Why do police charges benefit the Prohens Government?

PalmaDemonstrations are not only held in the street. They are also disputed the next day, when a media and political narrative is imposed on what happened. And, after the police charges on July 26, the narrative of tourist saturation has been sidelined in the media by another debate much more comfortable for the Government of Marga Prohens. It is important not to shift the focus, because the president is one of the main people responsible for responding to the problems that the tourism model generates in the daily lives of the citizens of the Balearic Islands. The day after one of the most massive protests ever seen in the Islands, Prohens has not felt the need to face the situation, nor to give explanations about the lack of management, nor to confront her unfulfilled promises. The president has spoken about the charges, has demanded explanations from the Spanish government delegate, Alfonso Rodríguez, and has stressed that she respects the right to demonstrate, as if this were not a given.

This situation is the result of various factors. On the one hand, the situation of activism in the Islands is not conducive to joint organization, which would allow us to take advantage of the extensive experience of entities such as the GOB and the youthful drive of new platforms, such as Menys Turisme, Més Vida. It is time to resolve disagreements, set aside personal interests, and find common ground that allows for collective action. A problem as transversal as the perverse effects of the Islands' tourist economic model deserves it, out of respect for a citizenry that needs to express its unease beyond fratricidal disputes. It cannot be overlooked that there was a lack of planning that took into account the risks involved in gathering tens of thousands of people.

On the other hand, it must be said that the Police's arguments are childish. The duty of security forces is to maintain calm and face situations of certain tension without having to assault citizens exercising their right to protest. Meanwhile, Alfonso Rodríguez has evaded his political responsibility and has limited himself to pretending that all this has nothing to do with him, in a dialectical exercise that is more partisan politics than institutional. Of course, the PSIB's situation is not easy at all: the socialists have state competences in tourism and security, and at the same time they try to pretend to be fighting against a system of which they are a part.

The Government would not have imagined this situation a day before the protest. But, if it has a minimum of concern for the deterioration of citizens' living conditions, it should set aside the excuse of altercations, recognize that the word given has not been transformed into deeds, and act accordingly. It is reasonable that a good part of society doubts that this will ever happen, because, after three years of legislature, cameras are still to be installed to count bathers on the beaches and cars on the roads, the Pact for Sustainability has become a kind of mythological being, and the PP's tourism policy is like that series called Cuéntame: a constant reminder of the recent past of the Islands with the Pact in the Consolat de Mar.

The only one who has not failed in this complex story has been the citizenry, who demand solutions to exhaustion and who now not only have to suffer police aggression, but also have to contemplate how the political fight diminishes the dimension of their requests. Each of the people who marched through Palma on 26-J and also those who did not go out, but who feel that the Islands are increasingly less their home, deserve respect.