POLITICS ELECTIONS

Regional Elections were celebrated throughout Spain on 28th May, and the next morning the map of Spain showed that the colour of the town halls (ayuntamientos) and regional governments had changed in the majority from red (PSOE Socialist) to blue PP (Conservative). But it was not quite as simple as that because in many places they had the majority vote but not enough to form councils or regional governments.

In Menorca over 1300 non-Spanish residents were eligible to vote, but only for the local ayuntamientos, not the Consell (Island Council) or the Balearic Government and Parliament. The abstention was high in Menorca where nearly half the population didn´t vote. Finally the eight municipalities in Menorca have been constituted as follows: -

Mahón, Hector Pons, formerly a teacher, repeats as Alcalde, the only socialist municipality left on the island, he was backed up by votes from Ara Maó, the radical left wing party that was in coalition with them previously. This time no agreement has been reached yet between the two; the inauguration finished with cheers for the King, which will not have gone down well with the left-wing party...

Ciutadella was more complicated, the new alcaldesa is Juana Marí Pons for the PP right at the last minute; if the two socialist parties PSOE (National) and PSM (Menorcan) had come to an agreement, they would have had a majority but after endless wrangling they could not reconcile their differences, so Pons has a minority town council.

In Alaior there was a clear majority for the PP and José Luis Benejam (his previous career was in communications, the radio in particular) will repeat as alcalde with eight new council members of the thirteen members of the council - only four are women.

In Es Castell Lluis Camps is back again for the PP , after four years of PSOE, he has an absolute majority but has added one councillor, Florencio Condé, an independent, who had worked with Camps before.

In Sant Lluis the PP didn´t have an outright majority but Loles Tronch was voted as the alcaldesa with the extra vote needed from xBalears. She said that she is still Loles the English teacher from the Cap de Llevant School and that if she gets too big for her boots the electorate has permission to rap her knuckles!

There are strange bedfellows in Es Mercadal. What looked like a victory for PSOE was snatched at the last minute when the biologist Joan Palliser from L´Entesa (left wing) became alcalde with a team of young people from the PP . Palliser says he wants to include all parties in the town council, but at the moment PSOE are not listening.

In Ferreries, Pedro Pons (PP) has a clear majority and is the new alcalde, opposition parties have promised to work with him.

The smallest and newest municipality Es Migjorn, (it separated from Es Mercadal in 1989) is led again by Antonia Camps PP with a clear majority; Es Migjorn has the youngest town council on the island.

The Consell, the Island Council, has changed colour from PSOE to PP; Adolfo Franca will be the new President, replacing Susana Mora from PSOE. Two of the elected councillors have resigned before the council took power citing personal reasons, possibly they didn´t expect to win! The Diari de Menorca spotted bags and bags of shredded paper in the recycling bin outside the Consell whilst they still have control. It has now been announced that Vilafranca will take over on 8th July. He doesn´t have an outright majority and we still don´t know whether he will allow VOX the extreme right wing party to rule with him as they disagree on many points, the new Biosphere law, the main road and the territorial plan for the island.

Again, after long negotiations the Government and Parliament in the Balearic Islands has just been formed, the PP has had to make concessions to VOX which are causing a lot of controversy. Marga Prohens the potential candidate to lead the Balearic Government has ceded the presidency of the second house, the Parliament to Gabriel Le Senne for VOX. This was commented on all the national news channels yesterday as Le Senne is known for being homophobic, against abortion, he believes the population is being replaced by immigrants. He has already made the Parliament replace the term “violencia machista”, a huge problem in Spain where every year women are killed by abusive partners, to “violencia intrafamilia”. One good thing is that Catalan will no longer be a requirement in hospitals, this extreme law has caused endless difficulties to get qualified doctors and nurses for the islands.

Meanwhile, Pedro Sanchez the president of the Spanish Government announced general elections for the 23rd July, the day after the regional and local elections. This is hardly a convenient time for the Spanish with work and holiday commitments. He did not mention PSOE´s wipe-out or take any blame, merely saying he wants the country to decide where they want to go. He also has made pacts with Catalan Nationalists, and the Basque party BILDU who are the political arm of the now defunct terrorists ETA; they even had some convicted assassins on their lists until there was an outcry from the public. Sanchez also has a pact with Podemos, the extreme left wing group that was virtually annihilated in the recent elections because one minister passed a law theoretically against violence to women that caused many rapists to be released from prison early. She has refused to resign and the president to sack her.

By the time we go to press the general elections will be over. We will update you next month!