In Defence Of Regionalism

The government of the Balearics represents the autonomous community of the Balearics, a legal entity - as with all other such communities - under Spain's constitution, which has its statues of autonomy that determine the scope of powers and responsibilities that have been devolved.

The system of regional government has existed for more than thirty years: the Balearics was one of the last regions to be granted autonomy in 1983. It is a system that is not without its critics, some of them from outside Spain: the EU identified regional profligacy as a contributory factor to Spain's economic crisis.

That there was profligacy is beyond doubt. And at least some of it was linked to corruption, as was the case in the Balearics. Demands made by Brussels and by the national government through its legal framework for managing deficits have largely addressed this. There will continue to be critics of the system, who challenge its efficiency, but generally there are not the howls demanding fundamental reform that there were some five years ago.

Those previous demands hinted at diminishing regional powers. The demands are now the reverse. The sore point of regional financing - in essence, how the state divvies up money to the regions - has existed for several years. There are regions which are now seeking to ease the pain, and the Balearics is heading the campaign for a fairer system.

Regional financing goes to the heart of the Catalonia independence drive. It was a refusal by Mariano Rajoy to countenance an adjustment to Catalonia's financial arrangements which pushed Artur Mas in the direction of independence. Catalonia, with Carles Puigdemont now its president, may join with the Balearics and other regions in a drive towards what Francina Armengol calls fiscal federalism. Whatever may lie ahead with Catalonia's desire for independence, regions that have been agitating for improved financing deals can now see a window of opportunity. The Rajoy administration, with a minority government, will find it less easy to deny demands for reform than it has previously.

Financing and devolved powers are one side of the regional coin. They are the practical elements. The other side is occupied by what might be termed the psychological, the abstract desire for greater regional authority and identity. Deep-rooted in Catalonia, the Basque Country, to a lesser extent in Navarre or Galicia, it has its manifestations elsewhere, such as in the Balearics. What is a region unless it advocates regionalism?

This regionalism was officially approved by the creation of autonomous communities. From what was initially an institutional mechanism for decentralised government - the practical - has come the psychological, the hankering after a regional identity, however elusive that might in fact be.

In the Balearics, regionalism as a philosophy has characterised governments since 1983. Or had done until José Ramón Bauzá became president. While Bauzá was to talk of defending regional interests, he was only to make a point of this after he had fallen out of favour with Rajoy. At one time he had been a type of protégé, who created the prototype administration for the years of austerity. Regionalism, its name darkened by profligacy, was to be lessened. The regions were to come under stricter central command. Bauzá's defence of regional interests had been such a sham that he had even declined to take up investments that the state should have been obliged to make. He was the champion of Rajoy's austerity, a policy combined with one of insidious regional enfeeblement.

To what extent regional identity exists in the Balearics is a moot point. But if this is taken as common needs shared by the four islands, then there is at least one common cause. Insularity creates specific issues, and not solely ones of financing. Madrid has never appeared to understand insularity and has therefore failed to appreciate legitimate demands for better and fairer financial treatment. In ignoring these demands, it has helped to foster grievance and thus a siege mentality that takes regionalism as its shield.

All political parties in the Balearics have embraced regionalism. It has, over three plus decades, shifted in the policies of some and embraced a quasi-nationalism, fuelled as much by a psychological desire as by practicalities. The only major disruption to this thinking was the Bauzá-era Partido Popular. The party wants to revert to its previous regionalist agenda. It also wants a single figure to be presented as its new permanent leader when it comes to election in spring next year. But it is finding this difficult. Jaime Martínez, the one-time sidekick to Carlos Delgado, who had pretty much pre-determined the Bauzá agenda, sees himself as possible leader. He says that coming to an accord with the regionalists is not proving to be easy.

His line seems totally illogical. What possible reason can there be for regional government if it isn't regionalist and if it does not prioritise the defence of regional interests?

When The Seagulls Follow: Partido Popular factions

The larus is a genus of seagull. The scientific name for the Mediterranean gull is "Larus melanocephalus". The term is Greek and it means "black-headed". As such, and because of its root, it bears some similarity with the Greek word "melankholia", which passed into Old and then Modern English as initially "black bile" and eventually sadness or depression.

The "melanocephalus" does not feature in the title given to a set of awards. Larus sits on its own. The seagull genus. The bird which flaps around making an at-times God awful racket and being, also at times, an all-round nuisance. Larus is the title of annual awards handed out by the Balearics Partido Popular.

Why this title was chosen I couldn't tell you, but chosen it was in 2012 and so gave rise, if one was of a mind to make them, to any number of associations. Black-headed, melancholic, black bile, a racket, a nuisance. A seagull may look graceful as it hangs on the thermals above the shoreline, but as with many wonders of the natural world it has a spiteful and unpleasant side to it as well.

The Larus awards were presented for the first time at the end of last year. One recipient was Antoni Arabí, a former footballer who was born in Ibiza and who played for Espanyol for eight seasons. He became active in politics with the PP when he hung up his boots. Another award-winner was Joan Verger, a former president (PP) of the Council of Mallorca who died in May this year. A third recipient was the Banco de Alimentos de Mallorca. Earlier this month, this "bank" arranged for the collection of some 120 tons of food from leading supermarkets to be handed out to the needy.

The awards are designed to recognise the achievements of individuals or groups in political, cultural, social or sporting fields. The recipients are intended to be people or organisations affiliated to, friends of or sympathisers of the PP. Such qualification may or may not be rather loose. The Red Cross in the Balearics has received an award this year, a reflection, one would think, of general good works, as with the Banco de Alimentos, rather than any political affiliation.

But certain awards are quite clearly of a PP and a PP only nature. Ventura Rubí received a posthumous award this year. The one-time president of the PP in Sencelles, he was the promoter of the golf course in that town, one which had been blocked until there was a change of political regime in 2011. And another one-time president has picked up a Larus this year. He is Gabriel Cañellas, the first president of the Balearics who held the post from 1983 until he was forced to resign and step down in 1996, embroiled as he then was in the Sóller Tunnel affair.

Cañellas is an interesting figure. Effectively, he is the father of regional democracy, yet he fell from grace because of the tunnel corruption case. It was the first big corruption investigation in Mallorca. The case was eventually archived, but there are still those who insist that some of those indicted got off. Who can really say?

Seagulls invite aphorisms or metaphors. Or they did where Eric Cantona was concerned. Acceptance speeches in the name of a seagull award can also invite sayings which require interpretation. Cañellas offered not one but two. The first was a reminder not to kill that which was helped to be born. The second referred to carts and horses. What did he mean? They were oblique allusions to the people and to regionalism.

There was no mention in his speech of the economy or of the fuss about trilingual teaching or the banning of symbols. Cañellas eschewed full-frontalism in favour of the veiled broadside. Father of regional democracy, he is of a PP which was, from the start of this democracy, a supporter of regionalism. There are others from his time who are still powerful voices who believe in this regionalism too. President Bauzá doesn't. Or doesn't appear to.

The award has been seen as an attempt to mend bridges between factions, one of them represented by the Cañellas old school, and to appeal to PP opponents of Bauzá in parts of the Balearics. And in photos of the occasion, there is the president, beaming as Cañellas lectures the audience and makes, as has been suggested, a "masterly" speech. It is the beaming expression all too familiar to political descendants of former masters. It was one to always be found on the faces of Conservative Party figures whenever Margaret Thatcher appeared and spoke. It is an expression that is necessary, so as to avoid being purged and airbrushed, so as to show respect. But it is also fawning and even patronising. Place a thought bubble above Bauzá's head and what might he have been thinking behind the smile? "I hear what you say, but I'm not listening."?

The Larus stage was set, therefore, for a meeting of the old and new schools. Which one is better? Regionalism aside, Bauzá should be given some credit for the new. He has attempted to rid the party of its previously dubious behaviour, now so much in the public view thanks to Jaume Matas. Was the old school more in tune with the people though? With what is behind the truck and with what was born? It's a question only the PP can answer. Or the electorate. And meantime, the good works baton was handed to the Red Cross. From an evening of awards at Christmas time to days of soup kitchens over the festivities.

Just The Way We Are: Balearics identity

I have previously reported on the Gadeso surveys of what the people of the Balearics identify with - the islands, an island or Spain. Previously though, the results might have provoked a resounding so-what. The latest survey is rather more significant. It has been undertaken against a political background which raises issues regarding this identity far more keenly than in the past. This background, that of regional government's apparent indifference to regionalism (and so the political identity of the Balearics) and antagonism towards Catalonia and to Catalan, might well have been expected to have produced results which reflect a backlash against government policies and attitudes. And to some extent, they have.

While the percentage of people (900 interviews were conducted) who feel Spanish and Balearic in equal measure remains unaltered, there has been a rise in the number who say they feel more Balearic than Spanish and a fall in the number who say they feel more Spanish than Balearic; the former group beats the latter by eight percentage points.

The interpretation placed on this shift is precisely for reasons I have outlined above. Government attitudes towards Balearic regionalism have not won the government a great deal of support; the opposite is the case.

But what can one really say about a Balearic identity? The fact is that when asked whether they identify with their island or with the Balearics, a majority (well over a half) in each of the four islands says that it identifies more with the island (62% plays 37% in the case of Mallorca; the identification with Menorca and Formentera is quite a bit stronger).  So, how does one interpret these results? One way is by suggesting that an island identity is inevitably going to be stronger than a broader and more nebulous one. But one could argue that they point once more to an essential paradox which exists within Mallorcan/Balearic society. It is for the region in a political sense but it is for the island in a non-political sense; the narrower the scope for identity in terms of an abstract sense of belonging, the stronger that identity will be.

This paradox carries over into language. President Bauzá may have it wrong where regional sentiments are concerned but he isn't wrong when it comes to dialects. The great paradox is the support for Catalan at a political level, as evidenced by the teachers' strike and opposition to the elimination of Catalan as a requirement for public-sector employment, but also the support for the Catalan dialects at a street level; the dialects with which the people of the islands identify with far more than they identify with Catalan or want to identify themselves with Catalonia.

Bauzá, and I've made the point before, appears to be indifferent towards regionalism because he is wedded to an ideology that places Spanish nationalism before regionalism, and this nationalism is the product of the rejection of separatism and especially Catalonian ambitions. He has, therefore, adopted policies which have lost him support for reasons that are essentially unwarranted. Over half the people of the islands are solidly middle of the road, both Spanish and Balearic, while an identity with the notion of the "Catalan Lands" is all but non-existent. It is this identity which Bauzá appears to fear, but it is a fear based on nothing. What percentage of people identify with the Catalan Lands more than the Balearics or their own island? One per cent in Mallorca, one per cent in Menorca and zero per cent in Ibiza and Formentera. And of those who do identify with the Catalan Lands, their profile is as it might be expected. They vote for the left-wing/green parties and they are young. People who vote for the mainstream Partido Popular and PSOE have no interest in the Catalan Lands; the overwhelming majority therefore.

Of other findings in the survey, there isn't much support for a move towards a federal arrangement for the regions of Spain; a mere 8% back such a system. Only 1% wants independence, which confirms the lack of radicalism that exists in the Balearics. The people may not like Bauzá's anti-regionalism but they have no interest in pursuing a line similar to the Catalonians.

Then there is what people think about how government is organised. This shows the greatest divergence of opinion between Mallorca and the other islands. 8% of Mallorcans would like the island councils to have greater responsibilities. 54% of Menorcans would like to see this. 10% of Mallorcans, admittedly not many, would like to see the island councils done away with. Only 1% of Menorcans would.

All in all, a survey which proves that the people of the Balearics are not radical and mostly like things the way they are. There's a message for Bauzá, assuming he takes any notice.

300 Years Of Memory: Regionalism and Republicanism

There have been two anniversaries over the past few days, one of them a commemoration of an act 300 years ago, the other rather nearer to the present day, but both of them have significance for present-day Spain and can, in certain respects, be linked.

On 11 April 1713 the Treaty of Utrecht was signed. It brought to an end the War of the Spanish Succession and, while the treaty in theory created a unified Spanish state, it in fact laid the foundations for many of the problems that the Spanish state has endured ever since and still does. Under the treaty, the grandson of Louis XIV of France, Philip, the Duke of Anjou, was recognised as the King of Spain. He became King Philip V, the first Bourbon king and so the creator of the ancestral line to the current king, and it was he who was responsible for the so-called Nuevas Plantas, the decrees by which the old charters, institutions and privileges enjoyed by Catalan-speaking territories were removed.

One of the institutions that was done away with was one that had in effect been in abeyance since before the end of the fourteenth century, namely the Kingdom of Mallorca. This had come under the Crown of Aragon, and it was this "crown" which comprised various Catalan-speaking areas - Aragon itself, Valencia, the Balearic Islands and, most importantly of all, Catalonia. One says most importantly of all, because this is how it has turned out. The suppression of Catalonia's rights and privileges by Philip V lies at the heart of current Catalonian claims for independence. All the Aragon crown lands came under the rule of laws from Castile, and these laws included those to do with the use of language (Castellano and not Catalan). They were issued as retribution for Catalan opposition to Philip during the War. The Treaty of Utrecht explains a great deal about present-day tensions.

It also explains tensions on an international level. One at any rate. Under the treaty Gibraltar was ceded to Britain. Gibraltar's strategic importance (far greater than that of Menorca, which was also ceded to the British) explains why the Spanish have always wanted it back. It had been captured by a combined British and Dutch force in 1704. Utrecht defined it as British and as a British possession in perpetuity.

The more recent of the two anniversaries occurred on 14 April. This marked 82 years since the formation of the Second Republic when another Bourbon king, Alfonso XIII, was forced into exile. The Republic was to end in total disaster. It failed for all sorts of reasons, not least because it became the context for factional violence led by anarchists and communists. Yet, had it not become a potential puppet for the Soviet Union, had it not been the pretext for Franco's uprising, where might Spain be now?

It wouldn't be a monarchy, that's for sure. But it would have had many more years of settled democracy. The Republic favoured freedom of speech, ruined under Franco. It favoured freedom of association, which arguably meant that unionism, once democracy was re-established, was to be more fervent than it might otherwise have been and which arguably has also meant that political parties suffer from a certain immaturity that they might not have, had they been allowed to flourish from the 1930s. It also favoured regional autonomy, which was not to become a reality for almost fifty years. And this of course is the main link with Philip V and the Treaty of Utrecht.

82 years do not mark a notable anniversary, but in recent years the remembrance of 14 April has grown stronger across Spain and Mallorca; Pollensa is one of the towns on the island with the strongest Republican sentiment. And various events of very much more recent history have done little to douse the revival of Republicanism.

A year or so ago I would have said that the monarchy was still very much the glue that held Spain together and that Republicanism was just an old ideal of a minority on the left. A lot has happened over the past year, though, to make me wonder. The Catalans seem determined to press ahead with their referendum, one that, were independence to be claimed, would rip up the provisions made by the original Bourbon king. And the current king has his well-publicised problems, those largely not of his making but of his son-in-law.

In Spain you can never forget certain anniversaries. They are ingrained in the national psyche. And while they remain so ingrained, they can always be more than just remembered.


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Unfair?: Balearics investment

President Bauzá is apparently hacked off by the fact that the Balearics will receive slightly less than 79 million euros worth of state public sector investment next year. 0.7% of the total investment in the regions by Madrid will float across the sea to the Balearics where Bauzá has been making a decent fist of getting the islands' deficit into line with that demanded by Madrid. Bauzá has towed the line, toadied to Rajoy some might say, and look what he gets for his trouble. If you take the shilling of following the Partido Popular party line, you end up without a shilling to your name. Political loyalty not being repaid? I'm not convinced.

Bauzá says the investment is unfair, but he isn't about to throw a hissy fit and go all Mas on Madrid. At the meeting of the regional presidents, it has been important to be seen to be putting on a face of unity for international and domestic consumption. Unfair, but how unfair?

The investment is a pittance. 80% of it is to come from the national ministries responsible for development, agriculture, food and environment. If these were divvied up equally, it might mean a mere 19 million for projects that would fall under the development ministry (typically transport infrastructure). The Balearics need more not less transport investment, especially in order to compensate for geographical isolation that make the islands more expensive and less competitive.

The Balearics have long been disadvantaged under the overall system of financing of the regions. Historically, the islands have been only one of three regions in Spain that have a negative balance, i.e. they provide more than they receive (Catalonia and Madrid are the others) under the system of financing whereby national government hands back a percentage of income tax and IVA revenues to the regions and via which the Balearics have always tended to get less of the pot. And this despite the principle under which regional financing operates - that known as "solidarity" under the Spanish Constitution.

The measly amount on offer for investment contrasts with that for the Canaries which will get almost four times as much as the Balearics, and there is more than just a hint of political expedience about how the investments have been allocated;  for example Galicia, where there are to be regional elections shortly, has the third highest percentage.

The cuts to regional investment can be explained and are explained by the parlous state of national finances. No one can doubt this explanation, but there is another dynamic at play, that of penalising the regions which have become the whipping boys for all Spain's troubles. The regions do soak up enormous amounts of finance, but they became, as far as the Rajoy government was concerned, public-finance enemy number one, once heaping all the blame for Spain's mess onto the previous Zapatero government had run its course.

Regional government and decentralisation are financial burdens, but they are burdens primarily because of the systems of administration (including, for example, the likes of island councils in the Balearics) and because these systems were allowed to develop without anyone saying boo. And once they were in place, they led to the excesses with which we have been made all too familiar.

There is a suspicion though that the regions are being subjected to a campaign of being undermined with the eventual aim of neutering or eliminating them. This is the extreme view, but it is one that has champions on the political right who have always been against the regions because they go against the notion of a nationalist Spain. A practical, as opposed to a political view of regional neutering would, it is argued, reduce the financial burden. Which is true up to a point, but key responsibilities that the regions have - for health, education, social services - would still have to be paid for and would still need local administrations. The question is whether these have to be political administrations.

But whether an undermining of the regions were styled as political or practical, it would be perceived by supporters of regionalism in the same way - as an assault on the solution that was adopted after Franco (regional government) to keep Spain together, not break it up.

Bauzá, so some would claim, is a turkey waiting to vote for Christmas wrapped up in the tin foil shield of a president protesting the unfairness of the Balearics being roasted to a crisp. He has been accused of being anti-regionalist. He couldn't possibly say that the investment is fair as he would be political dead meat if he were to. But how much does he really believe that it is unfair?


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Regional Differences: Mallorca's political centre

What's the difference between regionalism and nationalism?

I pose the question in the context of Mallorcan/Balearics politics. Nationalism has an unfortunate connotation, one of the extreme right, but this is not what we are talking about in Mallorca. In essence, nationalism and regionalism are one of the same thing. Both ideologies espouse regional government and autonomy (as is currently the case in the Balearics). The principle difference between the two is that nationalism implies a wish for greater independence. Regionalism, on the other hand, is federalism by another name.

Mostly all political parties in the Balearics have a regionalist philosophy, and they include a significant number of Partido Popular supporters and politicians. Of the nationalists, there are two parties, the PSM Mallorcan socialists and the Convergència, the former and disgraced Unió Mallorquina. There is a further nationalism, which is that founded on the notion of the independence of the Catalan lands, one commonly associated with the Republican Left (Esquerra Republicana) and one that has very little popular support. 

The Convergència was given a good old kicking at the regional elections last year. Despite its name change, it didn't fool anyone. It was still the corrupt UM. But it has attempted to distance itself from all the former UM politicians who are still being dragged through the courts and to try and re-establish itself as the third force in Mallorcan politics.

In seeking to do so, it has edged towards what may be a formal merger with La Lliga Regionalista. This party is headed by Jaume Font, a former PP politician who fell out with the current leadership over various issues, one of them being attitudes towards regionalism. It fared almost as badly as the Convergència at the last election, but as it was a new party, it was asking a lot for it to have performed any better.

Despite the difference in emphasis between the two parties, there is much common ground. The old UM, and thus the new Convergència, was barely distinguishable from the Partido Popular in many respects, except for the key issue of nationalism. It was, and therefore now is, a centre-right party in terms of many of its policies, and the same applies to Font and La Lliga. Where it did also distinguish itself from the PP was in the fact that it didn't have a nutty wing. The PP in the Balearics generally doesn't have a lunatic right, but nationally it does.

But it is what is perceived as a decidedly rightist agenda on behalf of President Bauzá and one of the local PP's main ideologues, tourism minister Delgado, in their being cool towards regionalism that gives a party of the centre-right with an identifiable regionalist identity the possibility of becoming something of a power. Bauzá's anti-regionalism is his Achilles heel (one of them), as regionalism enjoys popular support.

Could, however, a combined Convergència-La Lliga really hope to make significant inroads into the dominance of the two-party system of the PP and the Balearics version of PSOE? The old UM managed to up to a point, but whether the electorate can ever forgive them, even under a new name, has to be questionable. Much as the leaders of the two parties, Font and the Convergència's Josep Melià, may suggest that they are able to reconcile their ideological difference, a merger would seem like a marriage of convenience between two parties which, by themselves, would in all likelihood remain marginal players. Tensions over that difference might well emerge, just as they have emerged within the PP.

For the type of party Font and Melià envisage to succeed, much would depend upon what happens with the PP in the Balearics. Historically, the local PP has been supportive of regionalism, and the chances are that it might become so again. Were it to, then much of the point of La Lliga in particular would be undermined.

There is a political figure who may well hold the key, and this is Antoni Pastor. Formerly an ally of Font's within the PP, he opted to stick with the PP rather than sign up to La Lliga, and despite his differences with Bauzá, one fancies he will continue to stick with the party. One feels sure he has his eye on the leadership, regardless of his decision not to challenge Bauzá at next month's congress.

Regionalism, as much if not more than the Catalan question, is likely to be a huge factor at the next election (assuming the national PP hasn't scrapped it by then). It is supported by a majority of the population, whereas nationalism isn't, which makes it hard for a united La Lliga-Convergència to present a coherent message, one that would be made even more difficult were Pastor to head a pro-regionalist PP and to drag the party back from its movement off to the right.


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MALLORCA TODAY - PP fault lines in Mallorca appear

Further to discussion on this blog as to divisions within the Partido Popular in Mallorca and the Balearics, the focus of dissent in the party, Antoni Pastor, the mayor of Manacor, has opened the debate up regarding the party's direction and attitude towards regionalism. He has criticised President Bauzá for adopting the ideas of Carlos Delgado, the tourism minister who is firmly anti-regionalist, and for going against a tradition of regionalism in the local party. It now looks as though Pastor may well run against Bauzá at the next party congress to decide the leader of the party.

Pastoral Care: The Partido Popular's woes

The Partido Popular is the natural party of Balearic government. Since autonomy and the creation of the first government in 1983, it has been the dominant party, save for the two periods of administration under coalitions led by the socialists (PSOE/PSIB). It should regain power in the elections this coming May, but it is doing everything it can to prevent this.

If the PP's leader, José Ramón Bauzá, were a football team manager, he would now face the terraces of his party shouting "you don't know what you're doing". He has managed to alienate different factions, firstly by his policy of selection, secondly by making a pig's ear of the language issue and upsetting the Catalanists, thirdly by seeming to be controlled by the right-wing mayor of Calvia, Carlos Delgado, fourthly by appearing to set the local party on a lurch to the right and one that goes against the notion of regionalism and fifthly by, to the utter amazement of many, overlooking the likes of the mayor of Manacor and the ex-mayor of Inca as candidate for the presidency of the Council of Mallorca in favour of someone called Maria Salom, a member of Congress in Madrid.

It's an impressive charge sheet, one to which can be added the hand of the party centrally in helping to make Bauzá's decisions for him, as with Salom, an apparent lack of openness in selection and an underlying tension of not so much a north-south divide but a Palma-Calvia versus everywhere else schism.

It is this final element that underpins the problems that Bauzá has brought upon himself. It is hardly a new issue. Other parties in Mallorca have faced the same internal antagonisms caused by the dominance of the Palma-Calvia axis. The nationalist Unió Mallorquina (UM) party, undergoing one of its regular periods of bloodletting, did this in spectacular style some while back when "choosing" Palma man Miguel Nadal to succeed Maria Antònia Munar as party leader. Its leadership election saw the then mayor of Alcúdia, Miguel Ferrer, vanquished at the end of a process that had at one point seen Nadal take his bat home in a fit of pique, only to return to the fray and be anointed by Munar.

The polemic within the PP is concerned not only with regionalism in terms of the interests of Mallorca and the islands but also in terms of the towns around the island. Martí Torres, the PP mayor of Santa Margalida has said that the "rest of Mallorca's municipalities should carry as much weight as Palma or Calvia". Other PP mayors in the "comarcas" (regions) have said similar things.

Torres is a supporter of one Antoni Pastor, the mayor of Manacor. Where Bauzá is the ashen-faced manager of the PP, Pastor is a bald-headed refereeing Pierluigi Collina, blowing his whistle on the in-fighting, while also contributing to it, but hoping to bring back some "morals" to the PP. Crucially though, Pastor is the flag-waver for the PP and its regionalist tendency, the left wing of the party which has become disgruntled enough to have suffered a defection to the nationalist UM. The issue of regionalism, bound up in matters to do with language policy, domination or not by Madrid and equality for the towns of Mallorca outside of Palma and Calvia, is the local party's Europe question. It is one that divides the PP down the middle, and Bauzá has proved to so far be incapable of creating unity. Quite the opposite. He has promoted division.

The Palma-Calvia dominance is entirely to be expected. With 70% of the island's population residing in Palma and Calvia it couldn't be anything other. Palma, as the capital, is "serious". It is the centre of commerce as well as government. It is from where and to where you should anticipate the professional and political elite to have emerged and to have gravitated. But the Palma connection has problems. Especially for the PP. The former president Jaume Matas, embroiled in corruption allegations, and the grandfather of Mallorcan politics, Gabriel Cañellas who was not without his own problems when it came to accusations (he was absolved), are both Palma men.

This history should not be underestimated. It colours what is happening in the PP at the moment. It may be under the surface, but it is there all the same. The regions might once have produced some old farmer who got lucky as the local mayor, but they are now bringing forth a new and more professional political class in different parties - the businessman Fornes in Muro, the admirable Llompart in Alcúdia, the impressive Pastor in Manacor.

The old boys' network is still very much at play, especially in the towns around the island. There is still a sense in which politics are the adults' version of playground spats among peers who have grown up with each other. This isn't about to go away, but nevertheless there is a further sense in which some growing up has occurred and that a new political maturity away from the Palma epicentre is bedding in, but is still being pushed onto the subs' bench.

Bauzá threatens to undermine his party through a Palma and Calvia-centric arrogance, one allied to Madrid, and by alienating a coherent and confident left wing in the regions. The goal for election victory in 2011 is wide open, but unless he sets about repairing the damage, the cuddly current president, Francesc Antich, can even now, much against expectation, anticipate stroking home the penalty shoot-out winner.


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