In which head fits what fits inside this head

“I cannot fathom that a Mallorcan cannot buy a second residence in another municipality,” exclaimed the spokesperson for the Popular Party’s parliamentary group, Sebastià Sagreras, in a statement that has received well-deserved criticism everywhere. The phrase exudes an ignorance of reality, a contempt for the majority of citizens (of Mallorca and the Balearic Islands), and a classism that is even worse, because they do not even know they are being classist. Certainly, Peixet’s head does not have room for many things, if we are to judge by the quality of his public pronouncements. But this does not make him an exception within the current Balearic Government; rather, it confirms him as a plausible archetype of the average of our current leaders.

Obviously, what should interest us is not the capacity of Sebastià Sagreras’s head, but the vision of Mallorca, and of reality, that his words express. As numerous comments on social media have pointed out, what is worrying is not that a Mallorcan cannot buy a second residence in another municipality, but that many—the majority—cannot buy a first residence, neither in their own municipality nor in any other. They cannot buy it and in many cases cannot rent it either, due to the abusive, unacceptable prices that housing has reached in Mallorca. Many Mallorcans cannot even afford to dream of a place of their own to live, if they do not want to expose themselves to the frustration of not being able to obtain it later. A second residence is a bit far-fetched for them, no matter how much Sagreras, and the PP, proclaim the freedom to have second residences. It is the usual freedom of payment of the followers that Ayuso has scattered throughout the different provinces of the Spains.

The European Commission is not exactly an institution opposed to the free market, trade, or capitalism. Despite this, it has detected that housing, and in particular housing speculation, has become a priority problem on a supranational scale, that is to say, European. Based on this observation, the European Commission has moved forward with a proposal for regulations on housing, which among other measures recommends the penalization of owning empty apartments and places obstacles on the purchase of second homes, especially outside the territory where each citizen lives. The proposal has caused a reaction from a good part of the European right, and in particular the Mallorcan one, as if they had been stung by a scorpion. That one of the promoters of this regulatory proposal is the perfidious socialist Teresa Ribera obviously encourages the good people of the PP to cry out to the heavens. But there is also a question of ideological principles, which have to do with capitalism understood as the degradation of liberalism. In accordance with this corrupted ideology, everything can be bought with money once the price has been set, the more inflated the better. Money is the final argument, and when money has spoken, there is nothing more to say.

That is not the case, of course. The final argument in a democracy is the common good, the respect for the rights and freedoms of citizens. The right to housing is a basic social right everywhere, and in the Spanish state, specifically, it is a constitutional right that prevails over the right to trade. Especially when trade is presented in its aberrant version, speculation. Whether a Mallorcan has a second home or not is irrelevant, but every Mallorcan has the right—by law—to decent housing. And this right is indisputable and non-negotiable.