Greybeard over the finishing line. There was more important support from the turncoats of PSOE, whose Andalusian power base - led by the dominatrix Susana Díaz - purged Pedro and offered their ironically submissive cries of yes to the Mazza investiture. Much though he was (is) objectionable, the Ruffian (Gabriel) of the Catalonian Republicans had a point when he branded the PSOE ranks as traitors to socialism.
The Ruffian and others among the Wild Left have ended the year in rather poorer shape (and humour) than they started it. Podemos appear to be irretrievably split according to degrees of lunacy. The monster raving wing under Pablo Iglesias is butting heads with the monster raving (sensible) faction led by The Infant, Iñigo Errejón, who visibly grew into adulthood during the year. Such was the divide that Pablo issued a Christmas message in which he apologised if it appeared as if Podemos were going tits up. And he wasn't referring to Rita Maestre, The Infant's "chica", who was let off by a court for having got them out in church.
All eyes will thus be turned towards the pleasant view of Vista Alegre II in February, when the Politburo will call the brotherhood and sisterhood and decide the fate of Podemos. Iglesias has said he'll step down if his "project" loses. The Infant, meanwhile, should beware any metaphorical ice-picks being delivered to his head and subsequent airbrushing from the collective memory of the Podemos collective. Whither Podemos? It's going to be a key issue in 2017.
Someone who will not be taking in the pleasant view will be battling ex-Podemos and soon to be ex-president of the Balearic parliament, Xe-Lo Huertas. It's hard to determine whether she was the victim of bullyboy (and girl) tactics on behalf of fellow travellers (no longer travelling together) or if she was just plain daft. Either way, she will cease to bustle into the speaker's chair, the big question being who will assume her role and be the one to advise the King that spending on his Almudaina reception would be more wisely invested in soup kitchens.
The Podemos local difficulty merely added to the sense of disbelief which surrounds Francina Armengol's government. La Presidenta has spent the whole year drifting around in the fog of her own charade - one of insistence that all is consensus and dialogue and as sweet and friendly as she is. It clearly is not, as was exemplified by the less than merry ding-dong which occurred between the normally jovial Enviro Man Vince Vidal (my personal favourite of the year) and Cati Cladera at finance. It was all about budgets and how much the Mésite ministries (of which Vince's is one) were to get, or not.
Further division is potentially looming, courtesy once more of Podemos. With it being suggested that Alberto Jarabo has lost the local dressing-room, might the terrifying Boot Girl, Laura Camargo, make a bid for officially taking command as opposed to be commanding from the rear (Alberto's that is)?
These rifts were as nought, however, when compared with the PP. Great sport awaits us when and if they finally have their regional congress and if J.R. does end up putting his name into the ring as returning president. The party's bouncer, one-time tourism minister Jaime Martínez, still maintains that it will be he who will be leading the even further to the right faction than the other lot. Biel Company (not as far to the right) remains odds-on, but we should be praying that Bauzá does make a bid. The entertainment will be greater than anything even Podemos can serve up.
Index for December 2016
Arenal tram - 5 December 2016
Constitutional reform - 6 December 2016
Cuba and Mallorca's hoteliers - 1 December 2016
Financing the Balearics - 20 December 2016
Fire service in Mallorca - 11 December 2016
Francina Armengol and second term - 19 December 2016
Holiday rentals and housing legislation - 8 December 2016, 14 December 2016, 18 December 2016
Ideology and political change - 27 December 2016
Insults and offence in 2016 - 28 December 2016
Investiture and other charades - 31 December 2016
Ironman - 16 December 2016
José Ramón Bauzá comeback - 26 December 2016
Mallorca and Airbnb - 3 December 2016
Mallorca Day - 9 December 2016
Matances pig slaughter - 17 December 2016
Odd stuff in 2016 - 29 December 2016
Palma airport name - 15 December 2016
Podemos and dissent - 4 December 2016, 12 December 2016
Real Mallorca - 23 December 2016
Religious tourism - 7 December 2016
Santa Claus - 25 December 2016
Saturation, sustainability and stability - 30 December 2016
Shopping tourism - 2 December 2016
Sibil-la - 24 December 2016
Subbuteo - 13 December 2016
Tourism press - 10 December 2016
Tourism promotion - 22 December 2016
Weather obsession - 21 December 2016
Had there not been the investiture, the Yuletide would have been a time for dissecting the consequences of another failed election. They were to deprive us of a Christmastime charade, we all having got used to charades during the year. Take, for instance, the one involving Ant and Dec in March. The head boy of PSOE, Pedro Sánchez, and his buddy, the little C of the C's, Albert Rivera, concocted the preposterous notion of putting Pedro up for investiture. There was only the slight matter of 88 votes which prevented this cunning plan from being put into effect.
Ant and Dec went their separate ways. Albert, seeking anyone who would have him and the other C's, tagged along with Super Mariano and eventually succeeded in helping to push Old Greybeard over the finishing line. There was more important support from the turncoats of PSOE, whose Andalusian power base - led by the dominatrix Susana Díaz - purged Pedro and offered their ironically submissive cries of yes to the Mazza investiture. Much though he was (is) objectionable, the Ruffian (Gabriel) of the Catalonian Republicans had a point when he branded the PSOE ranks as traitors to socialism.
The Ruffian and others among the Wild Left have ended the year in rather poorer shape (and humour) than they started it. Podemos appear to be irretrievably split according to degrees of lunacy. The monster raving wing under Pablo Iglesias is butting heads with the monster raving (sensible) faction led by The Infant, Iñigo Errejón, who visibly grew into adulthood during the year. Such was the divide that Pablo issued a Christmas message in which he apologised if it appeared as if Podemos were going tits up. And he wasn't referring to Rita Maestre, The Infant's "chica", who was let off by a court for having got them out in church.
All eyes will thus be turned towards the pleasant view of Vista Alegre II in February, when the Politburo will call the brotherhood and sisterhood and decide the fate of Podemos. Iglesias has said he'll step down if his "project" loses. The Infant, meanwhile, should beware any metaphorical ice-picks being delivered to his head and subsequent airbrushing from the collective memory of the Podemos collective. Whither Podemos? It's going to be a key issue in 2017.
Someone who will not be taking in the pleasant view will be battling ex-Podemos and soon to be ex-president of the Balearic parliament, Xe-Lo Huertas. It's hard to determine whether she was the victim of bullyboy (and girl) tactics on behalf of fellow travellers (no longer travelling together) or if she was just plain daft. Either way, she will cease to bustle into the speaker's chair, the big question being who will assume her role and be the one to advise the King that spending on his Almudaina reception would be more wisely invested in soup kitchens.
The Podemos local difficulty merely added to the sense of disbelief which surrounds Francina Armengol's government. La Presidenta has spent the whole year drifting around in the fog of her own charade - one of insistence that all is consensus and dialogue and as sweet and friendly as she is. It clearly is not, as was exemplified by the less than merry ding-dong which occurred between the normally jovial Enviro Man Vince Vidal (my personal favourite of the year) and Cati Cladera at finance. It was all about budgets and how much the Mésite ministries (of which Vince's is one) were to get, or not.
Further division is potentially looming, courtesy once more of Podemos. With it being suggested that Alberto Jarabo has lost the local dressing-room, might the terrifying Boot Girl, Laura Camargo, make a bid for officially taking command as opposed to be commanding from the rear (Alberto's that is)?
These rifts were as nought, however, when compared with the PP. Great sport awaits us when and if they finally have their regional congress and if J.R. does end up putting his name into the ring as returning president. The party's bouncer, one-time tourism minister Jaime Martínez, still maintains that it will be he who will be leading the even further to the right faction than the other lot. Biel Company (not as far to the right) remains odds-on, but we should be praying that Bauzá does make a bid. The entertainment will be greater than anything even Podemos can serve up.
Index for December 2016
Arenal tram - 5 December 2016
Constitutional reform - 6 December 2016
Cuba and Mallorca's hoteliers - 1 December 2016
Financing the Balearics - 20 December 2016
Fire service in Mallorca - 11 December 2016
Francina Armengol and second term - 19 December 2016
Holiday rentals and housing legislation - 8 December 2016, 14 December 2016, 18 December 2016
Ideology and political change - 27 December 2016
Insults and offence in 2016 - 28 December 2016
Investiture and other charades - 31 December 2016
Ironman - 16 December 2016
José Ramón Bauzá comeback - 26 December 2016
Mallorca and Airbnb - 3 December 2016
Mallorca Day - 9 December 2016
Matances pig slaughter - 17 December 2016
Odd stuff in 2016 - 29 December 2016
Palma airport name - 15 December 2016
Podemos and dissent - 4 December 2016, 12 December 2016
Real Mallorca - 23 December 2016
Religious tourism - 7 December 2016
Santa Claus - 25 December 2016
Saturation, sustainability and stability - 30 December 2016
Shopping tourism - 2 December 2016
Sibil-la - 24 December 2016
Subbuteo - 13 December 2016
Tourism press - 10 December 2016
Tourism promotion - 22 December 2016
Weather obsession - 21 December 2016
Monday, December 19, 2016
Re-Election?: It's All About Stability
Ask a footballer or football manager if they have thought about winning the league or the cup (whichever leagues or cups these might be), and the stock response is we're taking each game as it comes. This is of course nonsense. Winning something is the be-all and end-all, albeit that making stacks of money is equally a be and an end. But having the next game to take allows the footballing fraternity to at least attempt to convey an impression of not getting ahead of itself. The same cannot be said for politicians.
Put a question about winning the election to an incumbent regional president in Spain (or political leader anywhere), and there aren't intervening milestones with which to deflect the question. There is only one goal - winning the next election - and the answer isn't going to be anything else.
Francina Armengol would like to believe that she and her chums in PSOE will win the regional election in 2019. Given that she didn't actually win the 2015 election (in terms of number of votes, share of votes or seats in parliament), her optimism might seem slightly misplaced. Moreover, she would turn Balearic PSOE history on its head, were she to be returned as president; a PSOE-led administration has never secured a second term.
PSOE-led is the important bit. PSOE has had to form pacts in order to get its collective size nines under the desks of power. The main difference with the current one is that it is exclusively a pact of the left; the two previous administrations were not. It is also a pact, as if we needed reminding, based on consensus and dialogue. And if we do need reminding, then Francina will gladly oblige - over and over and over again.
This constant mantra serves to paper over the cracks, the very ones that existed at the time that the pact was formed. It is also one which acknowledges, without this being expressly stated, that the two previous pacts may have had dialogue but certainly didn't always have consensus. The presence of the rightist Unió Mallorquina, which had its particular agenda against the PSM (now the main force in Més), was a guarantee of some conflict. With their competing versions of Mallorcan (Balearic) nationalism - one from the right, one from the left - they were never natural allies. Yet curiously, if one looks back at the defeat of the first pact in 2003, one finds that there was one issue on which these two parties mainly saw eye to eye - the ecotax.
While the tax didn't lose Francesc Antich and PSOE the election in spring 2003, the disagreements that it had provoked did affect the electorate's perception of the pact. The circumstances, in a tourism sense, were quite different when the tax was approved in 2001. Mallorca was facing stiff competition and there was a sense of crisis. To compound this, there was to be 9/11. The UM kept up the appearance of support for the tax, while the PSM (strange though it will seem now) lost total confidence in it. Moreover, PSOE itself was split. Joan Mesquida, the finance minister, wanted it to be delayed. In the end, it came into effect, as had been planned, on 1 May 2002.
The memory of this helps to explain the clinging to the life-raft of the new ecotax. Armengol insists there is consensus, despite this time PSOE having been the reluctant party, whereas it had driven the old ecotax. It is vital, therefore, for there to be a perception of unanimity if Armengol is to have a chance of obtaining a second term. But such a perception is made difficult because of the turmoil within one of the parties, i.e. Podemos.
In 2011, José Ramón Bauzá and the PP just needed to turn up in order to win. Economic crisis did for the second Antich administration, but there were other factors, notably the collapse in a corrupt heap of the UM, thrown out of the pact by Antich. Although the circumstances are very different, Armengol stresses the "stability" of the pact, knowing that instability contributed to the loss in 2011. She needs Podemos to hold together, much though Podemos make her life awkward. Otherwise, things are at present going well for her - the economy is sound and the PP in the Balearics is still in some disarray: without a permanent leader and with arguments between factions, of which Bauzá forms one. If, between now and the 2019 election, she can secure a new and favourable financing deal from Madrid for the Balearics, this would be a huge election advantage.
The election is a long way off, but some of the signs are currently in favour of Armengol and a second term. One thing she probably won't have to worry about is the tourist tax.
Put a question about winning the election to an incumbent regional president in Spain (or political leader anywhere), and there aren't intervening milestones with which to deflect the question. There is only one goal - winning the next election - and the answer isn't going to be anything else.
Francina Armengol would like to believe that she and her chums in PSOE will win the regional election in 2019. Given that she didn't actually win the 2015 election (in terms of number of votes, share of votes or seats in parliament), her optimism might seem slightly misplaced. Moreover, she would turn Balearic PSOE history on its head, were she to be returned as president; a PSOE-led administration has never secured a second term.
PSOE-led is the important bit. PSOE has had to form pacts in order to get its collective size nines under the desks of power. The main difference with the current one is that it is exclusively a pact of the left; the two previous administrations were not. It is also a pact, as if we needed reminding, based on consensus and dialogue. And if we do need reminding, then Francina will gladly oblige - over and over and over again.
This constant mantra serves to paper over the cracks, the very ones that existed at the time that the pact was formed. It is also one which acknowledges, without this being expressly stated, that the two previous pacts may have had dialogue but certainly didn't always have consensus. The presence of the rightist Unió Mallorquina, which had its particular agenda against the PSM (now the main force in Més), was a guarantee of some conflict. With their competing versions of Mallorcan (Balearic) nationalism - one from the right, one from the left - they were never natural allies. Yet curiously, if one looks back at the defeat of the first pact in 2003, one finds that there was one issue on which these two parties mainly saw eye to eye - the ecotax.
While the tax didn't lose Francesc Antich and PSOE the election in spring 2003, the disagreements that it had provoked did affect the electorate's perception of the pact. The circumstances, in a tourism sense, were quite different when the tax was approved in 2001. Mallorca was facing stiff competition and there was a sense of crisis. To compound this, there was to be 9/11. The UM kept up the appearance of support for the tax, while the PSM (strange though it will seem now) lost total confidence in it. Moreover, PSOE itself was split. Joan Mesquida, the finance minister, wanted it to be delayed. In the end, it came into effect, as had been planned, on 1 May 2002.
The memory of this helps to explain the clinging to the life-raft of the new ecotax. Armengol insists there is consensus, despite this time PSOE having been the reluctant party, whereas it had driven the old ecotax. It is vital, therefore, for there to be a perception of unanimity if Armengol is to have a chance of obtaining a second term. But such a perception is made difficult because of the turmoil within one of the parties, i.e. Podemos.
In 2011, José Ramón Bauzá and the PP just needed to turn up in order to win. Economic crisis did for the second Antich administration, but there were other factors, notably the collapse in a corrupt heap of the UM, thrown out of the pact by Antich. Although the circumstances are very different, Armengol stresses the "stability" of the pact, knowing that instability contributed to the loss in 2011. She needs Podemos to hold together, much though Podemos make her life awkward. Otherwise, things are at present going well for her - the economy is sound and the PP in the Balearics is still in some disarray: without a permanent leader and with arguments between factions, of which Bauzá forms one. If, between now and the 2019 election, she can secure a new and favourable financing deal from Madrid for the Balearics, this would be a huge election advantage.
The election is a long way off, but some of the signs are currently in favour of Armengol and a second term. One thing she probably won't have to worry about is the tourist tax.
Monday, October 10, 2016
Shielding The Balearics
They're thinking of erecting a shield. What might this be? Some giant, invisible forcefield floating above the Balearics, deflecting assaults from a Rajoy Air Force firing off lawsuits in attempts to prevent high explosive being placed under the Balearic budget and a hole being blasted into the deficit the size of the Gorg Blau reservoir (when full)?
Or might the shield be a human one, comprising the last remaining tourists to ever set foot on Balearic soil (all of it to be returned to a virginal state) before the tourist tax is put up one hundred fold? Those planning the shield were the Daves - April (of Més) and Spart (aka Alberto Jarabo of Podemos). The "pact" of government is to be shielded. Francina Armengol will be ushered into a bunker, occasionally emerging to engage in consensus and dialogue, while the Daves get on with the business of that deficit-blowing.
This is what happens, you see, when socialist parties implode (in Spain, at any rate). Rent asunder by the apparent willingness to anoint Mariano, the socialists of the Balearics were cast further adrift from peninsula (or any other) reality than the 250 kilometres or so typically allow them to operate in less than splendid isolation. It was the socialists themselves who required shielding. The Daves were making overtures to them. Come and join us. We open our hearts to PSOE-ites whose hearts might otherwise be pierced by the knife of Rajoy investiture.
Francina, meanwhile, was all for going it alone in a socialist fashion. Pedro Sánchez, not beware the Ides of October, had been knifed - "Et tu, Susana?". The betrayal of socialist principles (as in allowing Rajoy to carry on), delivered with the stab in Sánchéz's back, was sufficient for Francina to consider isolating Balearic socialists even more. PSIB would mean PSIB. No more PSOE, that's for sure.
Adding to this mayhem, Dave April was speaking about sovereignty. Might the 2019 regional election become a referendum for Balearic independence? Dave was neither ruling it out nor ruling it in, which was something of a theme of the week. What actually were they thinking about the tourist tax? The official line was that there would be no increase in 2017. Finance minister (for now) Catalina Cladera insisted there wouldn't be, but then sort of didn't insist. Her position is vulnerable, and she knows it. Podemos had invited themselves into the budget-setting process for next year. Next it'll be places in the government. Tourist tax increase, anyone? Don't mind if we do. Any advance on ten times more?
The Podemos Dave - Alberto - first said that it would be "interesting" to "help" to design the budget for 2017, by which he meant write it. Interesting became yes we will design it, and Podemos are already dictating next year's strategy, one by which the Balearic manufacturing sector will, along with the agricultural sector, rise to a position of world dominance. Or maybe not; globalisation not exactly sitting well with anti-capitalists. Hoteliers will meanwhile be packed off to agrarian labour camps for re-education and to cultivate dwindling stocks of carobs.
Piece by piece the shield was being put into place. All in all some further bricks in the wall, each marked Podemos.
Or might the shield be a human one, comprising the last remaining tourists to ever set foot on Balearic soil (all of it to be returned to a virginal state) before the tourist tax is put up one hundred fold? Those planning the shield were the Daves - April (of Més) and Spart (aka Alberto Jarabo of Podemos). The "pact" of government is to be shielded. Francina Armengol will be ushered into a bunker, occasionally emerging to engage in consensus and dialogue, while the Daves get on with the business of that deficit-blowing.
This is what happens, you see, when socialist parties implode (in Spain, at any rate). Rent asunder by the apparent willingness to anoint Mariano, the socialists of the Balearics were cast further adrift from peninsula (or any other) reality than the 250 kilometres or so typically allow them to operate in less than splendid isolation. It was the socialists themselves who required shielding. The Daves were making overtures to them. Come and join us. We open our hearts to PSOE-ites whose hearts might otherwise be pierced by the knife of Rajoy investiture.
Francina, meanwhile, was all for going it alone in a socialist fashion. Pedro Sánchez, not beware the Ides of October, had been knifed - "Et tu, Susana?". The betrayal of socialist principles (as in allowing Rajoy to carry on), delivered with the stab in Sánchéz's back, was sufficient for Francina to consider isolating Balearic socialists even more. PSIB would mean PSIB. No more PSOE, that's for sure.
Adding to this mayhem, Dave April was speaking about sovereignty. Might the 2019 regional election become a referendum for Balearic independence? Dave was neither ruling it out nor ruling it in, which was something of a theme of the week. What actually were they thinking about the tourist tax? The official line was that there would be no increase in 2017. Finance minister (for now) Catalina Cladera insisted there wouldn't be, but then sort of didn't insist. Her position is vulnerable, and she knows it. Podemos had invited themselves into the budget-setting process for next year. Next it'll be places in the government. Tourist tax increase, anyone? Don't mind if we do. Any advance on ten times more?
The Podemos Dave - Alberto - first said that it would be "interesting" to "help" to design the budget for 2017, by which he meant write it. Interesting became yes we will design it, and Podemos are already dictating next year's strategy, one by which the Balearic manufacturing sector will, along with the agricultural sector, rise to a position of world dominance. Or maybe not; globalisation not exactly sitting well with anti-capitalists. Hoteliers will meanwhile be packed off to agrarian labour camps for re-education and to cultivate dwindling stocks of carobs.
Piece by piece the shield was being put into place. All in all some further bricks in the wall, each marked Podemos.
Tuesday, October 04, 2016
Whither PSOE? Whither Armengol?
So, what now? President Armengol was one of a group of five PSOE delegates from the Balearics who were humbled along with Pedro Sánchez on Saturday. Armengol, the only regional leader to have backed Sánchez, is even more out on a limb than before. She will have been thankful for the reassuring presence among the five of former president Francesc Antich. He is to join the "management" committee that will now attempt to sort out the mess of the vote against Sánchez and his resignation. Antich is saying the same things as Armengol. The "militants", i.e. the party's grassroots, need to vote on the future. He couldn't say anything else. Nor could Armengol.
He is also saying, as indeed are others, that it isn't a foregone conclusion that there will be a PSOE abstention which allows the investiture of Mariano Rajoy. The Partido Popular has not, according to some in PSOE, done anything to make PSOE confident in abstaining or creating a most unlikely coalition. The federal committee will decide whether there is to be an abstention, and it has so far said "no" to Rajoy.
If this continues to be the case, then one wonders quite what getting rid of Sánchez will have achieved. The party may have been suffering poor results under him, but the impression was that this wasn't the sole reason for his having been given a vote of no confidence. The talk had been of the committee moving in favour of an abstention. Because of all that happened, no such debate took place, and the committee seems unlikely to reconvene until after the middle of the month.
The situation is now even more confused than it was. If there were to be a decision in favour of abstention, things would then need to move extremely quickly so that there could be an as yet hypothetical second attempt at a Rajoy investiture. The deadline is 31 October. No government by then, and the King will dissolve parliament and there will be another election. For PSOE, given its turmoil, this would be the last thing it wants. Or you would think so. There might be a hope that with a different person at the top, there will be a bounce in the polls. Equally, there could be even greater carnage. Would that mean Podemos benefiting? Possibly, but Podemos has its own division. The electorate may decide in any event to put an end to all the nonsense and turn to the PP in far greater number.
Given all this confusion, it's hard to really say how the Balearic government will be affected in the short term. On the face of things, Armengol finds herself in a weaker position than the already weak one that she was in prior to Sanchez's resignation. Everything, as far as the "pact" for her government is concerned, would seem to hinge on the abstention decision. If Rajoy is allowed in by PSOE, all bets might well be off. By having aligned herself firmly with Sánchez and against the abstention decision, Armengol will be hoping that the pact doesn't rupture.
Meanwhile, she is faced by the thorny issue of the 2017 budget. Questions have been raised, not least by the Balearic PP, about the willingness of Podemos to support it. The government is obliged to keep within deficit limits and so therefore not overspend or over borrow, but with the ongoing chaos at national level - now made even more chaotic - Podemos (and Més) might press for a deficit-busting budget, something that Armengol and her finance minister Catalina Cladera would surely not sanction: there are consequences to consider.
If Podemos were to decide to break the pact, life would obviously become even more difficult for Armengol. And then there's Més, with only one seat fewer (nine) than Podemos. PSOE with fourteen of the 59 seats would be unable to do anything, unless there was a pact with the PP. Armengol would never countenance that. Would she? The situation in Castile-La Mancha, where the PP offered support to PSOE after Podemos broke a pact of government there, hardly offers a precedent. The PP's leader in Castile-La Mancha has lamented the fact that the offer was greeted with insult and discrediting. Forget the PP coming to the aid of Armengol in the Balearics; it simply won't happen.
The possibility exists, therefore, for an almost total state of stasis taking hold with the Balearic government. But there is another scenario. Podemos might just decide that the time will have come for it to formally join the government. God knows what that might mean for ministerial positions, but if it were the best chance that Armengol has for carrying on, then who knows - maybe a Podemos finance minister.
If you thought that things were complicated before, they are about to become even more complicated.
He is also saying, as indeed are others, that it isn't a foregone conclusion that there will be a PSOE abstention which allows the investiture of Mariano Rajoy. The Partido Popular has not, according to some in PSOE, done anything to make PSOE confident in abstaining or creating a most unlikely coalition. The federal committee will decide whether there is to be an abstention, and it has so far said "no" to Rajoy.
If this continues to be the case, then one wonders quite what getting rid of Sánchez will have achieved. The party may have been suffering poor results under him, but the impression was that this wasn't the sole reason for his having been given a vote of no confidence. The talk had been of the committee moving in favour of an abstention. Because of all that happened, no such debate took place, and the committee seems unlikely to reconvene until after the middle of the month.
The situation is now even more confused than it was. If there were to be a decision in favour of abstention, things would then need to move extremely quickly so that there could be an as yet hypothetical second attempt at a Rajoy investiture. The deadline is 31 October. No government by then, and the King will dissolve parliament and there will be another election. For PSOE, given its turmoil, this would be the last thing it wants. Or you would think so. There might be a hope that with a different person at the top, there will be a bounce in the polls. Equally, there could be even greater carnage. Would that mean Podemos benefiting? Possibly, but Podemos has its own division. The electorate may decide in any event to put an end to all the nonsense and turn to the PP in far greater number.
Given all this confusion, it's hard to really say how the Balearic government will be affected in the short term. On the face of things, Armengol finds herself in a weaker position than the already weak one that she was in prior to Sanchez's resignation. Everything, as far as the "pact" for her government is concerned, would seem to hinge on the abstention decision. If Rajoy is allowed in by PSOE, all bets might well be off. By having aligned herself firmly with Sánchez and against the abstention decision, Armengol will be hoping that the pact doesn't rupture.
Meanwhile, she is faced by the thorny issue of the 2017 budget. Questions have been raised, not least by the Balearic PP, about the willingness of Podemos to support it. The government is obliged to keep within deficit limits and so therefore not overspend or over borrow, but with the ongoing chaos at national level - now made even more chaotic - Podemos (and Més) might press for a deficit-busting budget, something that Armengol and her finance minister Catalina Cladera would surely not sanction: there are consequences to consider.
If Podemos were to decide to break the pact, life would obviously become even more difficult for Armengol. And then there's Més, with only one seat fewer (nine) than Podemos. PSOE with fourteen of the 59 seats would be unable to do anything, unless there was a pact with the PP. Armengol would never countenance that. Would she? The situation in Castile-La Mancha, where the PP offered support to PSOE after Podemos broke a pact of government there, hardly offers a precedent. The PP's leader in Castile-La Mancha has lamented the fact that the offer was greeted with insult and discrediting. Forget the PP coming to the aid of Armengol in the Balearics; it simply won't happen.
The possibility exists, therefore, for an almost total state of stasis taking hold with the Balearic government. But there is another scenario. Podemos might just decide that the time will have come for it to formally join the government. God knows what that might mean for ministerial positions, but if it were the best chance that Armengol has for carrying on, then who knows - maybe a Podemos finance minister.
If you thought that things were complicated before, they are about to become even more complicated.
Sunday, September 25, 2016
The Balearic Not-Government Is Revolting
The government and not-government (aka Podemos and increasingly also Més) indulged in their parliamentary navel-gazing and picked out some unpleasant fluff that has accumulated since June last year. The governmental state of the Balearics, we discovered, was far from the consensual love-in that sweet and friendly Francina has been insisting that it is ever since the fateful day that agreements were signed for the "government of change". So absent is consensus that the Earth Mother, PSOE's health minister Patricia Gómez, can dream up 119 million euros (why 119 and not 120?) for dealing with the decaying pile that is Son Dureta with nary a word in the shell-likes of Més (or Podemos). The Mésites were furious. Not because they're against handing over such a vast sum but because no one had spoken to them. Stamp their feet? Oh yes.
And it got worse. What was the government, in this instance PSOE, doing dropping money-laundering charges against that good old boy, Jaume Matas? Strictly speaking, it wasn't the government of PSOE but the Balearic Attorney's Office. Sweet FA Armengol insisted she hadn't been aware of the attorney's decision, which took some believing, given that the office falls within the ministry of the presidency. The Mésites stamped their feet even harder. The decision was of great political significance, they huffed, and had not been reached through consensus. The navel fluff started to look ever more revolting.
Revolt was indeed in the air. And who better to express it than the Podemos Boot Girl, Laura Camargo (Twitter account @Laurarevolta; description "feminist anti-capitalist"). The Matas decision was "very serious", she declared, and insisted that the attorney put in an appearance in parliament in order to explain himself. Also very serious were the thousands, nay millions of tourists roaming across the fragile landscapes of Majorca and the Balearics. Put the tourist tax up, demanded Her Bootness. And the ranks of not-government were joined by the Mésites in the form of the government's vice-president and tourism minister Biel Barceló. BB responded to Laura's tourist tax demand by announcing that "the price of the ecotax is the tool with which to regulate tourist flows".
So, after all his equivocation and having once said that the tax wouldn't make any difference to tourist numbers, BB finally admitted that it might. If it's high enough. It shouldn't be forgotten that Wild Man Més, David Abril, had some months ago suggested that the tax should have been higher from the outset. What can be expected therefore? Ten euros a night from next year? Twenty? That should sort out the saturation and the collapse of the Palma road network every time there's a spot of rain.
Amidst all the revolt, Francina was able to take herself off and sweetly cut the ribbon at the FAN shopping centre, an event which we were led to believe was to be graced with the presence of Podemos president (speaker) of parliament Xe-Lo Huertas. If she was indeed there, she avoided the cameras. Or perhaps she'd sneaked in to snaffle up some early bargains in Primark. The Podemos take on FAN appeared to be revealed by one of its parliamentary deputies, Salvador Aguilera. He tweeted a question (which was re-tweeted by the anti-capitalist Boot Girl). How much will the campaign for promoting FAN have cost, he asked, adding that the Mallorcan press had "succumbed" to the FAN "phenomenon".
And it got worse. What was the government, in this instance PSOE, doing dropping money-laundering charges against that good old boy, Jaume Matas? Strictly speaking, it wasn't the government of PSOE but the Balearic Attorney's Office. Sweet FA Armengol insisted she hadn't been aware of the attorney's decision, which took some believing, given that the office falls within the ministry of the presidency. The Mésites stamped their feet even harder. The decision was of great political significance, they huffed, and had not been reached through consensus. The navel fluff started to look ever more revolting.
Revolt was indeed in the air. And who better to express it than the Podemos Boot Girl, Laura Camargo (Twitter account @Laurarevolta; description "feminist anti-capitalist"). The Matas decision was "very serious", she declared, and insisted that the attorney put in an appearance in parliament in order to explain himself. Also very serious were the thousands, nay millions of tourists roaming across the fragile landscapes of Majorca and the Balearics. Put the tourist tax up, demanded Her Bootness. And the ranks of not-government were joined by the Mésites in the form of the government's vice-president and tourism minister Biel Barceló. BB responded to Laura's tourist tax demand by announcing that "the price of the ecotax is the tool with which to regulate tourist flows".
So, after all his equivocation and having once said that the tax wouldn't make any difference to tourist numbers, BB finally admitted that it might. If it's high enough. It shouldn't be forgotten that Wild Man Més, David Abril, had some months ago suggested that the tax should have been higher from the outset. What can be expected therefore? Ten euros a night from next year? Twenty? That should sort out the saturation and the collapse of the Palma road network every time there's a spot of rain.
Amidst all the revolt, Francina was able to take herself off and sweetly cut the ribbon at the FAN shopping centre, an event which we were led to believe was to be graced with the presence of Podemos president (speaker) of parliament Xe-Lo Huertas. If she was indeed there, she avoided the cameras. Or perhaps she'd sneaked in to snaffle up some early bargains in Primark. The Podemos take on FAN appeared to be revealed by one of its parliamentary deputies, Salvador Aguilera. He tweeted a question (which was re-tweeted by the anti-capitalist Boot Girl). How much will the campaign for promoting FAN have cost, he asked, adding that the Mallorcan press had "succumbed" to the FAN "phenomenon".
Tuesday, September 06, 2016
Armengol And The Attic
Attic conversions, as means of acquiring additional living-space, used to be problematic. They still can be. The actual task of renovating the space can demand a certain design ingenuity, depending on the features of the space and the building, and attention to fundamental issues of ventilation, insulation and energy efficiency.
The attic shot to popularity when degraded areas were earmarked for redevelopment. It was to become symbolic of renewal and of gentrification, while areas that were not downtrodden were to also acquire this architectural fad. The attic became the habitat of the pop or film star, one to be highlighted on celebrity pages.
When old urban areas are going through property boom times, the attic - seemingly desirous above all other floors - can attract a hefty price. Palma has such an urban area. Its gentrification has given rise to the boutique hotel and to the redevelopment of residential accommodation. Among the attics of old Palma, one in particular is attracting a great deal of attention. Not because of its actual design virtue but because of who hasn't bought it - Francina Armengol, president of the Balearics.
The attic in question is in a property on Sant Crist street. It is conveniently located for, among other things, the headquarters of the Tax Agency in the Balearics, the Council of Mallorca, of which Francina was once also president, and the Consolat de Mar, the regional government's HQ. The attic, and presidential involvement or not with it, is causing a stink. It needs noting that Armengol hasn't bought it and so therefore doesn't live there, despite its convenient location. So what's all the fuss about?
The storm has been generated by "El Mundo", which has been on the case of Armengol and especially her partner for some while. He, Joan Nadal, is described variously as an entrepreneur, property developer and gardener. He doesn't necessarily engage in mowing any lawns, but he has business interests related to the controversial Villa Cortina in Formentor (its gardens) and to Son Vida. A company of his acquired the property in Sant Crist for two million euros, which would probably have been the last anyone really heard about it had it not been for a presidential signature to buy the whole attic for a price roughly a quarter of what is now the market price.
There are in fact now two separate attic dwellings. They have a combined price of just under four million euros. In early 2013, Armengol and her partner entered into a pre-purchase agreement for 1.25 million. This was backed up with a deposit of a mere 6,000 euros. In the end, the purchase didn't go through, and since the newspaper brought all this into the open, there have been alternative explanations. The presidential one, not that she has directly spoken about it, is that it wasn't in the end to her liking. Her partner's lawyers suggest that it was to "avoid controversy".
Much is being made of the similarities with a property close by that was bought by disgraced former president Jaume Matas. It had a price of just under one million euros. Armengol once said of this that it was "difficult to understand" how Matas was able to fund such a purchase and attacked it for its "ostentation". While Matas and indeed the property in question have been occupying the thoughts of investigating judge José Castro, there is no suggestion of anything illegal with the attic. Political opponents, including Podemos, a partner in government, are having something of a field day, but David Abril of Més is one to have stated that the attic is not comparable with the Matas "palacete". He sees nothing illegal, but he does see, as do others in Més as well as Podemos and probably some in PSOE, a need for greater clarification.
The Partido Popular insists that Armengol lied about having had any involvement with the attic and about the credit to be made available for its purchase from Sa Nostra, albeit that Sa Nostra has, since 2010, been almost a symbolic part of BMN into which it was integrated. Armengol, says PP spokesperson Marga Prohens, has lost all "credibility" because of this.
Sa Nostra features more widely. It apparently loaned Armengol's partner's company - one for the development of the Sant Crist property - 6.8 million euros, while it is seemingly a common link with other business interests that Joan Nadal has. Podemos and Ciudadanos, meanwhile, have been pressing for a commission to be established to investigate the restructuring of Sa Nostra, hinting at benefits to political parties. PSOE had itself been calling for an investigation when it was in opposition but is now reluctant for there to be one.
Although the purchase of the attic didn't go ahead, the affair is awkward for Armengol. Perhaps above all else, for a socialist president, there is the "ostentation" charge she levelled at Matas. That is now haunting her.
The attic shot to popularity when degraded areas were earmarked for redevelopment. It was to become symbolic of renewal and of gentrification, while areas that were not downtrodden were to also acquire this architectural fad. The attic became the habitat of the pop or film star, one to be highlighted on celebrity pages.
When old urban areas are going through property boom times, the attic - seemingly desirous above all other floors - can attract a hefty price. Palma has such an urban area. Its gentrification has given rise to the boutique hotel and to the redevelopment of residential accommodation. Among the attics of old Palma, one in particular is attracting a great deal of attention. Not because of its actual design virtue but because of who hasn't bought it - Francina Armengol, president of the Balearics.
The attic in question is in a property on Sant Crist street. It is conveniently located for, among other things, the headquarters of the Tax Agency in the Balearics, the Council of Mallorca, of which Francina was once also president, and the Consolat de Mar, the regional government's HQ. The attic, and presidential involvement or not with it, is causing a stink. It needs noting that Armengol hasn't bought it and so therefore doesn't live there, despite its convenient location. So what's all the fuss about?
The storm has been generated by "El Mundo", which has been on the case of Armengol and especially her partner for some while. He, Joan Nadal, is described variously as an entrepreneur, property developer and gardener. He doesn't necessarily engage in mowing any lawns, but he has business interests related to the controversial Villa Cortina in Formentor (its gardens) and to Son Vida. A company of his acquired the property in Sant Crist for two million euros, which would probably have been the last anyone really heard about it had it not been for a presidential signature to buy the whole attic for a price roughly a quarter of what is now the market price.
There are in fact now two separate attic dwellings. They have a combined price of just under four million euros. In early 2013, Armengol and her partner entered into a pre-purchase agreement for 1.25 million. This was backed up with a deposit of a mere 6,000 euros. In the end, the purchase didn't go through, and since the newspaper brought all this into the open, there have been alternative explanations. The presidential one, not that she has directly spoken about it, is that it wasn't in the end to her liking. Her partner's lawyers suggest that it was to "avoid controversy".
Much is being made of the similarities with a property close by that was bought by disgraced former president Jaume Matas. It had a price of just under one million euros. Armengol once said of this that it was "difficult to understand" how Matas was able to fund such a purchase and attacked it for its "ostentation". While Matas and indeed the property in question have been occupying the thoughts of investigating judge José Castro, there is no suggestion of anything illegal with the attic. Political opponents, including Podemos, a partner in government, are having something of a field day, but David Abril of Més is one to have stated that the attic is not comparable with the Matas "palacete". He sees nothing illegal, but he does see, as do others in Més as well as Podemos and probably some in PSOE, a need for greater clarification.
The Partido Popular insists that Armengol lied about having had any involvement with the attic and about the credit to be made available for its purchase from Sa Nostra, albeit that Sa Nostra has, since 2010, been almost a symbolic part of BMN into which it was integrated. Armengol, says PP spokesperson Marga Prohens, has lost all "credibility" because of this.
Sa Nostra features more widely. It apparently loaned Armengol's partner's company - one for the development of the Sant Crist property - 6.8 million euros, while it is seemingly a common link with other business interests that Joan Nadal has. Podemos and Ciudadanos, meanwhile, have been pressing for a commission to be established to investigate the restructuring of Sa Nostra, hinting at benefits to political parties. PSOE had itself been calling for an investigation when it was in opposition but is now reluctant for there to be one.
Although the purchase of the attic didn't go ahead, the affair is awkward for Armengol. Perhaps above all else, for a socialist president, there is the "ostentation" charge she levelled at Matas. That is now haunting her.
Sunday, July 24, 2016
Francina To The Spanish Governmental Rescue
"Five. Four. Three. Two. One ..." "Cut! Cut!"
Nothing's going. Shot in Supermarianoation, the latest in the fantasy franchise that is "The Government Which Forgot It Was A Government" is undergoing yet further re-scripting. On Tracy Island the lights were flashing on the portraits at Governmental Rescue in the presidential HQ at the Consolat de Mar. "Take Pod 4, Virgil, the Nationalists Mole." "Yes father, er I mean, F.A.B. mother." Francina Tracy, the matriarch founder of Governmental Rescue, had decided that the time had come for all good Pedros to come to the aid of the PSOE party by combining with nationalist parties and Podemos (just like on Tracy Island) in order to stop the evil Super Mariano.
He, Super that is, was oddly enough having similar thoughts. He was emitting evil ones from his bunker in Madrid. "Catalonia, Catalonia," he mysteriously intoned. Would the Catalan half-brothers of the Spanish nation succumb to his evil thoughts? Despite several years of plots and intrigues to deny independence, Super Mariano was now prepared to give houseroom to the CDC in Catalonia in a Congress carve-up designed to secure his investiture as president (prime minister).
Away from all of this, Dec (Albert Rivera of the C's) was revealing what many had suspected: that he is a vacillating and opportunistic little C. The double act with Ant (Pedro Sánchez of PSOE) seemed well and truly to have been annulled. Instead, Dec was being led by the hand of Super Mariano to face the tests of the political jungle. Together they would gain celebrity for governmental rescue. On Tracy Island Francina was having none of that, having trademarked the name.
But then Super Mariano began transmitting those evil nationalist thoughts. Albert, immune from birth to such brain interference and equally immune to any notion of Catalonian independence (or anyone else's for that matter), was scandalised. There will be no investiture, Super. Not if you get into bed with the nationalists. Mariano, meanwhile, merely cackled. Either it's me or no one. And if it's not me, there'll be another election.
In next week's episode of "The Government Which Forgot It Was A Government" the King will have to undergo another round of those excruciating photo opportunity moments, shaking hands with all and sundry Spanish politicians, none of whom will have the slightest possibility of being able to contribute to forming a government. The King will smile politely and benignly while thinking more about arrangements for the family hols on Tracy Island. At Governmental Rescue, meanwhile, Brains Jarabo of Podemos will be imploring Francina to blow all the tourist tax revenue on an eco-friendly agrarian heritage sun-and-beach tourism alternative spacecraft to orbit the Earth.
Fantasy franchise? Oh yes.
Nothing's going. Shot in Supermarianoation, the latest in the fantasy franchise that is "The Government Which Forgot It Was A Government" is undergoing yet further re-scripting. On Tracy Island the lights were flashing on the portraits at Governmental Rescue in the presidential HQ at the Consolat de Mar. "Take Pod 4, Virgil, the Nationalists Mole." "Yes father, er I mean, F.A.B. mother." Francina Tracy, the matriarch founder of Governmental Rescue, had decided that the time had come for all good Pedros to come to the aid of the PSOE party by combining with nationalist parties and Podemos (just like on Tracy Island) in order to stop the evil Super Mariano.
He, Super that is, was oddly enough having similar thoughts. He was emitting evil ones from his bunker in Madrid. "Catalonia, Catalonia," he mysteriously intoned. Would the Catalan half-brothers of the Spanish nation succumb to his evil thoughts? Despite several years of plots and intrigues to deny independence, Super Mariano was now prepared to give houseroom to the CDC in Catalonia in a Congress carve-up designed to secure his investiture as president (prime minister).
Away from all of this, Dec (Albert Rivera of the C's) was revealing what many had suspected: that he is a vacillating and opportunistic little C. The double act with Ant (Pedro Sánchez of PSOE) seemed well and truly to have been annulled. Instead, Dec was being led by the hand of Super Mariano to face the tests of the political jungle. Together they would gain celebrity for governmental rescue. On Tracy Island Francina was having none of that, having trademarked the name.
But then Super Mariano began transmitting those evil nationalist thoughts. Albert, immune from birth to such brain interference and equally immune to any notion of Catalonian independence (or anyone else's for that matter), was scandalised. There will be no investiture, Super. Not if you get into bed with the nationalists. Mariano, meanwhile, merely cackled. Either it's me or no one. And if it's not me, there'll be another election.
In next week's episode of "The Government Which Forgot It Was A Government" the King will have to undergo another round of those excruciating photo opportunity moments, shaking hands with all and sundry Spanish politicians, none of whom will have the slightest possibility of being able to contribute to forming a government. The King will smile politely and benignly while thinking more about arrangements for the family hols on Tracy Island. At Governmental Rescue, meanwhile, Brains Jarabo of Podemos will be imploring Francina to blow all the tourist tax revenue on an eco-friendly agrarian heritage sun-and-beach tourism alternative spacecraft to orbit the Earth.
Fantasy franchise? Oh yes.
Monday, May 30, 2016
Breakfast With Francina
The breakfast meeting is, one is inclined to suspect, a device to convey to the citizens that politicians are ultra-hard-working. We never stop. That's the sort of message. Never stop to have a hearty breakfast, that's for sure. And so the full English wasn't on the menu when Francina met Pedro in Madrid for their breakfasting chat, followed swiftly by their breakfasting news conference (one much to the annoyance, one imagines, of the gathered and hungover members of the media). Instead, Francina could have taken the opportunity to promote Mallorcan products. Off she would have gone on the low-cost hop with her ensaimada in its box: Mallorcan pastry, as endorsed by the president.
Of course it was a Balearic promotional drive insofar as Francina was there to promote the desperate need for her and her political chums to manage the airports and also to inform the assembled and bored media how marvellously well her government of change in the Balearics is working. So marvellously well that two components thereof - the Més-ites and the Podemistas - have melded to create Podemés and squeeze PSOE even more on 26-J. However, such minor detail should not and did not get in the way of the Balearics being championed as the model for the whole of Spain to follow in government: unworkable, in other words.
Pedro held the Balearics aloft as the template for "progressive politics" but having observed, only a couple of weeks previously, that Podemos represents the extreme left, it is as clear as a fine spring morning in Mallorca that such progressiveness excludes Podemos; at least where Pedro's concerned. Francina appears to look out and see only cloud: that created by the hodge-podge, fudge government that isn't entirely a government over which she presides. But Francina has not been cast as sweet and friendly for nothing. She does not categorise anyone as "extremist" or "radical". See no evil. They all have their own points of view and see how well these have been combining in the Balearics.
If only one could believe her, and it is evident that Pedro doesn't. His progressiveness still involves the other half of his Ant and Dec act, Al Rivera of the C's, who for some mysterious reason was in Venezuela. Had he gone there in search of money in a Podemos sort of a way? Quite the contrary. He was seemingly there to highlight the Venezuela-Podemos link.
Of course it was a Balearic promotional drive insofar as Francina was there to promote the desperate need for her and her political chums to manage the airports and also to inform the assembled and bored media how marvellously well her government of change in the Balearics is working. So marvellously well that two components thereof - the Més-ites and the Podemistas - have melded to create Podemés and squeeze PSOE even more on 26-J. However, such minor detail should not and did not get in the way of the Balearics being championed as the model for the whole of Spain to follow in government: unworkable, in other words.
Pedro held the Balearics aloft as the template for "progressive politics" but having observed, only a couple of weeks previously, that Podemos represents the extreme left, it is as clear as a fine spring morning in Mallorca that such progressiveness excludes Podemos; at least where Pedro's concerned. Francina appears to look out and see only cloud: that created by the hodge-podge, fudge government that isn't entirely a government over which she presides. But Francina has not been cast as sweet and friendly for nothing. She does not categorise anyone as "extremist" or "radical". See no evil. They all have their own points of view and see how well these have been combining in the Balearics.
If only one could believe her, and it is evident that Pedro doesn't. His progressiveness still involves the other half of his Ant and Dec act, Al Rivera of the C's, who for some mysterious reason was in Venezuela. Had he gone there in search of money in a Podemos sort of a way? Quite the contrary. He was seemingly there to highlight the Venezuela-Podemos link.
Wednesday, May 04, 2016
Dead Woman President Walking
When the next election comes round on 26 June, the Balearics will provide its own little sideshow. The region contributes eight deputies to the national Congress - 2.3% of its 350 total. This might seem unimportant but 26-J could prove to be very important for the Balearics.
At the pre-Christmas election, the Partido Popular, with the highest share of the regional vote, secured three seats. There were two each for Podemos and PSOE and one for Ciudadanos (C's). Excluded from Congress, therefore, was Més. It polled worse than the party had hoped, though its 7% share of the vote put it in the mix for potentially gaining a seat: parties have to secure a minimum of 3% in order to be considered under the proportional representation system.
Més is this time more confident of getting itself into Congress, though a pact with the United Left and Pacma (the party against animal mistreatment) would, on the basis of the December vote, still leave it short. What would change its fortunes would be an alliance with Podemos, and the chances of there being an alliance of what one might describe as the hard left in the Balearics are strong.
Were there to be this alliance, it would - again using December's vote - be the main force in the Balearics, polling higher than the PP with 33% of the share of the vote. With the PP staying more or less where it was in December (it surely won't lose votes), PSOE would be relegated to one Congress seat. If things went really badly for PSOE and exceptionally well for the hard left pact and for the C's, PSOE could find itself with no seat (an unlikely outcome though).
The alliance with Podemos is not yet a done deal. Podemos will insist that it has the first two names on the "list", i.e. its two current deputies. Having gained 23% of the share of the December vote, it holds the aces in negotiations with Més. But granting Més the third name on the list would have some appeal because of the way in which the hard-left alliance would become the number one force.
Why should this really matter? It would matter a great deal to the government of the Balearics. Here would be a situation in which two partners in government (one actually in it, Més, and one not, Podemos) gang up against the leadership of that government - PSOE. If for no other reason than psychological, it would be a blow to Francina Armengol and to her party.
But it could prove to be more than just psychological. Podemos has remained outside the government. It might decide that, emboldened by a June performance, it would seek entrance. Though the regional government was determined by the regional and not the general election and though PSOE got the greater share of the vote and the greater number of regional parliament seats, Podemos and Més together have a higher parliamentary representation. Armengol isn't forecasting any threat to the "stability" of her government, but she would be weakened if the Més-Podemos general election alliance were to be realised.
The fact is that she was already weak. In the run-up to the regional election last May, she and PSOE shifted more to the left. It was clear which way the wind was blowing, and it was steering a leftward course. It didn't do PSOE much good. It was sufficient to enter government but into a government with its hands tied. Armengol isn't a puppet as such, but she is no puppet master. Podemos is perpetually hovering, threatening to hang her out to dry. After 26-J, she will hang on to the presidency, but her credibility will be less than it already is: a sort of dead woman president walking, constantly bleating the lines about consensus and dialogue, when in truth the dialogue is all one way.
So rattled is PSOE that its number one on the December list, Ramon Socias, is to be ousted. What difference his removal will make is hard to fathom, though his position as number one in December was also difficult to comprehend. A former national government delegate to the Balearics, he has some substance, but he's in the "veteran" category, tarnished by old failings and something of a non-entity when pitched against the likes of the PP's number one, Mateo Isern, or the judge, Juan Pedro Yllanes, the Podemos number one. Changing him for another non-entity doesn't make much sense. PSOE is up against it whoever it has on its list.
Though further weakened, Armengol should survive. Despite PSOE's weakness, it does have some strength. If Més and Podemos have in mind an alternative president (one from its combined ranks), PSOE would surely block it. But why would they? They'll just tell PSOE what to do, and the president will agree. There's consensus and dialogue for you.
At the pre-Christmas election, the Partido Popular, with the highest share of the regional vote, secured three seats. There were two each for Podemos and PSOE and one for Ciudadanos (C's). Excluded from Congress, therefore, was Més. It polled worse than the party had hoped, though its 7% share of the vote put it in the mix for potentially gaining a seat: parties have to secure a minimum of 3% in order to be considered under the proportional representation system.
Més is this time more confident of getting itself into Congress, though a pact with the United Left and Pacma (the party against animal mistreatment) would, on the basis of the December vote, still leave it short. What would change its fortunes would be an alliance with Podemos, and the chances of there being an alliance of what one might describe as the hard left in the Balearics are strong.
Were there to be this alliance, it would - again using December's vote - be the main force in the Balearics, polling higher than the PP with 33% of the share of the vote. With the PP staying more or less where it was in December (it surely won't lose votes), PSOE would be relegated to one Congress seat. If things went really badly for PSOE and exceptionally well for the hard left pact and for the C's, PSOE could find itself with no seat (an unlikely outcome though).
The alliance with Podemos is not yet a done deal. Podemos will insist that it has the first two names on the "list", i.e. its two current deputies. Having gained 23% of the share of the December vote, it holds the aces in negotiations with Més. But granting Més the third name on the list would have some appeal because of the way in which the hard-left alliance would become the number one force.
Why should this really matter? It would matter a great deal to the government of the Balearics. Here would be a situation in which two partners in government (one actually in it, Més, and one not, Podemos) gang up against the leadership of that government - PSOE. If for no other reason than psychological, it would be a blow to Francina Armengol and to her party.
But it could prove to be more than just psychological. Podemos has remained outside the government. It might decide that, emboldened by a June performance, it would seek entrance. Though the regional government was determined by the regional and not the general election and though PSOE got the greater share of the vote and the greater number of regional parliament seats, Podemos and Més together have a higher parliamentary representation. Armengol isn't forecasting any threat to the "stability" of her government, but she would be weakened if the Més-Podemos general election alliance were to be realised.
The fact is that she was already weak. In the run-up to the regional election last May, she and PSOE shifted more to the left. It was clear which way the wind was blowing, and it was steering a leftward course. It didn't do PSOE much good. It was sufficient to enter government but into a government with its hands tied. Armengol isn't a puppet as such, but she is no puppet master. Podemos is perpetually hovering, threatening to hang her out to dry. After 26-J, she will hang on to the presidency, but her credibility will be less than it already is: a sort of dead woman president walking, constantly bleating the lines about consensus and dialogue, when in truth the dialogue is all one way.
So rattled is PSOE that its number one on the December list, Ramon Socias, is to be ousted. What difference his removal will make is hard to fathom, though his position as number one in December was also difficult to comprehend. A former national government delegate to the Balearics, he has some substance, but he's in the "veteran" category, tarnished by old failings and something of a non-entity when pitched against the likes of the PP's number one, Mateo Isern, or the judge, Juan Pedro Yllanes, the Podemos number one. Changing him for another non-entity doesn't make much sense. PSOE is up against it whoever it has on its list.
Though further weakened, Armengol should survive. Despite PSOE's weakness, it does have some strength. If Més and Podemos have in mind an alternative president (one from its combined ranks), PSOE would surely block it. But why would they? They'll just tell PSOE what to do, and the president will agree. There's consensus and dialogue for you.
Monday, September 14, 2015
Francina And Miss Bossy Boots
At the end of a hard day in parliament, does President Armengol take to the family terrace, pour a refreshing and long G&T and think to herself - what a bunch of Charlies I've been landed with?
Sweet and friendly Frankie wouldn't of course contemplate such unkind thoughts. She's too sweet and friendly to do so. But at some point she may have to turn sour and add a dash of Angostura bitters to the cocktail. Yes, she can rail against Rajoy from afar, though come over all sweetness and light in his presence - it's called diplomacy - but it's the ones nearer to home who will be bothering her. And none more so than the fire-breather of Podemos, Laura Camargo, the wearer of the trousers among the Podemistas. Alberto Spart Jarabo may be the principal agitprop face of Podemos, but behind the grey shirts of the Jarabo wardrobe (apart from a teachers' defending green t-shirt) there is the power dressing of Laura, the Mallorcan mother superior in the Church of Pablo Iglesias.
The schools have gone back with "normality" (insofar as Mallorca's schooling can ever be described as normal), but the "vuelta al parlament" was anything but normal. Frankie had returned, with her name tags neatly sown into the necks of her autumn collection, and then in stormed Miss Bossy Boots, insisting on having the peg nearest the door. You could see it just by the photos. Oh the body language. Party spokespeople trooped in one by one to speak with Francina. The contrast with Laura and the Partido Popular's Marga Prohens was telling. Marga can do all the shouty stuff in parliament, but there is more in common between her and Francina than between Francina and Laura, and Francina knows it. They are cut from similar political fashion catalogues. Not so Laura.
The new parliamentary term about to start and Laura was issuing the demands. Get rid of so-and-so as a senior official or we'll withdraw our support. This is how government works in the new age of politics. Podemos aren't actually in government, but they want to run it. Do as we say or we'll bring you down. "I made thee, and I can break thee." And when it came to parliament actually gathering, beforehand there were Podemistas in front of the building - green t-shirt to a man, woman, fierce beard in at least two cases, and Alberto Jarabo. A tirade was launched against the national government's education law. "Elitist, divisive, sexist, doctrinaire Catholicism, anti-democratic, centralised, mercantilist, class-oriented and contrary to the culture and languages of each region of Spain." By implication, because of the staunch defence of Mallorca's teachers demonstrated by the very wearing of the green t-shirts, the Podemistas were levelling much the same accusations against Francina, education minister March and PSOE. The government, of which they aren't formally a part, was not doing enough to stop the implementation of the national education law.
Strangely perhaps, David Abril of the Més Luddite wing and someone not unfamiliar with a green t-shirt himself came to the aid of Francina. Podemos, he said, are "equivocating". They are not a party of the government nor are they the opposition, while they have privileged mechanisms of control. They should join the government if they're that bothered was the tone of his message.
Sensing, correctly, that not all is sweet and friendly, the PP's temporary leader, Miquel Vidal, also came to Francina's side. He would like a meeting to discuss issues on which the PP and the government can agree, such as financing and indeed a new way forward for education, thus breaking definitively with the disastrous dogma of José Ramón Bauzá. Was this simply a suggestion of a new way of doing politics, a sweeter and friendlier way, or was it Vidal recognising that if (when) the government collapses in a heap, the PP might be needed in order to pick up the pieces? Francina and Marga looked so much happier together.
Sweet and friendly Frankie wouldn't of course contemplate such unkind thoughts. She's too sweet and friendly to do so. But at some point she may have to turn sour and add a dash of Angostura bitters to the cocktail. Yes, she can rail against Rajoy from afar, though come over all sweetness and light in his presence - it's called diplomacy - but it's the ones nearer to home who will be bothering her. And none more so than the fire-breather of Podemos, Laura Camargo, the wearer of the trousers among the Podemistas. Alberto Spart Jarabo may be the principal agitprop face of Podemos, but behind the grey shirts of the Jarabo wardrobe (apart from a teachers' defending green t-shirt) there is the power dressing of Laura, the Mallorcan mother superior in the Church of Pablo Iglesias.
The schools have gone back with "normality" (insofar as Mallorca's schooling can ever be described as normal), but the "vuelta al parlament" was anything but normal. Frankie had returned, with her name tags neatly sown into the necks of her autumn collection, and then in stormed Miss Bossy Boots, insisting on having the peg nearest the door. You could see it just by the photos. Oh the body language. Party spokespeople trooped in one by one to speak with Francina. The contrast with Laura and the Partido Popular's Marga Prohens was telling. Marga can do all the shouty stuff in parliament, but there is more in common between her and Francina than between Francina and Laura, and Francina knows it. They are cut from similar political fashion catalogues. Not so Laura.
The new parliamentary term about to start and Laura was issuing the demands. Get rid of so-and-so as a senior official or we'll withdraw our support. This is how government works in the new age of politics. Podemos aren't actually in government, but they want to run it. Do as we say or we'll bring you down. "I made thee, and I can break thee." And when it came to parliament actually gathering, beforehand there were Podemistas in front of the building - green t-shirt to a man, woman, fierce beard in at least two cases, and Alberto Jarabo. A tirade was launched against the national government's education law. "Elitist, divisive, sexist, doctrinaire Catholicism, anti-democratic, centralised, mercantilist, class-oriented and contrary to the culture and languages of each region of Spain." By implication, because of the staunch defence of Mallorca's teachers demonstrated by the very wearing of the green t-shirts, the Podemistas were levelling much the same accusations against Francina, education minister March and PSOE. The government, of which they aren't formally a part, was not doing enough to stop the implementation of the national education law.
Strangely perhaps, David Abril of the Més Luddite wing and someone not unfamiliar with a green t-shirt himself came to the aid of Francina. Podemos, he said, are "equivocating". They are not a party of the government nor are they the opposition, while they have privileged mechanisms of control. They should join the government if they're that bothered was the tone of his message.
Sensing, correctly, that not all is sweet and friendly, the PP's temporary leader, Miquel Vidal, also came to Francina's side. He would like a meeting to discuss issues on which the PP and the government can agree, such as financing and indeed a new way forward for education, thus breaking definitively with the disastrous dogma of José Ramón Bauzá. Was this simply a suggestion of a new way of doing politics, a sweeter and friendlier way, or was it Vidal recognising that if (when) the government collapses in a heap, the PP might be needed in order to pick up the pieces? Francina and Marga looked so much happier together.
Thursday, September 03, 2015
Tango In Madrid: Balearic financing
It's the very stuff of negotiating. There are the red lines which cannot be crossed, which cannot be conceded, but then there are the negotiables, the ones that give the opponent some of what is sought while at the same time not weakening one's own position and perhaps even strengthening it.
When Francina met Mariano it was just conceivable that the latter would have sent the former away with a flea in her ear. Told her never to darken the doors of the Moncloa again. To take herself to the nunnery of the Balearics and to enter, along with the citizenship, a life of penury and asceticism, praying to the Lord for deliverance.
Whatever one thinks of Rajoy, he isn't stupid. He couldn't afford Francina returning to Mallorca as the failed and humiliated victim of his "aggressions" towards the Balearics, but a heroine nonetheless, the martyr of Partido Popular vengeful parsimony. Francina would have been able to take herself off to the La Beata procession in Santa Margalida on Sunday, her head held defiantly high, trailing behind the the simulator of the ascetic Saint Catalina as she defies the destructive force of the devil. Such symbolism.
Rajoy and others at PP high command might have given up on Bauzá long before the electorate did, but this doesn't mean they've given up on the Balearics. There are votes to be had, even in lands that turned their backs on Bauzá's version of the regional PP and placed into boxes their fateful electoral envelopes of PSOE, Més and Podemos. Notwithstanding a shift to the left at the regionals and the constant media reminders that the days of two-party politics are over, high command has reasons to not be totally fearful of how the Balearics might vote at the general election. The awkward squad having ensured that Bauzá was spirited away to the Senate, the PP has a potential new look, even if it will be wearing a familiar brown suit. Not everything that Mateo Isern does is for the best, such as his fashion sense, but Palma's one-time mayor, a darling of some at high command and a popular enough figure in the Balearics, despite the PP, could give the party a boost at the head of the list of candidates for Congress and a consequent boost to Rajoy as well.
Not long after Armengol finally managed to scrape a government together, her finance minister, Catalina Cladera, was despatched to Madrid with instructions to issue a broadside to national finance chief, Cristobal Montoro. The Balearics aren't going to put with PP lack of finance any longer. So there. It was all stirring stuff and all bound to fail, and everyone knew it would, including Francina and Catalina. But Francina had, after all, been on the point of losing the support of Biel Barceló and Més during their own little negotiation fandango. An improvement to financing for the Balearics was a demand from Biel, he also knowing full well that there wouldn't be one. Nevertheless, and for appearances' sakes - those of their respective parties and the general public - Catalina marched off, brandishing her sword and discovering that it was made of plastic rather than metal.
When Montoro said no, everyone was able to blame him and Rajoy. Face was not lost by Francina, Catalina (or Biel). It was all Rajoy's fault, and even the local PP was inclined to agree. For weeks since, Francina has uttered the same mantra. Every day, it has seemed. Deficit this, deficit that. Statutory investments here, special regime for the Balearics there. Rajoy knew exactly what was coming. No, Francina, he would not cross the deficit red line and allow the Balearics to plunge into the red and incur the wrath of watching Europeans in the process. But statutory investments that hadn't been paid? Take a look at the special regime again? Agree that the financing model needs revising, but not this year? Sure. Why not? Rajoy had nothing to lose except the money that Madrid has been withholding and a great deal to win by showing wavering PP voters in the Balearics that he wasn't the devil in disguise.
So the heavy-booted steps on the dance floor of the pre-meeting weeks have ended in the tango of Madrid, Mariano conceding what he was happy to. There was no surprise because, despite Catalina shouting at Montoro, he had some while ago conceded that the Balearics needed better treatment. It was a done deal before Francina got on the plane.
Rajoy says that Balearic financing does need modifying, but it won't be looked at until next year. For Francina, financing and the eco-tax came as a package. Get better financing and the tax could be dropped. Because of the other negotiations, those with Biel, the tax has now become more likely. There are some things you can't give way on.
When Francina met Mariano it was just conceivable that the latter would have sent the former away with a flea in her ear. Told her never to darken the doors of the Moncloa again. To take herself to the nunnery of the Balearics and to enter, along with the citizenship, a life of penury and asceticism, praying to the Lord for deliverance.
Whatever one thinks of Rajoy, he isn't stupid. He couldn't afford Francina returning to Mallorca as the failed and humiliated victim of his "aggressions" towards the Balearics, but a heroine nonetheless, the martyr of Partido Popular vengeful parsimony. Francina would have been able to take herself off to the La Beata procession in Santa Margalida on Sunday, her head held defiantly high, trailing behind the the simulator of the ascetic Saint Catalina as she defies the destructive force of the devil. Such symbolism.
Rajoy and others at PP high command might have given up on Bauzá long before the electorate did, but this doesn't mean they've given up on the Balearics. There are votes to be had, even in lands that turned their backs on Bauzá's version of the regional PP and placed into boxes their fateful electoral envelopes of PSOE, Més and Podemos. Notwithstanding a shift to the left at the regionals and the constant media reminders that the days of two-party politics are over, high command has reasons to not be totally fearful of how the Balearics might vote at the general election. The awkward squad having ensured that Bauzá was spirited away to the Senate, the PP has a potential new look, even if it will be wearing a familiar brown suit. Not everything that Mateo Isern does is for the best, such as his fashion sense, but Palma's one-time mayor, a darling of some at high command and a popular enough figure in the Balearics, despite the PP, could give the party a boost at the head of the list of candidates for Congress and a consequent boost to Rajoy as well.
Not long after Armengol finally managed to scrape a government together, her finance minister, Catalina Cladera, was despatched to Madrid with instructions to issue a broadside to national finance chief, Cristobal Montoro. The Balearics aren't going to put with PP lack of finance any longer. So there. It was all stirring stuff and all bound to fail, and everyone knew it would, including Francina and Catalina. But Francina had, after all, been on the point of losing the support of Biel Barceló and Més during their own little negotiation fandango. An improvement to financing for the Balearics was a demand from Biel, he also knowing full well that there wouldn't be one. Nevertheless, and for appearances' sakes - those of their respective parties and the general public - Catalina marched off, brandishing her sword and discovering that it was made of plastic rather than metal.
When Montoro said no, everyone was able to blame him and Rajoy. Face was not lost by Francina, Catalina (or Biel). It was all Rajoy's fault, and even the local PP was inclined to agree. For weeks since, Francina has uttered the same mantra. Every day, it has seemed. Deficit this, deficit that. Statutory investments here, special regime for the Balearics there. Rajoy knew exactly what was coming. No, Francina, he would not cross the deficit red line and allow the Balearics to plunge into the red and incur the wrath of watching Europeans in the process. But statutory investments that hadn't been paid? Take a look at the special regime again? Agree that the financing model needs revising, but not this year? Sure. Why not? Rajoy had nothing to lose except the money that Madrid has been withholding and a great deal to win by showing wavering PP voters in the Balearics that he wasn't the devil in disguise.
So the heavy-booted steps on the dance floor of the pre-meeting weeks have ended in the tango of Madrid, Mariano conceding what he was happy to. There was no surprise because, despite Catalina shouting at Montoro, he had some while ago conceded that the Balearics needed better treatment. It was a done deal before Francina got on the plane.
Rajoy says that Balearic financing does need modifying, but it won't be looked at until next year. For Francina, financing and the eco-tax came as a package. Get better financing and the tax could be dropped. Because of the other negotiations, those with Biel, the tax has now become more likely. There are some things you can't give way on.
Thursday, August 13, 2015
The Grand Illusion: Policies and finance
The new regional government came in with something slightly less than a blaze of glory. It was under-cooked, half-baked. Its component elements - PSOE, Més and the part that isn't actually governing only supporting, Podemos - burned the midnight oil on many a late spring night in conjuring up a bag of tricks for the new legislature to pluck from the hat and cry magic. You will believe in magic because the government is going to create it. Yes, its announcements of policy were attention-grabbing. Yes, these policies seemed only fair, right and just. But the government was under-cooked by the very process of so many cooks adding to the broth. They were carried away with the policies and there was one major flaw. Money.
These right and just policies include the basic social wage to those without work or resources, the reintroduction of health care to immigrants who had been cruelly denied it. They included and still include the reactivation of the Llevant railway line, scuppered through lack of finance by the Bauzá regime and left to rot until a cheap compromise was discovered - the "green" way. They no longer seem to include, if they ever truly did, an airline for the Balearics.
There is a great deal to applaud about the government. Its instincts seem right. It is fighting the good fight over large retail outlets and defending the smaller retailer. It wants to regulate on tourism matters in ways in which many will applaud - all-inclusives, a possibly more permissive regime for holiday lets. But then there is less applause for the eco-tax, itself as woolly, as half-baked in its intent as the government's intentions for all-inclusives and holiday lets. Give them time. Yes, they should be given time, but the eco-tax cuts to the heart of what most exercises the minds of the government. Money.
The fronting-up to the national government over the retail outlets, the narrative of "aggression" being shown towards the Balearics on this issue, does not endear Armengol to Rajoy. Nor do many things. There is further aggression being displayed by the intransigence on financing. The rights of Balearic citizens, denied for so long, are being further denied.
The eco-tax, prior to the election, was for Armengol a negotiable. It remained a negotiable as the teams from the different parties worked long into the nights arriving at their "agreements for change", the fundamentals of the tripartite government with only two parts active. Armengol let Biel Barceló have his way. Eco-tax it would be. But this was before the new government had truly started to butt heads with Madrid over the most important issue. Money.
For Armengol the eco-tax was a fallback position. If there were not a better financing arrangement with Madrid, it would be needed. She knew before the election, just as she now does that Rajoy and the national finance minister Montoro would not be for turning. This, therefore, was the illusion of much of the policy, one that may fade to the grey of delusion. Money.
The regional finance minister, Catalina Cladera, is now saying that the government's objectives for 2016 (let alone the current year) will be difficult to meet because of the poor levels of finance coming from Madrid. The basic rights of citizens are to be denied because of the national Partido Popular's victimisation of the Balearics. The citizen as victim of Madrid is the slogan of self-righteousness. The Balearic Government has right on its side, and it is there right alongside the citizen in admonishing the austerity, the parsimony and the aggressions of Madrid.
But what did the Armengol government really expect? Did its members truly believe that they could twist Montoro and Rajoy round to their way of thinking? Maybe they did, but unfortunately, the impression is unavoidable. The policies - some of them anyway - were always likely to be implausible because the financing was not going to be there.
Was it, therefore, all a grand illusion? Not completely no, as a change in national government may usher in a new system of financing. This system, though, would at the earliest be in place in 2017 and some of its effects would not be noticeable until later in that year - more than 24 months after the government took office. Actually, it shouldn't, where Biel Barceló is concerned, be a case of may usher in. One of his bargaining chips was to get Armengol to extract a commitment from PSOE's leader Pedro Sánchez that there will be a new and fairer system of financing. Even if there were to be though, would it in fact be in place for 2017? How many other cooks might Sánchez have to deal with? And so, might the regional government end up edging to the 2019 election with its policies and it, as a coalition, in tatters?
These right and just policies include the basic social wage to those without work or resources, the reintroduction of health care to immigrants who had been cruelly denied it. They included and still include the reactivation of the Llevant railway line, scuppered through lack of finance by the Bauzá regime and left to rot until a cheap compromise was discovered - the "green" way. They no longer seem to include, if they ever truly did, an airline for the Balearics.
There is a great deal to applaud about the government. Its instincts seem right. It is fighting the good fight over large retail outlets and defending the smaller retailer. It wants to regulate on tourism matters in ways in which many will applaud - all-inclusives, a possibly more permissive regime for holiday lets. But then there is less applause for the eco-tax, itself as woolly, as half-baked in its intent as the government's intentions for all-inclusives and holiday lets. Give them time. Yes, they should be given time, but the eco-tax cuts to the heart of what most exercises the minds of the government. Money.
The fronting-up to the national government over the retail outlets, the narrative of "aggression" being shown towards the Balearics on this issue, does not endear Armengol to Rajoy. Nor do many things. There is further aggression being displayed by the intransigence on financing. The rights of Balearic citizens, denied for so long, are being further denied.
The eco-tax, prior to the election, was for Armengol a negotiable. It remained a negotiable as the teams from the different parties worked long into the nights arriving at their "agreements for change", the fundamentals of the tripartite government with only two parts active. Armengol let Biel Barceló have his way. Eco-tax it would be. But this was before the new government had truly started to butt heads with Madrid over the most important issue. Money.
For Armengol the eco-tax was a fallback position. If there were not a better financing arrangement with Madrid, it would be needed. She knew before the election, just as she now does that Rajoy and the national finance minister Montoro would not be for turning. This, therefore, was the illusion of much of the policy, one that may fade to the grey of delusion. Money.
The regional finance minister, Catalina Cladera, is now saying that the government's objectives for 2016 (let alone the current year) will be difficult to meet because of the poor levels of finance coming from Madrid. The basic rights of citizens are to be denied because of the national Partido Popular's victimisation of the Balearics. The citizen as victim of Madrid is the slogan of self-righteousness. The Balearic Government has right on its side, and it is there right alongside the citizen in admonishing the austerity, the parsimony and the aggressions of Madrid.
But what did the Armengol government really expect? Did its members truly believe that they could twist Montoro and Rajoy round to their way of thinking? Maybe they did, but unfortunately, the impression is unavoidable. The policies - some of them anyway - were always likely to be implausible because the financing was not going to be there.
Was it, therefore, all a grand illusion? Not completely no, as a change in national government may usher in a new system of financing. This system, though, would at the earliest be in place in 2017 and some of its effects would not be noticeable until later in that year - more than 24 months after the government took office. Actually, it shouldn't, where Biel Barceló is concerned, be a case of may usher in. One of his bargaining chips was to get Armengol to extract a commitment from PSOE's leader Pedro Sánchez that there will be a new and fairer system of financing. Even if there were to be though, would it in fact be in place for 2017? How many other cooks might Sánchez have to deal with? And so, might the regional government end up edging to the 2019 election with its policies and it, as a coalition, in tatters?
Wednesday, July 29, 2015
This Is Not Galicia: Politicians' holidays
Mariano Rajoy has suddenly come out as a man of the people: cycling people and people of Galicia at any rate. Despite being on holiday, the prime minister found time to send a telegram to Alejandro Valverde to congratulate the Spanish cyclist on having come third in the Tour de France. Which was very nice of him, but ... . But isn't there something wrong with this? He sent a what? A telegram? Such a thing surely no longer exists. Does it? Perhaps parts of Galicia have been preserved in a manner that a fellow Galician - Franco - would have approved. None of this internet carry-on. Keep the communications infrastructure as it was. In the dark ages.
It is doubly strange because Mariano has recently taken to having selfies done. One fancies that it is not he holding the selfie-stick, but there he has been, grinning inanely for the mobile, surrounded by the likes of the Nuevas Generaciones: Young Conservatives in other words. The Mariano grin, rarely produced in public, does have an unfortunately and inherently inane quality to it. He can't help it, as it is a grin of which he is not entirely certain. Mariano is not comfortable within his own facial muscles.
So, though he has embraced the technology of the modern age, he sticks stubbornly to an ancient one - the telegram. Maybe it's prime ministerial protocol. Or maybe Alejandro had blocked him on Facebook.
But to come back to the holiday, yes, even the prime minister of Spain can find time for a holiday, and in this new age of making Mariano appear vaguely human, there he was, doing what many a human does. He was taking a dip. Not that this was a dip in the sea at a resort (do they have such things in Galicia?), it was in a river: the Umia in a place called Meis. Yes, that's Meis and not Més. Mariano had gone for a refreshing cool down with friends. Locals, it is said, were surprised to find they were sharing their river with the premier. The rest of the country was just surprised. Mariano doesn't do things like that. Or hadn't until the PR people suggested it might work in his electoral favour.
The Spanish political class is, for the most part, a bunch of stiffs, an affliction recognised by the Spanish themselves. When Dave came to Mallorca with the kids and was building sandcastles on the beach in Puerto Pollensa, the Spanish media looked on with amazement. A Spanish political leader wouldn't do such a thing. There is of course a danger with allowing a politician to vacate his comfort zone - or discomfort zone in Mariano's case - and to be seen enjoying a vacation in such a frivolous manner, i.e. a gentle breaststroke in a river. Caption writers can have field days if you are not careful. Hence, Mariano "swimming against the tide" of unpopularity (and I've checked, the Umia is tidal).
Nevertheless, this is the new age: of communications technology and for appearing to be in touch. Therefore, we have also recently had the president of the Balearics, Francina Armengol, laughing and prancing with the demon of the Algaida cossier folk dancers. Careful. careful. "Francina runs with the devil", and the face of Podemos's Alberto Jarabo will be Photoshopped onto the demon's mask by a miscreant media type.
Francina hadn't, according to a recent interview, decided where she would be going on holiday. If she does have a holiday, then it will be somewhere in Mallorca, she said. What are the chances, do you suppose, of this somewhere being the likes of Magalluf? Nil, one would think. There are respectable resorts for the political class, such as Puerto Pollensa with its Cameron seal of approval, but even its comparative tranquility would pose a problem. Let's be honest, there are simply too many damn tourists knocking around, littering the beaches and occupying the terraces. No, if it's Mallorca, then it will be a discreet pueblo in the interior where riotousness will be confined to the noise of a piper and the jumping of the little hops of the ball de bot.
And there Francina might bump into her political chums. The resorts are not for Biel, the tourism minister, or for Alberto either. The touristic new age requires promotion of all things heritage and environmental, but is there not something contradictory with the attitudes of the new left in Mallorca? It would seemingly happily see working men and women banished from the island in favour of the quality class (whatever that is). But wherever in the alternative touristic Mallorca of gastronomy routes and ethnology the island's now-of-the-people political leaders choose for their vacationing, one thing will be missing. Mallorca has no rivers. Of course not. This is not Galicia. This is sun and beach. Sea. The people's politicians would do well to remember this.
It is doubly strange because Mariano has recently taken to having selfies done. One fancies that it is not he holding the selfie-stick, but there he has been, grinning inanely for the mobile, surrounded by the likes of the Nuevas Generaciones: Young Conservatives in other words. The Mariano grin, rarely produced in public, does have an unfortunately and inherently inane quality to it. He can't help it, as it is a grin of which he is not entirely certain. Mariano is not comfortable within his own facial muscles.
So, though he has embraced the technology of the modern age, he sticks stubbornly to an ancient one - the telegram. Maybe it's prime ministerial protocol. Or maybe Alejandro had blocked him on Facebook.
But to come back to the holiday, yes, even the prime minister of Spain can find time for a holiday, and in this new age of making Mariano appear vaguely human, there he was, doing what many a human does. He was taking a dip. Not that this was a dip in the sea at a resort (do they have such things in Galicia?), it was in a river: the Umia in a place called Meis. Yes, that's Meis and not Més. Mariano had gone for a refreshing cool down with friends. Locals, it is said, were surprised to find they were sharing their river with the premier. The rest of the country was just surprised. Mariano doesn't do things like that. Or hadn't until the PR people suggested it might work in his electoral favour.
The Spanish political class is, for the most part, a bunch of stiffs, an affliction recognised by the Spanish themselves. When Dave came to Mallorca with the kids and was building sandcastles on the beach in Puerto Pollensa, the Spanish media looked on with amazement. A Spanish political leader wouldn't do such a thing. There is of course a danger with allowing a politician to vacate his comfort zone - or discomfort zone in Mariano's case - and to be seen enjoying a vacation in such a frivolous manner, i.e. a gentle breaststroke in a river. Caption writers can have field days if you are not careful. Hence, Mariano "swimming against the tide" of unpopularity (and I've checked, the Umia is tidal).
Nevertheless, this is the new age: of communications technology and for appearing to be in touch. Therefore, we have also recently had the president of the Balearics, Francina Armengol, laughing and prancing with the demon of the Algaida cossier folk dancers. Careful. careful. "Francina runs with the devil", and the face of Podemos's Alberto Jarabo will be Photoshopped onto the demon's mask by a miscreant media type.
Francina hadn't, according to a recent interview, decided where she would be going on holiday. If she does have a holiday, then it will be somewhere in Mallorca, she said. What are the chances, do you suppose, of this somewhere being the likes of Magalluf? Nil, one would think. There are respectable resorts for the political class, such as Puerto Pollensa with its Cameron seal of approval, but even its comparative tranquility would pose a problem. Let's be honest, there are simply too many damn tourists knocking around, littering the beaches and occupying the terraces. No, if it's Mallorca, then it will be a discreet pueblo in the interior where riotousness will be confined to the noise of a piper and the jumping of the little hops of the ball de bot.
And there Francina might bump into her political chums. The resorts are not for Biel, the tourism minister, or for Alberto either. The touristic new age requires promotion of all things heritage and environmental, but is there not something contradictory with the attitudes of the new left in Mallorca? It would seemingly happily see working men and women banished from the island in favour of the quality class (whatever that is). But wherever in the alternative touristic Mallorca of gastronomy routes and ethnology the island's now-of-the-people political leaders choose for their vacationing, one thing will be missing. Mallorca has no rivers. Of course not. This is not Galicia. This is sun and beach. Sea. The people's politicians would do well to remember this.
Wednesday, July 08, 2015
Armengol: The First One Hundred Days
Certain numbers carry significance for the suspicious and the commemoratively inclined. 111 is English cricket's number of suspicion: its Nelson. 666 is the Devil's number or the number of the beast from Chapter 13 - unlucky for some - of the Book of Revelation. 100 isn't associated with superstition or bad luck, but it has acquired a mythical status in politics. The first 100 days. Why the fascination with 100? For a kick-off, it's a nice round number. It is not 111. It's also reasonably short in temporal terms. 666 would be far too long, even if - with many a governmental administration - its beastliness would offer a more insightful analysis of performance.
Judging when 100 days start is a ritual of its own. In Mallorca, thanks to the procrastinatory nature of installing a new government, it isn't immediately obvious which day is day one, or day zero if you prefer. However, with reasonable certainty, we can take 3, as in 3 July, to be the day of commencement, the day when Francina Armengol held her first cabinet meeting and announced that it was Day Zero for the symbols of Bauzáism: out went the Law of Symbols, trashed was trilingualism (TIL).
On this basis, we can assume that 11 October will commemorate the first 100 days of Armengolism, a useful day as it will be a Sunday and so afford newspapers the opportunity to bulk up their weekend copy with First One Hundred Days specials. It is further useful in that the day after is Spain's National Day, the Day of Hispanidad (Spanishness). Travel agents will be especially happy because of the "puente" weekend, but how happy will others be? How much Spanishness might by then have been dispensed with?
There again, travel agents might have reason to be less than happy. Might the first 100 days witness the arrival of the eco-tax, the 666 devil's work of the horned demon of tourism vice-presidency Biel Barceló? He has said that he will work from the outset for a tourist tax.
Surprisingly, a survey - by the Mallorcan research organisation Gadeso - has found that only a slight majority (51%) of businesses in the tourism sector reject the idea of the tourist tax. Admittedly, only 23% actually agree with it, leaving a further 26% undecided, but one might have anticipated there being greater hostility towards it. Barceló might just be able to take some reassurance from the finding.
It is being said that the tourist tax will be the key legislative item for this government. Possibly it will be, though its passage through parliament shouldn't detain deputies too long, unless PSOE get cold feet, in which case the Més pact (and Podemos support) will collapse rapidly. PSOE's feet will stay warm, especially if Barceló is true to the implication of what he says and seeks to establish at least the legislative framework within the first 100 days. Armengol couldn't afford a falling-out so soon.
What else, apart from the tax, will the specials of Sunday, 11 October be obsessing over? There are already clear signs and not just the abandonment of TIL and the Law of Symbols. One has to do with land, a subject which is vitally important to Mallorca yet which tends to be overlooked in favour of the headline-grabbing of controversies such as the eco-tax. So important is that, even more so than education and language, it is subject to constant political revision which creates the legalistic chaos which surrounds rules on land, on its categorisation and on its use.
Armengol has indicated that another piece of Bauzá legislation - the Ley de Suelo (Land Law) - will be repealed in removing the amnesty that was applied by this law to predominantly rural properties that had been illegally built and which were more than eight years old. The law may, for many, have appeared to have been overly generous, but the fact that so many properties were involved (some 20 odd thousand if I remember rightly) did require some form of pragmatic resolution of their status. Now, the likelihood is that in addition to ever more confusion, the courts will come into their own in arbitrating between two opposing pieces of legislation.
This is an example of Mallorca's politics at its absolute worst. Continuity in legislation is rarely sustained, but when it comes to land, the disruptive legislative tendency causes constant uncertainty. Hence, all the endless cases that do indeed end up in courts. And into this mix comes what may be one of the most important changes during the first 100 days, the confirmation of far greater responsibilities for the Council of Mallorca and so its redefinition of the Mallorca Territorial Plan with all the implications this has for tourism, among other things.
Land law, tourist tax, Catalan linguistic immersion. The first one hundred days will be busy days. Just as well that no one's superstitious.
Judging when 100 days start is a ritual of its own. In Mallorca, thanks to the procrastinatory nature of installing a new government, it isn't immediately obvious which day is day one, or day zero if you prefer. However, with reasonable certainty, we can take 3, as in 3 July, to be the day of commencement, the day when Francina Armengol held her first cabinet meeting and announced that it was Day Zero for the symbols of Bauzáism: out went the Law of Symbols, trashed was trilingualism (TIL).
On this basis, we can assume that 11 October will commemorate the first 100 days of Armengolism, a useful day as it will be a Sunday and so afford newspapers the opportunity to bulk up their weekend copy with First One Hundred Days specials. It is further useful in that the day after is Spain's National Day, the Day of Hispanidad (Spanishness). Travel agents will be especially happy because of the "puente" weekend, but how happy will others be? How much Spanishness might by then have been dispensed with?
There again, travel agents might have reason to be less than happy. Might the first 100 days witness the arrival of the eco-tax, the 666 devil's work of the horned demon of tourism vice-presidency Biel Barceló? He has said that he will work from the outset for a tourist tax.
Surprisingly, a survey - by the Mallorcan research organisation Gadeso - has found that only a slight majority (51%) of businesses in the tourism sector reject the idea of the tourist tax. Admittedly, only 23% actually agree with it, leaving a further 26% undecided, but one might have anticipated there being greater hostility towards it. Barceló might just be able to take some reassurance from the finding.
It is being said that the tourist tax will be the key legislative item for this government. Possibly it will be, though its passage through parliament shouldn't detain deputies too long, unless PSOE get cold feet, in which case the Més pact (and Podemos support) will collapse rapidly. PSOE's feet will stay warm, especially if Barceló is true to the implication of what he says and seeks to establish at least the legislative framework within the first 100 days. Armengol couldn't afford a falling-out so soon.
What else, apart from the tax, will the specials of Sunday, 11 October be obsessing over? There are already clear signs and not just the abandonment of TIL and the Law of Symbols. One has to do with land, a subject which is vitally important to Mallorca yet which tends to be overlooked in favour of the headline-grabbing of controversies such as the eco-tax. So important is that, even more so than education and language, it is subject to constant political revision which creates the legalistic chaos which surrounds rules on land, on its categorisation and on its use.
Armengol has indicated that another piece of Bauzá legislation - the Ley de Suelo (Land Law) - will be repealed in removing the amnesty that was applied by this law to predominantly rural properties that had been illegally built and which were more than eight years old. The law may, for many, have appeared to have been overly generous, but the fact that so many properties were involved (some 20 odd thousand if I remember rightly) did require some form of pragmatic resolution of their status. Now, the likelihood is that in addition to ever more confusion, the courts will come into their own in arbitrating between two opposing pieces of legislation.
This is an example of Mallorca's politics at its absolute worst. Continuity in legislation is rarely sustained, but when it comes to land, the disruptive legislative tendency causes constant uncertainty. Hence, all the endless cases that do indeed end up in courts. And into this mix comes what may be one of the most important changes during the first 100 days, the confirmation of far greater responsibilities for the Council of Mallorca and so its redefinition of the Mallorca Territorial Plan with all the implications this has for tourism, among other things.
Land law, tourist tax, Catalan linguistic immersion. The first one hundred days will be busy days. Just as well that no one's superstitious.
Tuesday, June 30, 2015
Forty-Five Minutes Is A Long Time In Politics
So, though she wasn't officially yet president, Francina Armengol made her first presidential speech on Monday. Marga Prohens, for the Partido Popular, condemned it for having been, among other things, "short". It was around 45 minutes long. How long would Marga have liked? An hour, two hours, a whole day? Isn't there something about presentations, that an audience pays attention for the first fifteen minutes or so and then falls asleep until it sounds as though things are winding up, at which point the audience is wide awake again and desperately hoping that the end is indeed nigh? Forty-five minutes sound like around thirty minutes too many, especially when the whole thing could be done by sending round a circular with bullet points and skipping the whole speech bit. Tourist tax, yes. Repealing TIL trilingual teaching, yes. Building massive great retail warehouses all over the Tramuntana, no.
There again, there was a need for some nuance, i.e. some justification for Francina's Damascene conversion to many of the ways of Més and Podemos. Equivocal she had previously been on the tourist tax. Preferable it had been had the horse-trading not given Més and Biel Barceló the gift horse of tourism. As this is the stable where tourism will now reside, one of a rundown old property for which no permission will be forthcoming for conversion to, say, a boutique hotel, Francina was left with little choice but to have joined the eco-nationalists. Tourist tax it will be and it will regenerate the land, make it sustainable and Majorca will be restored to pre-industrial revolution days.
This is of course an exaggeration but my God, talk about lighting the blue touch paper and waiting. Incandescence will greet such incandescence. There will be rage, and even now the travel journalists of "The Sun" and "Bild" will be sharpening their pencils to warn of rip-off Mallorca or such like.
Francina, in the homely fashion that we were exposed to on her having become president of the Council of Mallorca in 2007 when she announced that her door would always be open, went even further this time. So homely is she now that the presidential HQ will be like "home" for the teachers. What does this mean? Will they be able to simply wander into the Consolat de la Mar, help themselves to the contents of the presidential fridge, then stretch out on the sofa and switch the telly on? Well no, but they will be assured of Mother Francina's comforting presence on the sofa while they tell her how to rewrite education legislation.
At least with TIL Francina had come up with this herself. It was PSOE policy and so not one driven by (demanded by) Més or Podemos. So much has been though. Hence, the road to the Damascus of the Consolat de la Mar is littered with transparency (a whole ministry indeed) and with democratic regeneration, part of which, it would appear, is that the islands' councils are going to be made into their own governments. Suddenly, federalism is on everyone's lips, if by everyone one means Pedro Sanchez, the national leader of PSOE, and now his Balearic acolyte. Més may not have taken kindly to Sanchez having the Spanish flag on stage with him with the other week, but they will have taken kindly to the Balearic federalism agenda. Indeed, they probably wrote it. Més have long been advocates of beefed-up island councils, and now they have two of them to run for themselves - Mallorca's and Menorca's.
You would have expected Marga Prohens to have been less than fulsome with her praise of the Armengol speech. There was in fact no praise at all, only criticism. But apart from the speech having been too short, Marga did raise one or two pertinent questions. Like, how are you going to pay to, for instance, guarantee everyone has a minimum income whether in employment or not? Resources are what resources are, she pointed out helpfully. Governments cannot live by tourist taxes alone, she might have added, but then there is all this business with the financing of the Balearics from the state coffers. This is hardcore Més and Podemos territory. Hand over the cash, Madrid, and we'll pay off everyone's mortgage. Or something like that.
So, thus spake Francina, a Zarathustra for the political new age, turning not traditional morality on its head but traditional politics. Strangely though, she said that she was not someone who was forming part of a clamour for change, even if she is about to preside over it. But then, maybe this wasn't so strange. Does she indeed believe in all this? It was a speech worked from the back by Biel Barceló and Alberto Jarabo. How long might it take for the "pact" to unravel? Forty-five minutes?
Index for June 2015
Before and after: how Mallorca changed - 15 June 2015
Bellevue Alcúdia: Spanish students' holidays - 27 June 2015
Calonge - battle in 1715 - 16 June 2015
Canamunt, Canavall and fiesta - 10 June 2015
Corruption and elections - 1 June 2015
Fiesta programmes and politics - 25 June 2015
Fiestas and cultural interest - 19 June 2015
Francina Armengol investiture - 30 June 2015
FIFA, Spanish football and corruption - 4 June 2015
Hotels rush to legalise places - 13 June 2015
Investiture of mayors - 14 June 2015
Lloseta shoes - 7 June 2015
Mallorquín, Catalan and the language argument - 9 June 2015
Manacor: fiesta mule - 11 June 2015
Més and the sofa - 3 June 2015
Miquel Àngel March - 22 June 2015
Musical tradition, Mallorca - 29 June 2015
Partido Popular rebellion against Bauzá - 28 June 2015
Political change and the Church - 17 June 2015
Proportional representation - 24 June 2015
Sa Pobla and the potato - 8 June 2015
Sant Joan, Night of Fire - 23 June 2015
Sant Joan Pelós, Felanitx - 21 June 2015
Sóller tram and uniqueness - 5 June 2015
Toni Catany Foundation - 12 June 2015
Tourism and new administrations in Mallorca - 20 June 2015
Tourism industry and uncertainty - 6 June 2015
Tramuntana mountains and tourism - 18 June 2015
Unknown saints - 26 June 2015
There again, there was a need for some nuance, i.e. some justification for Francina's Damascene conversion to many of the ways of Més and Podemos. Equivocal she had previously been on the tourist tax. Preferable it had been had the horse-trading not given Més and Biel Barceló the gift horse of tourism. As this is the stable where tourism will now reside, one of a rundown old property for which no permission will be forthcoming for conversion to, say, a boutique hotel, Francina was left with little choice but to have joined the eco-nationalists. Tourist tax it will be and it will regenerate the land, make it sustainable and Majorca will be restored to pre-industrial revolution days.
This is of course an exaggeration but my God, talk about lighting the blue touch paper and waiting. Incandescence will greet such incandescence. There will be rage, and even now the travel journalists of "The Sun" and "Bild" will be sharpening their pencils to warn of rip-off Mallorca or such like.
Francina, in the homely fashion that we were exposed to on her having become president of the Council of Mallorca in 2007 when she announced that her door would always be open, went even further this time. So homely is she now that the presidential HQ will be like "home" for the teachers. What does this mean? Will they be able to simply wander into the Consolat de la Mar, help themselves to the contents of the presidential fridge, then stretch out on the sofa and switch the telly on? Well no, but they will be assured of Mother Francina's comforting presence on the sofa while they tell her how to rewrite education legislation.
At least with TIL Francina had come up with this herself. It was PSOE policy and so not one driven by (demanded by) Més or Podemos. So much has been though. Hence, the road to the Damascus of the Consolat de la Mar is littered with transparency (a whole ministry indeed) and with democratic regeneration, part of which, it would appear, is that the islands' councils are going to be made into their own governments. Suddenly, federalism is on everyone's lips, if by everyone one means Pedro Sanchez, the national leader of PSOE, and now his Balearic acolyte. Més may not have taken kindly to Sanchez having the Spanish flag on stage with him with the other week, but they will have taken kindly to the Balearic federalism agenda. Indeed, they probably wrote it. Més have long been advocates of beefed-up island councils, and now they have two of them to run for themselves - Mallorca's and Menorca's.
You would have expected Marga Prohens to have been less than fulsome with her praise of the Armengol speech. There was in fact no praise at all, only criticism. But apart from the speech having been too short, Marga did raise one or two pertinent questions. Like, how are you going to pay to, for instance, guarantee everyone has a minimum income whether in employment or not? Resources are what resources are, she pointed out helpfully. Governments cannot live by tourist taxes alone, she might have added, but then there is all this business with the financing of the Balearics from the state coffers. This is hardcore Més and Podemos territory. Hand over the cash, Madrid, and we'll pay off everyone's mortgage. Or something like that.
So, thus spake Francina, a Zarathustra for the political new age, turning not traditional morality on its head but traditional politics. Strangely though, she said that she was not someone who was forming part of a clamour for change, even if she is about to preside over it. But then, maybe this wasn't so strange. Does she indeed believe in all this? It was a speech worked from the back by Biel Barceló and Alberto Jarabo. How long might it take for the "pact" to unravel? Forty-five minutes?
Index for June 2015
Before and after: how Mallorca changed - 15 June 2015
Bellevue Alcúdia: Spanish students' holidays - 27 June 2015
Calonge - battle in 1715 - 16 June 2015
Canamunt, Canavall and fiesta - 10 June 2015
Corruption and elections - 1 June 2015
Fiesta programmes and politics - 25 June 2015
Fiestas and cultural interest - 19 June 2015
Francina Armengol investiture - 30 June 2015
FIFA, Spanish football and corruption - 4 June 2015
Hotels rush to legalise places - 13 June 2015
Investiture of mayors - 14 June 2015
Lloseta shoes - 7 June 2015
Mallorquín, Catalan and the language argument - 9 June 2015
Manacor: fiesta mule - 11 June 2015
Més and the sofa - 3 June 2015
Miquel Àngel March - 22 June 2015
Musical tradition, Mallorca - 29 June 2015
Partido Popular rebellion against Bauzá - 28 June 2015
Political change and the Church - 17 June 2015
Proportional representation - 24 June 2015
Sa Pobla and the potato - 8 June 2015
Sant Joan, Night of Fire - 23 June 2015
Sant Joan Pelós, Felanitx - 21 June 2015
Sóller tram and uniqueness - 5 June 2015
Toni Catany Foundation - 12 June 2015
Tourism and new administrations in Mallorca - 20 June 2015
Tourism industry and uncertainty - 6 June 2015
Tramuntana mountains and tourism - 18 June 2015
Unknown saints - 26 June 2015
Saturday, March 07, 2015
The Desperation Of José Ramón
"Desperado, why don't you come to your senses?" When The Eagles released this, at a time when the music world was prepared to concede that they were any good, the leaders of the two main political parties in the Balearics were mere toddlers. José Ramón Bauzá and Francina Armengol might have grown up together, their entries into this world separated by some nine months: boy and girl, childhood sweethearts, forever devoted, forever in a pact of togetherness. Alas, this was not how it was to be. Fate conspired to keep them apart, to follow different paths, if only politically. Pharmaceutically they had a bond, his family pharmacy in Marratxi, her family pharmacy in Inca. Hence we have what we have: the world of Balearics politics, run by chemists, each dispensing paracetamol to relieve the giant headaches of the populace they cause.
Francina turned on José last week. "Desperado". Not just desperate but very desperate. "Muy desperado". José wanted to turn back the clock, to discover what they had been denied in their infancy. Togetherness. A pact. Francina was having none of it. Now a matriarch, for her a craving for the rules of the kindergarten - sometimes adhered to - applies only so much in the adult world of Balearics politics. PSOE's leader rejected a post-electoral accord with José's PP.
José was desperate. Desperate for an alliance to keep the PP in power. The mere suggestion of a pact with PSOE showed he understands what the polls say. Bye, bye, Bauzá. And with all the nasty, rough boys of the left forming gangs to beat up his mayors in the sticks, José was in desperate need of his own gang, his own pact. Every other party is pacting, so why not the PP? But José has found, as he will continue to find, that no one wants to join his gang. He is being consigned to a corner of the playground, the others having stolen his ball and calling him horrid names.
Spurned, José shouted that Francina's PSOE was slipping to become the third force in the islands' politics but that he was offering her a way to be more of a force, a part of a grand force of PP and PSOE. It is the time for "responsibility, high-mindedness, for democratic participation and stability", all of which only the PP, together in peace and harmony with PSOE, can offer. Francina wasn't listening, and as usual the Bauzá Babe In Chief contributed her penny's worth. Mabel Cabrer bellowed that Francina was interested only in agreements with "radical extremists".
José's pact gambit proved that the desperado had indeed taken leave of his senses. What is it, above all, that Podemos rejects? The two-party, PP-PSOE system. Yet here was José willing a duopolistic electoral carve-up, evidence of a perpetuation and magnification of the cosy system considered to be discredited by Podemos. It would not only have been Podemos who would have smelt a very large rat. The electorate would have detected the whiff as well. Desperation leads to desperate measures, but a PP-PSOE pact would be one too far, even for a desperado.
Francina turned on José last week. "Desperado". Not just desperate but very desperate. "Muy desperado". José wanted to turn back the clock, to discover what they had been denied in their infancy. Togetherness. A pact. Francina was having none of it. Now a matriarch, for her a craving for the rules of the kindergarten - sometimes adhered to - applies only so much in the adult world of Balearics politics. PSOE's leader rejected a post-electoral accord with José's PP.
José was desperate. Desperate for an alliance to keep the PP in power. The mere suggestion of a pact with PSOE showed he understands what the polls say. Bye, bye, Bauzá. And with all the nasty, rough boys of the left forming gangs to beat up his mayors in the sticks, José was in desperate need of his own gang, his own pact. Every other party is pacting, so why not the PP? But José has found, as he will continue to find, that no one wants to join his gang. He is being consigned to a corner of the playground, the others having stolen his ball and calling him horrid names.
Spurned, José shouted that Francina's PSOE was slipping to become the third force in the islands' politics but that he was offering her a way to be more of a force, a part of a grand force of PP and PSOE. It is the time for "responsibility, high-mindedness, for democratic participation and stability", all of which only the PP, together in peace and harmony with PSOE, can offer. Francina wasn't listening, and as usual the Bauzá Babe In Chief contributed her penny's worth. Mabel Cabrer bellowed that Francina was interested only in agreements with "radical extremists".
José's pact gambit proved that the desperado had indeed taken leave of his senses. What is it, above all, that Podemos rejects? The two-party, PP-PSOE system. Yet here was José willing a duopolistic electoral carve-up, evidence of a perpetuation and magnification of the cosy system considered to be discredited by Podemos. It would not only have been Podemos who would have smelt a very large rat. The electorate would have detected the whiff as well. Desperation leads to desperate measures, but a PP-PSOE pact would be one too far, even for a desperado.
Sunday, February 08, 2015
Have You Got A Moment?
I recall that when Francina Armengol was given the keys to the presidential suite at the Council of Mallorca in 2007, she was going to usher in a new way of doing things. Her door, she said, would always be open, by which she didn't mean that the general public could just wander in off the street and have a good old nosey around. Rather, Francina was all for doing things differently; she was an open and communicative president and not the one from whom she had taken over (now residing at his majesty's pleasure). Eight years later, we find Francina in pole position (if not actually first in the polls) to become Bauzá's successor, and so she has been reflecting on ... the need for a new way of doing things. These new ways come in eight-year cycles, it would appear. "Another way of doing politics is possible," she informed a gathering of PSOE-ites in Valencia. "Through dialogue rather than imposition." "Through participation and ..." At this point, lights will have gone on in the minds of the fellow PSOE-ites. Participation. Now, where have we been hearing about this?
Suddenly, everyone's talking about participation, and they have to thank (and/or fear) Pablo Iglesias for doing so. Yes, there is a new and participative way of doing things, and someone had beaten Francina to the idea by several months. Her version, whatever it might in fact be, is political catch-up blended with ample dollops of opportunism. What are Podemos good at? Participation. Right, we'll have some of that for ourselves. And, blow me, only a few days later, PSOE in Calvia were unveiling their own participative re-invention. Under the slogan - "have you got a moment" - they've come up with a mobile app through which residents can answer three questions, such as "what is it that most concerns you about Calvia?" A multiple choice gives various options for answering - corruption, safety, taxes, tourism, etc. More than this, they are planning on having "participative budgets", so that the folk of Calvia can decide where money goes for certain things.
This isn't as revolutionary as it might sound, as they already do this in little old Algaida, where the council is PSOE-controlled and which is the home town of Francina's predecessor as leader of PSOE, her good chum and former president of the Balearics, Francesc Antich. So, it's been Algaida which has been the source of inspiration for Francina; has it? Possibly, but new ways of doing things haven't simply shifted towards citizen decisions as to how 300 grand are spent; new ways have emerged because things have been turned on their head. And Francina knows full well by whom and why she has to get the participation craze as well. As Little Eva might have sung (but didn't): "Everybody's doing a brand new political dance now. Come on, baby, do The Participation".
Suddenly, everyone's talking about participation, and they have to thank (and/or fear) Pablo Iglesias for doing so. Yes, there is a new and participative way of doing things, and someone had beaten Francina to the idea by several months. Her version, whatever it might in fact be, is political catch-up blended with ample dollops of opportunism. What are Podemos good at? Participation. Right, we'll have some of that for ourselves. And, blow me, only a few days later, PSOE in Calvia were unveiling their own participative re-invention. Under the slogan - "have you got a moment" - they've come up with a mobile app through which residents can answer three questions, such as "what is it that most concerns you about Calvia?" A multiple choice gives various options for answering - corruption, safety, taxes, tourism, etc. More than this, they are planning on having "participative budgets", so that the folk of Calvia can decide where money goes for certain things.
This isn't as revolutionary as it might sound, as they already do this in little old Algaida, where the council is PSOE-controlled and which is the home town of Francina's predecessor as leader of PSOE, her good chum and former president of the Balearics, Francesc Antich. So, it's been Algaida which has been the source of inspiration for Francina; has it? Possibly, but new ways of doing things haven't simply shifted towards citizen decisions as to how 300 grand are spent; new ways have emerged because things have been turned on their head. And Francina knows full well by whom and why she has to get the participation craze as well. As Little Eva might have sung (but didn't): "Everybody's doing a brand new political dance now. Come on, baby, do The Participation".
Saturday, January 03, 2015
At The Drink: Mallorca new year political messages
The end of the old year, the start of the new, time for every good politician to come to the aid of his or her party, make some proud resolutions, predictions and boasts and hope like hell that the population is not too drunk or hungover to pay any attention. José Ramón Bauzá gave his presidential address, having wolfed down his twelve grapes for luck and probably having sunk a glass of cava or two. 10,000 new jobs will be created in 2015, he hicced and burped, consulting the back of the fag packet on which his script had been written. Under a commonly accepted principle that 2% growth - which will also occur, according to Joserra - leads to 1% growth in employment, he may well be right. But as no one really knows how many people are genuinely unemployed or indeed employed in the Balearics, it's hard to agree or disagree. If one accepts that the figure of 84,311 unemployed in November is accurate (which it isn't because it only takes account of those registered as unemployed), then the 10,000 seems fair enough, if rather too round.
The PSOE opposition was of course having none of it. "Cynical, meaningless and typical of a president who is in the last days of government," said spokesperson Pilar Costa. The 10,000 jobs boast was a "desperate attempt to give a positive message", she went on. And on. Meanwhile, her boss, Francina Armengol, was letting rip not on account of too many grapes and cavas but because of the "authoritarian" manner of the Bauzá regime and a presidential capacity for being "very strong with the weak and very weak with the strong", which was not a bad soundbite it must be said. Francina then ruined this by asserting that PSOE (which we are really meant to call PSIB in the Balearics) was "the only party capable of real change". Oh dear, oh dear. Elections come ever nearer and the C-word gets dragged out and in different languages: canvi, or cambio for those with a delicate Catalan condition. It went from bad to worse. It seemed as if Francina had after all been at the cava, sunk an entire bottle and a few hierbas as well. "The people have confidence in the Socialist Party." Eh!? These would presumably be the same people who are failing to give PSOE (PSIB) their overwhelming support in the opinion polls.
It was notable that the Partido Popular responded not through its normal spokesperson, Núria Riera, but through another of the Bauzá Babes, Marga Prohens, which, when you think about it, is a suitably feminist name (in English) to possess. Anyway, Marga wasn't going down any feminist line but was asserting that the "government has believed in people not in slogans" without perhaps appreciating that she was sloganising in the process. The question was of course, where was Núria? Had she been confined to the shadows of the teacher-transfer scandal or had she beaten Francina to the cava? We'll probably never know.
The PSOE opposition was of course having none of it. "Cynical, meaningless and typical of a president who is in the last days of government," said spokesperson Pilar Costa. The 10,000 jobs boast was a "desperate attempt to give a positive message", she went on. And on. Meanwhile, her boss, Francina Armengol, was letting rip not on account of too many grapes and cavas but because of the "authoritarian" manner of the Bauzá regime and a presidential capacity for being "very strong with the weak and very weak with the strong", which was not a bad soundbite it must be said. Francina then ruined this by asserting that PSOE (which we are really meant to call PSIB in the Balearics) was "the only party capable of real change". Oh dear, oh dear. Elections come ever nearer and the C-word gets dragged out and in different languages: canvi, or cambio for those with a delicate Catalan condition. It went from bad to worse. It seemed as if Francina had after all been at the cava, sunk an entire bottle and a few hierbas as well. "The people have confidence in the Socialist Party." Eh!? These would presumably be the same people who are failing to give PSOE (PSIB) their overwhelming support in the opinion polls.
It was notable that the Partido Popular responded not through its normal spokesperson, Núria Riera, but through another of the Bauzá Babes, Marga Prohens, which, when you think about it, is a suitably feminist name (in English) to possess. Anyway, Marga wasn't going down any feminist line but was asserting that the "government has believed in people not in slogans" without perhaps appreciating that she was sloganising in the process. The question was of course, where was Núria? Had she been confined to the shadows of the teacher-transfer scandal or had she beaten Francina to the cava? We'll probably never know.
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