Don't say deputies, say fan club

Palma“After last week's debate [the general policy one], is there anyone who still doubts our president's [Marga Prohens] determination to continue moving towards change? The balance of these three and a half years makes it very clear: the Balearic Islands have a solid Government, with a defined course and up to what the citizens expect. A Government that, unlike the left, plans, dialogues, and seeks consensus. A Government that [...] does not govern through improvisation, but with planning and rigor. [...] We have a president with enthusiasm and determination to continue governing from centrality, moderation, and common sense”. The author of this passionate praise is PP deputy Margalida Pocoví, a regular troubadour of the Executive's milestones. “From here, our resolution proposals”, continued Pocoví. The deputy made clear the order of her intervention: first, the exaltation of the leader, and then, the party's proposals.

Parliamentary groups, especially those of parties exercising power, are fan clubs one of whose functions is to praise leaders, magnify their actions, and show themselves united without cracks. I say ‘show themselves’ because there are always battles to be fought on an internal level.

Regarding the 60 resolution proposals that the PP presented after the general policy debate, there are 12 that, rather than proposals, are praises of the Government's work. The populars praise the management of the drought, the aid for the increase in fuel prices, the expansion of vocational training (FP), the promotion of the first maternal center of the Balearics (that is to say, an announcement), and the 10,000 homes that the Executive constantly repeats it has planned, among others. This is a good moment to mention the German theologian Karl Rahner, who considered that the repetition of known formulas can liberate from the need to continuously elaborate thoughts and words.

Another 26 PP proposals are to encourage the Government to continue on the same path. For example, the Popular Party asks to move forward with more tax cuts (in any case, the announcement was already made by Prohens a week earlier), to maintain measures to attract healthcare professionals, to advance in the care for chronic conditions, to execute the Educational Infrastructure Plan, to continue strengthening police training (another announcement that the president had already made), and to continue promoting the Secure Rental program. However, this housing program needs something more than just more momentum: of the up to 3,000 homes that the Minister of Housing, José Luis Mateo, mentioned in an initial phase, only a little over a hundred have been obtained. In this way, we have gone from an exciting first phase to the terminal phase. Never mind, it won't be for lack of encouragement.

In short: out of 60 proposals from the PP, 38 are for “self-congratulation”, in the words of the MÉS per Mallorca deputy, Lluís Apesteguia. “It is not that I am against masturbatory practices, but here we have to do something else, which is to solve people's problems,” added the spokesperson.

Invented nicknames

The eco-sovereignists were the object of mockery by the Vice President of the Government, Antoni Costa, and Marga Prohens for sharing a candidacy for the Senate with the PSIB. “MÉS for Spain,” both said, a joke that Minister Mateo tried to follow without success when he said to Ares Fernández (PSIB): “Mr. Deputy of the central-PSIB-very broad front-Bildu government.” Fernández returned the favor by calling him “Minister of Vox.”

For her part, Pilar Costa (PSIB) merged the acronyms of the PP and Vox into Pox, which in English means ‘smallpox’. Thus, Manuela Cañadas (Vox) resorted to her usual style, replacing a lack of wit with aggression, and claimed that the acronym PSOE “in Spanish means criminal organization.”

And so much for the evidence of how the Parliament can also serve to provoke a sense of astonishment.

By vocation, talk show guest

Cañadas made statements in the hallways of the Parliament about the Vox Balears candidate for Congress, Maribel Cerezo, and about the number two for Vox on the list with the PP for the Senate, Belén Bordils, a politician with no connection to the Balearic Islands. She doesn’t know them yet, but if the party has chosen them, that’s great, she said, with a forced smile.

However, when the camera stopped focusing on her, the representative of the far-right looked at the journalists with a mysterious face and said: “If I could only speak...”. And then she assured that she is looking forward to being a talk show guest again, to say what she thinks without limitations. Cañadas had a great time on the talk shows and the Parliament is not that fun.

The person most affected by the landing of Cerezo and Bordils on the lists is Jorge Campos, who will not return to sit in Congress in the next legislature. Campos did not take long to announce that he would return to regional politics, although his party has not made any statement on it and the lists for the May elections are not even in a drawer at the moment: “Grateful and excited for my political return to the Balearic Islands.” Perhaps it is nothing more than a prevention mechanism, with a threat included in the local media. “Now we will see each other more,” he said on social media, in the style of the Oracle of Delphi.