After eleven years as a councilor and seven as mayor of Maó, Héctor Pons Riudavets (Maó, 1990) reviews the most difficult term he has faced so far in the City Council. In minority and with the conditional support of his former partners from Ara Maó, the only socialist mayor in Menorca faces the remaining year of the legislature with the urgency to solve the problems that drag down the water supply and the determined objective of taking steps to facilitate access to housing for families in a context of such difficulty. But in these months, the future of the port is also being cooked.

“N’Abel wants it all”. That’s what a veteran journalist from Ibiza, referring to Abel Matutes Juan, said years ago: a man who, in addition to his multiple businesses, certainly became practically everything in politics over three decades: mayor of Vila, a prominent figure of the Transition, senator, deputy, negotiator of the Statute of Autonomy, European commissioner, minister... We review his career as the thirtieth anniversary of his appointment, on May 5, 1996, as head of Foreign Affairs in José María Aznar’s first cabinet is celebrated.

Thirteen months remain until the regional elections and all Balearic parties are already in full electoral campaign mode or, failing that, will be very soon.

The apocalypse is approaching while the President of the Government, Marga Prohens, learns to dance bachata and someone in her cabinet, in a fit of inspiration, decides this is relevant enough information to share with the world. As could be expected, the PSIB reminded everyone of this throughout the six hours of the Parliament session on Tuesday. The Chamber increasingly resembles a stand-up comedy stage: everyone brings their prepared monologue, and if it goes well, the audience might even laugh for a while.

Polls indicate a growing proportion of young people who want to vote for the far right. Perhaps they should ask themselves what the far right would do if, for example, Trump decreed that, for the good of the Empire, not only were scholarships cut—that is, military spending increased to 5% of GDP—but also mandatory military service reinstated. They should also know that if they no longer liked this and wanted to protest, the far right would prevent them from doing so, for the good of the Empire and Spain's service to the Empire's vassalage. Who would defend them from tyranny then? No one, unless they themselves reorganized to defend their rights and freedoms, so absurdly lost to those who can enjoy democracy today but prefer to vote for tyranny tomorrow.

"Law 2/2018 (...) on memory and democratic recognition in the Balearic Islands will be repealed, and reconciliation will always be sought, avoiding historical manipulation and the partisan use of the victims and the tragedy of the civil conflict. Policies will be implemented to facilitate the recovery of deceased persons, without discrimination based on any grounds." "of monuments and historical elements, ensuring their proper maintenance and understanding within their historical context." This is what point 48 of the governance agreement signed by the PP and Vox on June 28th states, an agreement that was enacted in the plenary session of Parliament this Tuesday.

Maria Agnès Sampol Sabater (Porreres, 1986) has become the new mayor of Porreres, 27 years after the People's Party (PP) last governed the municipality, replacing Xisca Mora Veny. She assumed the position as part of a governing pact signed between the PP and El Pi after each party won four seats in the 2023 elections, while Más won five.

"Rape of dolls and women," "jihadist terrorism in the streets of Europe," "savage knife attacks resulting in amputations," collapse of public services, "cultural impoverishment in schools," "imposition of cultures"... This was the litany of accusations that the Parliaments had to listen to. The Vox spokesperson, Manuela CañadasShe won the award for the most racist speech, surrounded by silence and with the mocking smile of the Speaker of the House, Gabriel Le Senne, who did not intervene to stop the debate's drift.

Politicians don't answer the questions they're asked. It's not an urban legend; it's a fact. Their goal isn't to give clear or precise answers, but to counterattack their opponent and look good in the video their party will post on social media, with somewhat aggressive text and lots of emojis to add a touch of sharpness. The government is subjected to a weekly question time session in Parliament which, rather than an exercise in oversight, ends up becoming a kind of Roman circus, full of gladiators with mediocre, inflammatory, and, all too often, empty rhetoric.

The PSIB-PSOE has announced it is considering legal action against the initial approval of the Estellencs General Plan, due to irregularities detected during Tuesday's plenary session. In a statement, the party denounced the controversy and suspicions of irregularities in the session, after Mayor Bernat Isern and PP councilor Miquel Àngel Rosselló, who were absent from Thursday's vote because they are directly affected by the urban rezoning changes in the new regulations, voted in favor. According to the PSOE, they voted without being shown the reports that supposedly validated their votes.

Political polarization is escalating in the Balearic Islands just over a year before the regional elections. The Parliament has long since become a boxing ring where parties hurl arguments like punches, often without listening to their opponents. Accusations have been made that this is a contemporary classic. "You did worse" is the most repeated refrain. The phrase bounces from one seat to another like a ping-pong ball, amidst the astonishment of one segment of the population and the thirst for revenge of the other.

Sometimes you hear or read that the PP's resounding electoral defeat in the Balearic Islands in 2015 was a direct consequence of the popular uprising against the aberrant anti-Catalan policies of José Ramón Bauzá's government. No, that wasn't it.

On the afternoon of February 18, 1976, in an apartment on Catalunya Street in Palma, the Socialist Party of the Balearic Islands was presented to the media. A light rain barely touched the pavement, while a group of police officers from the Political and Social Brigade lay in wait outside. Barely three months had passed since the dictator's death. A wide range of citizens with a firm and active commitment to anti-Francoism had participated in the creation of the new party: members of Bandera Roja (who came from the Communist Party of Spain, which they had joined a year earlier), the Popular Socialist Party, and other leftist organizations, all gathered around the idea. Finding an organizational model capable of uniting all these different tendencies and political families was no small matter. One attractive formula was that of the French Socialist Party, which encompassed a broad spectrum of the French left. The proposal didn't go as far as the French model, since some people with a "weak" track record under the dictatorship had been excluded or put on hold. The truth is that the PSI was an organization still in the process of formation, but the proposal was timely, necessary, and also inspiring. This initial enthusiasm would, in part, shape its future development.