Repeal memory, deny dignity

"The Popular Party always fulfills its agreements." Pacta sunt servanda, the old folks used to say. This is the argument President Prohens uses to justify her party's once again saying yes to Vox's demand to repeal the Democratic Memory Law approved by the Progreso government, during which a significant and necessary push was given to historical memory policies. "It's just that, or are we now going to restrict Vox from presenting its proposals?" Prohens adds, with Ayuso-like cynicism.

The argument about compliance with the pacts might be fine if it weren't false. The history of the current executive's relationship with the Democratic Memory Law is convoluted: initially, the PP committed to Vox to repeal it, and that commitment was included in the famous 130-point document that compiled point by point the entire Vox electoral program, and which peppers They signed in exchange for Prohens' investiture. Then came the moment when Vox broke relations with the PP, and then Prohens and his executive gave the opposition groups, the PSIB and MÁS, their word not to repeal the Law of Democratic Memory in exchange for their support in the vote on two decree laws (they weren't just any two decree laws: they were just any two decree laws: they were the two PP parties in the Parliament, when they voted "by mistake" for a package of Vox amendments that practically amounted to the cancellation of self-government, starting naturally with the legislation that protects the always hated Catalan language). Finally, the agreements with Vox have been reestablished (after Prohens's counterpart in Valencia, the alleged criminal Mazón, managed to pass the budget and, therefore, survive politically, thanks to Vox's votes), and now the PP in the Balearic Islands is once again saying yes to the repeal of the law. This time, it seems, it will be the final one. The PP argues that this law is "indifferent" to it, an absurd idea that might be funny if it weren't dramatic.

So, the Balearic Islands PP is complying with the agreements, yes, but only what it signed with Vox. It deceived the opposition parties when it said it wouldn't repeal this law; it used them to gain the support it needed at a specific time, that's enough. Furthermore, everything that happens between the Balearic Islands PP and Vox Balearic Islands doesn't depend at any point on their own decisions, but rather on the comings and goings of Madrid politics. The obedience of the Balearic Islands' rulers to the core of their parties in Madrid has never been so absolute and uncritical. Their words are arguments they receive by email; their actions are orders from the capital of the Kingdom. Nothing more.

Or there is something else. In the midst of all this, there is a Speaker of Parliament indicted and awaiting trial for a hate crime, a democratically and institutionally unsustainable situation that Prohens also attempts to justify by appealing to the fulfillment of agreements. Being president of the Balearic Government is the highest honor to which any politician from Mallorca, Menorca, Ibiza, or Formentera can aspire, and their first duty is not to fulfill agreements with fascists, but to serve the dignity of citizens and institutions. Repealing the Law of Democratic Memory and keeping Le Senne as Speaker of Parliament is a doubly grave offense to this dignity. It is, in fact, its negation. Prohens can hide behind the double and triple language of provincial Trumpism, but she should know that, in the unlikely event that she is remembered, it will be for this indignity.