An exam to be a politician, please

Many important professions for our society have filters with the aim that candidates to exercise them meet minimum requirements. To be a doctor in public healthcare and a judge, for example, one must pass strict tests to demonstrate expertise and ability.

It is curious that anyone can be a politician and completely alter people's lives without having passed a prior exam. The ballot boxes should be the culmination, but beforehand, it would be necessary to ensure that candidates have their faculties at full performance.

After attending the appearance of the vice-president of the Consell de Mallorca, Pedro Bestard, who was to explain how he has used the institution's cars that we Mallorcans have bought him, I was sure that this gentleman would not have passed an exam to get on the electoral lists of the far-right. That he holds this position is the responsibility of Llorenç Galmés, who I suppose has realized that Bestard cannot correctly read a text that he is supposed to have prepared and is also not capable of processing the questions asked of him and issuing a coherent and minimally elaborated response. It is sad that measures that affect us are in the hands of someone who should thoroughly review the most basic notions of reading comprehension.

However, Bestard is a notable case amid a general level that leaves much to be desired. The spokesperson for the PP in the Parliament, Sebastià Sagreras, does not speak correct Catalan in such a formal context as the Chamber where the citizens of the Balearic Islands are represented. In addition to conjugating almost all the verbs he uses incorrectly, the introduction of barbarisms in his discourse is constant.

Sagreras is another example of the discursive mediocrity in which the political class of the Islands has settled. With exceptions such as Josep Castells (Més per Menorca) and Lluís Apesteguia (MÉS per Mallorca), most deputies read their speeches as if they did not know how to read. Sometimes, they go blank and seem not to understand what they are saying. Or they get lost between lines and have to start a paragraph again. Many children read with better intonation in Primary school, and this has a lot of merit because they are children who do not receive a fortune at the expense of citizen taxes, as is the case with deputies. I suppose children like to read.