Prohens leaves councilors without a seat at her first campaign event

PalmMarga Prohens has hung up her presidential robes, put on some jeans, and bet everything on blue in her first purely electoral event, this Thursday in Portitxol.remodelled once) without seats, while the deputy spokesperson in the Parliament, Marga Duran, acted as an improvised hostess and directed the attendees.

The Minister of the Sea, Juan Manuel Lafuente, has found refuge behind the journalists' table, and the Minister of Agriculture, Joan Simonet, has remained standing at the back, looking at his mobile phone. "You can't let yourself be carried away by your heart," said the Minister of Housing, José Luis Mateo, who opted for prudence and predicted that the PP "will narrowly" achieve an absolute majority in the next elections. Not so the president, who, in the middle of a concentric stage, surrounded by grassroots militants, has spurred the cadres to mobilize for 2027, evoking a dire memory for the Popular Party: "Do you remember five years ago, when we took it for granted that there would be a third left-wing pact?" she asked. "This project is not about continuity, now we want much more," she warned: "The PP has not only returned, it has come to stay".

It has been five years since Prohens was first elected PP candidate, in the midst of the party's wilderness period. "At that rally in front of the Cathedral, people were tearing their shirts when she talked about eliminating inheritance tax," recalled an attendee. Precisely, this afternoon, Prohens' right-hand man and the architect of the significant tax cuts that have constituted an emblematic milestone for the Popular Party was absent. The first vice-president and Minister of Economy, Antoni Costa, was at an event in Ibiza. "We want much more, more majorities, more stability, fewer obstacles, from some and others, and fewer stumbling blocks," warned the president, who threw a dart at Vox: "We want more strength to keep our word to the citizens, and only to the citizens." Depending on the parliamentary support of the far-right has been a burden for her this legislature.

If the councilors have been left on the periphery, what positions have supported the president, who on May 21 will submit her candidacy to a vote of the party's 22,000 affiliates? The spokesperson for the Parliament, Sebastià Sagreras, the president of the Consell de Mallorca, Llorenç Galmés, and the mayor of Palma, Jaime Martínez, have formed the core closest to the candidate. Also Sandra Fernández, who despite being the new Minister of Families, held a seat as general secretary of the PP in the Balearic Islands. "We are the only party that can say there is unity in all the Balearic Islands, the only one!", Prohens claimed, who had the presence of former minister Catalina Cirer at the event. The Christian soul of the PP resigned from her position in July 2025 after becoming the most forceful voice against Vox within the Government. Shortly after, Prohens made a turn to toughen her anti-immigration discourse.

Call to voters of Vox and El Pi

"We are a party that speaks, feels, loves, and suffers as these Islands do, we are the party of the people from here," Prohens promised, who has not forgotten any Balearic dialect: "We are the party that speaks, writes, and talks with the people of this land." Although he did avoid saying that this native language is Catalan. "We believe in the individual freedom of each member," he said: "We do not ask them where they come from, what language they speak, whom they love, or how they think." To the voters who switched to Vox and El Pi, disillusioned with the PP, he has already asked for their vote: "We do not ask where you have gone these years, if you want to return, push, and add, this is your home."

To give voice to the militancy, four members (one from each island) made a brief intervention about the president. Each one associated Prohens (who registered his candidacy with about 4,600 endorsements) with an adjective. The comparison was not very spontaneous, because on the chairs there were signs with the same labels: "Trust, Determination, Enthusiasm, Coherence." After regaining power for the popular party, Prohens is running again with a management profile. The fight will be tough if he wants to depend less on Vox: every vote will count.