Ben Amics rejects Cort's offer and suspends the LGTBI Pride festival in Palma

PalmBen Amics has confirmed this Saturday the definitive cancellation of the LGTBI Pride festival in Palma. It will be the first time in more than twenty years that the entity will not organize this celebration. The association attributes the decision to the lack of agreements with the Palma City Council and accuses the municipal government of not assuming "real" commitments with diversity policies.

The decision comes after weeks of tension between the association and Cort. Ben Amics conditioned the celebration of the festival on two specific demands: recovering the diversity workshops of Palma Educa and re-hanging the rainbow flag on the facade of the City Hall during Pride.

According to the spokesperson for Ben Amics, Jan Gómez, the City Council's response arrived this Friday by phone and consisted of offering the entity the choice of the color with which Bellver Castle would be illuminated and the possibility of taking an institutional photograph with the mayor of Palma, Jaime Martínez Llabrés, a proposal that the association immediately rejected.

"We will not change our rights for the illumination of Bellver Castle", affirmed Gómez during the press conference offered this Saturday, which was collected by Europa Press. The spokesperson defended that the festival "is the celebration of the rights achieved" and lamented that, in his opinion, the collective is currently experiencing "a setback in terms of rights and visibility".

Despite the cancellation of the festival, Ben Amics will maintain the Pride demonstration scheduled for next June 28. The entity has called for massive citizen participation and is considering that the march, which could start from the Borne promenade, will end in the Cort square.

The conflict between Ben Amics and the City Council has been dragging on for weeks. The association had already warned that Pride was "at risk" due to the lack of municipal response to permits and the necessary coordination to organize the events. Furthermore, the entity has repeatedly criticized the disappearance of the Palma Educa workshops and Cort's refusal to display the LGTBI flag on the consistorial façade, decisions they interpret as a concession to pressure from Vox and a symptom of the lack of institutional support.a concession to pressure from Vox and a symptom of the lack of institutional support.

Following the group's criticisms, Cort reacted by assuring that it continued to work "normally" on the programming of Pride and a few days ago the Consistory maintained that it had not canceled any activity or event planned for this year. For its part, in the midst of the crisis, the Manacor City Council offered to host the Pride celebration in the municipality.