Lluís Apesteguia (MÁS por Mallorca): "When Prohens turns left, he always does so rhetorically."

PalmOne of the byproducts of the general policy debate that has raged over the past two weeks has been the constant nods by the president, Marga Prohens, to MÉS for Mallorca. The PP has often championed the conciliatory tone of the eco-sovereignists in confronting the PSIB. "No one has taken up the president's gauntlet (...) except for Mr. Lluís Apesteguia (...), who has put forward proposals and is once again a different spokesperson in both form and content," said the PP spokesperson, Sebastià Sagreras, to close the debate. However, the spokesperson is suspicious of these statements. "Prohens's communion is with Vox on fiscal issues, territorial issues, immigration, and when she wants to talk about anything else, she veers to the left, but it's a rhetorical veer," he explained in ARA Baleares.

The PP has shown its distance from Vox in recent days. It has done so by reaching several agreements on initiatives without the force of law with MÉS regarding regional financing, as well as a social pact for the protection of the Catalan language. It also agreed with the PSIB on a text to promote an increase in the Sustainable Tourism Tax (ITS), known as the ecotax, although the Socialists are skeptical that it will be successful. According to sources within the party, it is a symbolic vote, and the PP will seek to postpone its implementation or even defeat it, with the maneuver of channeling it through the Pact for Sustainability. However, sources within the government assure that there is "a will" to push it through.

The PP's tone toward the PSIB remains harsh. "We have opposition parliamentarians who continue to focus on details, on anecdotes, who continue to live off demagoguery (...) who come here, aware that the worst problems we have in the Balearic Islands are either, on the one hand, those inherited after eight years of their management, or, on the other hand, those that Sánchez has," Sagreras said in the debate, referring to the top brass of the Socialist parliamentary group. Thus, after applauding Apesteguia's negotiating position, he attacked the PSIB (Balearic Socialist Workers' Party). Does this mean that the Executive is considering reaching MORE agreements on issues where it clashes with Vox in the remainder of the legislature?

Apesteguia rejects this outright. "Prohens uses us to confront the PSIB and everyone sees that. The day we become the main opposition party, he will do the same in reverse," he believes: "We're moving on from these messages." So far, Prohens' outreach to MÁS has served to approve the Law on Megafarms and promote the train from Sa Pobla to Alcúdia. "In the latter case, it was because our councilors were fully committed to improving the route proposed by the government," Apesteguia notes. "It was two very tense weeks, during which they were booed at plenary sessions, but in the end, there will be a train, and it won't go through the Marjal de sa Pobla."

The repeal of the Memory Law, a turning point

However, the spokesperson frames these agreements as specific issues and says he distrusts the PP too much to reach an agreement. "We, as a party, have gone through three phases," he explains: "At first, we told the PP: 'We understand the world we have to live in, and we are willing to negotiate if we isolate Vox.'" After the PP chose Vox to bring stability to the government, MÁS offered to "negotiate on a tailor-made basis." "That changed with the Memory Law, in which they deceived us," he recalls. The Popular Party offered the left to maintain it to save the amendments to the Simplification Law and the decree law prohibiting construction in flood zones, and six months later, they agreed to repeal it again with Vox. "Since then, we haven't negotiated, neither structural issues nor law by law, because we don't trust each other," he concludes.