The mayor of Esporles from MÉS responds to Ferran Rosa: "Only a comfortable political official could think of that"

PalmaThe mayor of Esporles and former spokesperson for MÉS in Parliament, Josep Ferrà, has harshly criticized the deputy Ferran Rosa in a letter sent to the party's militants. In the letter, to which ARA Balears has had access, he makes it clear that the ecosovereigntist's statements on the podcast L'hora de la sesta, in which he said that MÉS did not "push enough for degrowth" and that "the PP is the one who best understood why the left lost" the 2019 elections, have offended a sector of the party. "Only a comfortable political official could think of this," Ferrà snaps in the text, in which he criticizes Rosa for having questioned the party's action during the Pacte de Progrés "with a certain arrogance and relaxed on a sofa, and with an absence of coherent self-criticism from someone who held positions in the PSIB and Podem ministries at the end of the 2015-2019 Pact and throughout the 2019-2023 Pact".

In the letter, of nine pages, Ferrà responds one by one to the critical statements with MÉS, and especially with the previous eco-sovereign parliamentary group and also the former president of the Consell de Mallorca, Miquel Ensenyat. "I share that any political project that wants to move forward must be able to review what it has done, recognize mistakes and learn from them. MÉS per Mallorca must never be afraid of self-criticism," begins Ferrà's text: "But one thing is self-criticism and another, very different, is to turn it into a wholesale amendment to the work done by the colleagues who, for years, took on institutional and party responsibilities." In the mayor's opinion, who assures that he represents a group of discontented militants, Ferrà warns: "This is not self-criticism, Ferran; it is a disqualification, and I think it is unfair and misguided."

"What is relevant is that these statements are not opinions expressed in private by a militant: they are public statements by a deputy, a member of MÉS Permanent and head of Communication; that is, by someone who represents us," he insists. Rosa said in the podcast that "MÉS per Mallorca should not have entered the Government in 2019." He also lashed out at the management of some of his party's leaders, and specifically Ensenyat: "Leading is doing things properly, not a Miquel Ensenyat, who builds a highway in Campos and goes to see how Fra Juníper Serra becomes a saint." In addition, he pointed to the previous leadership of the party and the parliamentary group, considering that the eco-sovereignists should have pressured the PSIB more to limit tourism. "Whoever was supposed to do this job within MÉS did not do it, and they should not do it within the Government, but within the party or the parliamentary group," he remarked. Regarding the Government, he considered that, despite the fact that "very good regulations were made," the Pact's policies were "continuist" rather than "transformative." "We have gone from bad to worse as a society," he said. The summary video of the podcast shared on Instagram, in which he expresses part of these criticisms, has spread like wildfire among the internal ranks of MÉS per Mallorca.

In the letter distributed among the militants, Ferrà reproaches him for having made these criticisms public instead of channeling them through the executives and open assemblies of the party. "We are a group of militants who feel with pain the contempt towards us as a result of your statements and we believe we must answer them," he laments. First of all, he questions "the categorical statement that the left should have lost in 2019": "He states that the PP, Vox, and Cs tandem should have achieved a majority against a left that did not deserve to repeat". "What you say, Ferran, makes no sense, apart from despising all of us who worked with our hearts and passion to reverse the four horrible years of policies of the PP of José Ramón Bauzá," he says: "Although the generated expectations – which were very high – were not met one hundred percent, there was credit and confidence for four more years".

Regarding the opinion expressed by the deputy that MÉS per Mallorca should not have entered the Government in 2019, he justifies that this decision was voted on in assembly. "With all this, coming from someone who held a position between 2018 and 2019 and accepted another between 2019 and 2023, I would expect at least self-criticism and a bit more humility in his statements, because I do not recall any intervention from you against the Pact nor any leadership to prevent its repetition," he explains. Among other issues in the long text, he also attacks Rosa's statement that MÉS was "excessively loyal" to the PSOE, which he defines as a "smear": "We were loyal to the Pact".

Regarding the criticisms of the previous leadership of the parliamentary group and the party, Ferrà assures: "You show a significant degree of ignorance (...) Of course, excluding the Government, where you were sitting and said nothing, perhaps for fear of a scolding from your Podemos bosses". During the previous legislature, Rosa was the managing director of the Balearic Energy Institute, which depended on the Ministry of Energy Transition. Nevertheless, the mayor of Esporles defends the work done by the previous Executive and questions the criticisms of the left for not curbing tourism during the covid-19 pandemic: "Was it the time when the people of Mallorca should have been worried about tourism? Only an accommodated political official could think of that". Despite the harshness of his statements, Ferrà ends the letter by accepting that an internal discussion on these matters should be opened. "Some colleagues from MÉS and I ourselves do not understand if with your statements you want to open a debate", he considers: "If so, I accept it, and I believe that the best spaces are the organs of MÉS per Mallorca or an open assembly".