They have not deactivated a movement, they have made it stronger
There is an image that better than any other summarizes what happened on Sunday: a massive and profoundly civic demonstration that ends with people injured by a violent police action. The question is inevitable: who had an interest in the narrative ceasing to be about mass tourism and becoming about public order?
The political responsibility for the police violence has a name: Alfonso Rodríguez (PSOE). The Spanish government's delegate was the one who had to ensure that a peaceful mobilization could proceed normally. When you hold this position and face a demonstration like this, you must make it clear to the operational staff that there must be no incidents. To disassociate yourself now from what happened is to assume that security officials are not under democratic control. It is surprising to see officials from Rodríguez's party denouncing the situation as if it did not concern them. Some still think that what happened on Sunday was the classic - and endangered - demonstration against the PP.
The most interesting thing, however, is what the police action (and the State's, for that matter) reveals. Only a few years ago, a demonstration against mass tourism would have been perceived as a sectoral protest. Today it is not. Today it questions the main economic and social model of the Islands and, by extension, one of the most important supports of Spain. When this happens, the institutional response ceases to be just a matter of security. It is also a matter of power.
In many mobilizations, problems arise when there are certain police attitudes. The preceding days had already been marked by the arrests of activists shortly after the publication of the well-known "manual of action against touristification". And during the demonstration, there were operational movements difficult to understand and the presence of provocative individuals who appear at different times. All this suggests the possibility of a conspiracy intended to distort the protest.
On another note, it is time to congratulate the people who made a historic demonstration possible. Organizing a mobilization of this magnitude is not a simple task. That said, it is also true that on Sunday some logistical and organizational shortcomings were noticeable, understandable in such a massive call but which should be analyzed for the future. If this movement continues to grow, its structure, coordination, and the involvement of the country's major entities must also grow. Taking care of and protecting each other collectively is essential.
In line with this, another issue concerns me: the lack of generational transmission in the anti-repressive culture. Institutional violence is not new. You don't have to go far: the years of the Bauzá and Rajoy governments left more than three hundred people prosecuted in the Balearic Islands for their participation in social mobilizations. Until then, there was a whole tradition of democratic resistance that learned, often at a very high price, how to respond to repression without renouncing rights. This memory must also be transmitted.
Despite everything, the State (which sustains the mass tourism model in the Balearic Islands) lost the most important battle. Tens of thousands of people took to the streets because they have concluded that Mallorca has crossed a line. To say, simply, that we want to live peacefully in our home. These ideas will not disappear with arrests or police crackdowns. There is a fundamental political conflict. If they intended to sow fear to ignore it, they miscalculated. Because when they touch our people and our land, Mallorca does not back down: it mobilizes. On Sunday they did not deactivate a movement; they probably made it stronger. And this, precisely this, is what the state fears. In fact, they have possibly opened a window of opportunity that will involve mobilizing massively again in the coming days or weeks.