PalmaWith two weeks to go until the general election, Son Gotleu is already bracing for the arrival of politicians for the campaign: “They come here, they promise, but don’t think they’ll actually do anything later. They don’t care!”. It is the neighborhood in Palma where the PSOE obtained the highest percentage of votes in the 2023 general election: 46% (912 votes). It is ten in the morning and the streets are full of people: “Of course! We are workers”. There are no pickets, posters, or visible traces of the general strike called for this Wednesday, when we are in the neighborhood for this report.
In the park next to the Joan Capó school, the most socialist census section in the area (with 55% of the votes), a group of middle-aged women is chatting. “Strike? Let them do it for us. We are cleaners and the company made us work minimum services. I have been on many strikes and protests. I cannot understand why young people are now becoming ultra-rightists. I cannot vote for the right: I have been starving my whole life. Where is Pedro Sánchez’s rally being held? At Son Fusteret? And Feijóo’s? Was it at the Poble Espanyol? They go to closed-off places. What sons of bitches. Let them come here, let them see the neighborhoods! Let them pass through the junkies’ alley at five in the morning and see the cars double-parked. I live in that building, over there: there used to be 15 neighbors, now there are 7 and the rest are squatters. Since the apartments belong to a bank, they don’t care. I cannot go out to the park with my grandchildren because of the needles. You call the police and they tell you: ‘Well, you live in Son Gotleu’. There should be a woman president: she wouldn't do things this way”. They debate animatedly, interrupting each other. “For me, what I like about Vox is that they say they will take all this away. Yes, they will even take away your pension! Yeah, right. They can't do that. We wouldn't eat! The people would kill them. The PSOE, here, has bought votes. My husband brings me jars of chickpeas from the immigrants, who go to ask for them and then leave them in the trash can. I have nothing against those who work: they ride the bus with me. I’ll tell you one thing: last week, the Son Gotleu neighborhood association went to the City Council. No, that day they weren't allowed to speak. Oh, it was the one before. What did they answer them? ‘This is Son Gotleu, what do you expect?’. So, what do we do? Let’s stop paying taxes, if it’s Son Gotleu anyway”.
According to Ibestat data, almost 40% of residents in Son Gotleu are foreigners (in the whole of Palma, the percentage is 20%). And immigration, a topic that marks the campaign, is on many neighbors' lips, especially illegal immigration. But on the street, not everyone can join the conversation in the same way. Some of the migrants consulted, who do not have the right to vote in the general elections, dodge the questions from ARA Balears about politics with a "I don't understand politics," and keep walking. "Racism will never end in this world," laments a 35-year-old supermarket cashier: "I am a Roma woman, and I have suffered it at work." At the traffic light, she meets an acquaintance, a young woman from Equatorial Guinea who is pushing a stroller, and they walk together. "I will go vote, but I don't know for whom: not for Vox, because they are racist," explains the young woman. "Housing is very expensive, and so is the supermarket," she adds. "I live in a rented place without a contract, through an acquaintance: if not, they won't give me the apartment, because they think I won't pay," confesses the cashier: it costs her a thousand euros a month. A few streets away, a teenager walking his dog admits that he has "no idea" about the parties. "The only one I know is Vox, because it shows up on my TikTok," he adds.
A few meters from the Women's Park, three neighbors are also discussing the situation: Dani, Antonio, and Javi. The first one, who is not yet 30 and works as an "investor," will vote for Vox "so that they kick out all the migrants, who buy houses and take away the benefits," he opines. Beside him, Antonio, an Emaya worker in his fifties, leans towards the PSOE: "It is the [party] that provides jobs and unemployment benefits to those who don't have any!" he retorts. Javi, who is a boxing instructor, says he will opt for the PP because "Jaime Martínez [the mayor] is the only one who has come to Son Gotleu." While they argue, the driver of an Emaya truck stops to greet them. The rest encourage him to declare his vote. "I am on the left, but I don't know who I will vote for, because, for the first time, I don't like what is on the left," he says from the window.
![Alberto Núñez-Feijóo this Monday in Palma](data:image/svg+xml,%3Csvg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" viewBox="0 0 16 9"%3E%3C/svg%3E)
