<![CDATA[Ara Balears in English - far right]]> 10 <![CDATA[The Sant Sebastià Q+ poster by Lluïsa Febrer returns to court]]>

The ultra-Catholic group Christian Lawyers applauded this Thursday that the Provincial Court of the Balearic Islands has reopened the case regarding the Saint Sebastian Q+ poster that artist Lluïsa Febrer created to promote a party organized by Unides Podem at the beginning of 2025. This ultra organization recalls that it filed a complaint against Podem, the party's coordinator in the Balearic Islands, Lucía Muñoz, and Febrer for a possible crime of mockery, since the poster "represented the saint in demonic sexual scenes". "It is a very important victory against those who intend to use freedom of expression as an excuse to humiliate Christians," stated the president of Christian Lawyers, Polonia Castellanos.

]]> <![CDATA[The society of indifference]]>

Individually, we experience indifference as a lack of interest and motivation towards an object, a person, or a situation. Indifference, understood as apathy, should concern us when it prevents us from continuing with what we had started, with our interests, when it interrupts our emotional connection with others. We must learn to listen to ourselves and be capable of distinguishing when indifference benefits us, when it acts in an adaptive way, as a mechanism that protects us from dangerous and adverse events and situations that cause us pain and represent genuine threats to our emotional balance.

]]> <![CDATA[Violent protesters at Cort]]> It is an obvious statement that everyone must be able to demonstrate and express their convictions freely. I am so radical with this assertion that I think even Franco's admirers should be able to portray themselves publicly. The pity is that they do not think the same and consider that those of us who do not think the same should hide in a sewer in silence, because we are like rats.

]]> <![CDATA[The PP and the adversary]]> The PP would do well to be careful with certain successes it thinks it might have. There are battles that, even if you win them, can end up leaving you facing an adversary that is much stronger (and much more dangerous) than the one you intended to defeat. This is what might be happening to it with the extreme right. In its battle against Pedro Sánchez, the PP has been adopting part of the postulates, the language and, above all, the way of exploiting the fears of Vox. And it is multiplying its electorate.

]]> <![CDATA[The PP and the far-right converge in Palma in the concentration for Ceuta]]>

The neo-fascist group Identitas has joined the call for support for Ceuta that the Balearic PP and the mayor of Palma, Jaime Martínez, have promoted for Wednesday, September 2, at 8 p.m. in Plaça de Cort. The far-right collective has circulated through its social networks a call to participate in the concentration with the message in Spanish 'Defend Spain! All with Ceuta and Melilla' and has asked its followers to 'spread it and attend' the event.

]]> <![CDATA[Hello, president]]> Perhaps only ETA and Catalans could compete with one of the common talking points in the discourse of the Spanish right and far-right: Venezuela. The land of Simón Bolívar is a cliché whenever the time approaches for the increasingly prolonged electoral campaigns, and it is easy for a PP or VOX politician, when at a loss for words, to resort to the disaster that Chavismo has entailed in that country. It is curious, however, to see that when it suits them, they also know how to take advantage of the resources of this banana republic regime, and a few days ago, the citizens of the Balearic Islands had a magnificent and very graphic example of this.Friday, July 3rd in the evening. Sílvia Pol, director of news at IB3, interviews the president of the Government of the Balearic Islands, Marga Prohens. And we must call it an interview because that's how the program was announced, but in reality, it seemed more like a 'Balearic style' adaptation of the famous and populist Aló Presidente, the program that Hugo Chávez hosted for more than a decade on Venezuelan state radio and television channels. Here, however, decorum prevails, and the president was kind enough to have an assistant in her conduction, who was responsible for passing the cards of the various topics and electoral proposals with a smile between admiration and understanding, all interspersed with effective and almost imperceptible dialectical massages.During the conversation, without any questioning from Pol, Prohens was able to unfold the arguments that the PP has repeated for years; that of "keeping their word" and "being the party that most resembles the citizens of these Islands". In fact, she felt so comfortable that she took a step further, in a gesture that shows how much her party takes for granted that they will continue in the Executive for at least four more years: she declared, without batting an eyelid, that she also believes that "El Trenc must not be touched", that they have advocated for the Decree of minimums and the Law of linguistic normalization "and that this annoys the left, because the PP is doing it". She even suggested, in response to a question from Pol, which was more like a pass to score a goal than a question, that the tourist overcrowding that our Islands are suffering from was the fault of Armengol and the Pact of progress that she led, that perhaps they did not do enough. She also stated that her Government has agreed on laws with all parties in the parliamentary arc, which is true, but it was a pity to see how Pol did not ask her about her main partner when it came to repealing the Law of historical memory, segregating children in schools for language reasons, and making the LGBTIQ+ collective invisible in the institutional sphere.They say that if it doesn't bother, it's not journalism, but advertising. And I think we have to take our hats off: on July 3rd, the citizens of the Balearic Islands were able to admire, paid for with public money, the first big campaign advertisement for the 'comandanta' Prohens.

]]> <![CDATA[Climate, life, politics]]> The exact number of people who have lost their lives due to extreme temperatures in Europe during the recent heatwave that has particularly affected the center of the Old Continent is unknown. Estimates suggest, now that we are beginning a new wave, more than 2,000 people in France, more than 1,200 in Belgium, and more than a thousand in Spain. Millions of animals intended for human consumption have also died. And shortly after the most intense days, thousands of hectares of forest are burning, because the high temperatures have turned forest masses into fuel.As happens with the Danes, a phenomenon somewhat more Mediterranean, we can act as if it had nothing to do with us, and deny, as the far-right does, that any of this has to do with climate change and global warming caused by human action. Politicians like Trump promise more oil than ever and cheaper; billionaires like Elon Musk pollute as never seen before with their continuous launches of satellites into Earth's orbit and their rockets to Mars; and genocides like Netanyahu drop tons and tons of explosives on Palestine and Lebanon which, in addition to annihilating human beings, have environmental effects that will last for generations.The denialist far-right conditions and shapes PP governments in various communities – the latest being Andalusia, the most populous in the country –, questions the work of the scientific community, and criminalizes environmentalism and the defense of life. Politics, in general, is not up to the magnitude of environmental and climate problems, which put the life and well-being of future generations at risk, as a then-adolescent Greta Thunberg, promoter of the "climate strike" that mobilized thousands of young people around the planet, and who today is considered a dangerous communist, already denounced a few years ago.The truly dangerous thing is to do nothing, or to do more of the same. It is also a waste of time getting bogged down, as they have done these days in France, in absurd debates about whether it is ethical to have air conditioning at home with temperatures above 40 degrees. This does not mean that, on an individual level, everyone should not do their part, but I can assure you that I have nothing to do with the more than 20 million tourists who will visit us this year, nor with the half dozen cruise ships that a few days ago unloaded more than 15,000 people at the port of Palma and emitted tons of polluting gases. Nor with the record number of private jets owned by billionaires (some from the area, like Miquel Fluxà) that generate as much CO2 as you and I do in a lifetime. Instead, most schools do not have air conditioning and no one demands accountability for it.We must be able to have air conditioning, and it is clear that we must use it responsibly, as we do with water. But if those who pollute the most and can do the most to prevent it do nothing, and no one forces them either, our contribution will be a grain of sand, but only a grain of sand. It is the politicians who must set rules that guarantee not only social justice, but also climate justice, which implies taking concrete measures that ensure the well-being of present and future generations.This legislature, which is already heading downhill towards the elections, began with a sensible acknowledgement from the President of the Government, who said that limits needed to be placed on our main economic activity, tourism. The figures today point in the opposite direction: we think that the increase in tourist spending and luxury tourism will redeem us, when in reality what they do is raise the prices of the most basic things for residents, starting with housing and continuing with food.Not only have the homework not been done, but in Mallorca we will continue to feed the largest incinerator in the Mediterranean with the waste from the tourists of Ibiza and we will fill the roads with trucks that will transport pre-treated shit so that it does not smell, while we hope that one day there will be real restrictions on car circulation, which makes life impossible for so many Majorcans. Spaces like Es Trenc are unprotected, and others that are, like a good part of the waters of the Balearic Islands, will experience the summer with more aggressions to Posidonia than in centuries, at the hands of ships of all kinds that have already planned to go see the eclipse from the sea next August.We will be very overshadowed. For a long time now, all of this has been unsustainable and words can hold up almost everything, except for the patience of the residents. Because, increasingly, the only ones who will be able to enjoy the island will be those who look at it from their luxury urbanization or from their yacht, while the rest of us resign ourselves to another summer without leaving our home cave. And no complaints, because at least we have a home.

]]> <![CDATA[Migrant entities attack Prohens' appeal to regularization: "They want us to work, but not to have rights"]]>

Migrant organizations from the Balearic Islands have expressed this Saturday their "deep indignation" at the decision of the Government of Marga Prohens to appeal to the Supreme Court against the extraordinary regularization process approved by the Spanish government and to request its provisional suspension. Among the signing organizations are the Platform for Immigration in the Balearic Islands, the Federation of Immigrant Associations (FADI), the Association of Ecuadorians of Ibiza and Formentera, and the Association of Senegalese of the Balearic Islands.

]]> <![CDATA[A monumental piece of bullshit]]>

ARCA has publicly clarified that it is not responsible for the ultras having turned the fascist monument of La Feixina into their sentimental altar. And the truth is that it is difficult to decide whether it is more extraordinary that a heritage entity considers it necessary to justify itself or that it states –as it has done in ARA Balears– that “preserving La Feixina has not contributed to it becoming the ‘ultra’ meeting point”. Perhaps the extreme part of the extreme right would continue for centuries and centuries celebrating in front of nothing. I don't see it.

]]> <![CDATA["Today they don't imprison you, they make you idiotic with Netflix"]]>

The rise of the far right is a transversal phenomenon that affects groups from different spheres of societies. The transfeminist movement is one of them, and Argentine activists Ornella Infante (former director of the National Institute against Discrimination, Xenophobia and Racism of Argentina) and Belén Correa (researcher at the Archive of Trans Memory of Argentina) know this well. Both warn that the rights gained in recent decades are in danger and insist that no social conquest has been made without a struggle nor is maintained without defending it. Infante and Correa participated last Friday in Palma in a meeting on memory and rights.

]]> <![CDATA[Rights that bother]]> I will say nothing new: when the far-right (and increasingly the right) speaks of freedom, it does so from very unfree parameters. It is not a freedom for everyone or for anything. It is what fascists consider appropriate and for whom they deem worthy. They defend the freedom to go to mass, but not to go to the mosque. They eat lamb pastries for Easter, but they are scandalized when Muslims celebrate the lamb festival. They make their children practice a religion without consulting them, but if they have sex education at school, it is indoctrination. They talk about the right to think as one wishes, but they want to ban political parties with a different ideology. They think the State should not interfere in our existences, but they point fingers at people who do not live according to their precepts.

]]> <![CDATA[Le Senne leaves the plenary session of Parliament to attend an event of the Hungarian far right]]>

The president of the Balearic Islands Parliament, Gabriel Le Senne, will not attend the plenary session that the Chamber will hold this Tuesday because he is at a meeting of the far-right parliamentary group of the European Parliament, Patriots, in Hungary.

]]> <![CDATA["Migrants forget they have rights out of fear"]]>

Although he arrived in Mallorca from Bolivia, Farouk Pino and his wife, Claudia Andrade, have held Spanish nationality for a decade. Pino has been at the helm of Bolivia Centro Social for 15 years, an organization through which he has built networks with associations and individuals of diverse backgrounds living in the Balearic Islands. Concerned about the rise of the far right, this activist makes his voice heard in Palma City Council meetings, where he denounces the policies of Vox and the PP.

]]> <![CDATA[Le Senne uses the presidency of Parliament as a political platform.]]>

Gabriel Le Senne He became the fifteenth president of the Balearic Parliament (and the first from Vox) because he "got lucky," as a source within the party put it at the time. Madrid dictated his appointment even though he was seventh on the list and lacked internal support in the Islands. Two and a half years later, he has become Vox's main asset in the Balearic Islands. The position of second-highest authority in the region has served as a platform for him, especially since the controversy he sparked when he went to detach a photograph of Aurora Picornell and the Rojas del Molinar during a full house. From that moment on, he increasingly established a political profile within the institution.

]]> <![CDATA[March 8th in Palma | Divided feminism calls out against the right wing and war]]>

March 8th saw two separate feminist demonstrations in Palma, but with overlapping demands: defending women's rights, combating the far right, and denouncing war and social insecurity. The second demonstration this Sunday in Palma for International Women's Day brought together 2,200 people, according to the National Police, and championed the feminist struggle against "setbacks in social rights and the rise of reactionary rhetoric" and against "a world being reshaped by war."

]]> <![CDATA[Yes, there is an invasion... of racism.]]>

"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.

]]> <![CDATA[Political debate erupts: the dangers of masturbation with chickpeas]]>

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.

]]> <![CDATA[Living on a mitre]]> A few years ago I read an article by New York Times in which one of the most common mistakes in relationships was analyzed: combating emotional distress rationally. The article emphasized the obvious error: emotions don't listen to reason, even if their causes may be real, and trying to soothe certain anxieties with meticulous arguments is as absurd as saying "but I love you" when you're doing the math to see if you can afford a second mortgage.

]]> <![CDATA[The government extends an olive branch to Vox and promises to use all legal means to stop the regularization of migrants]]>

The Government has once again extended an olive branch to Vox to advance initiatives in this new political year, which it faces with "absolute tranquility," despite having extended the budget. "Neither the Government nor the PP will obstruct negotiations with Vox," stressed the Executive spokesperson, Toni Costa, at the press conference following the Cabinet meeting, as reported by Europa Press. The Minister of Economy, Finance, and Innovation also noted that Vox is the PP's natural partner and that, consequently, negotiations with this group will continue. Costa also maintained that the budget extension does not imply any parliamentary gridlock and expressed his confidence in approving the upcoming initiatives in Parliament "with considerable consensus." Regarding the tax deduction that the Government announced to prevent rent increases, the spokesperson indicated that negotiations are underway with Vox on an amendment to include it in the draft law for accelerating strategic projects, which is expected to be processed in the second half of February.

]]> <![CDATA[The political earthquake that awaits us in the Balearic Islands due to the explosion of Vox]]>

Since polls have become an essential part of party tactics—properly presented by media outlets aligned with each party—the successive waves of published polls form a jungle of data from which it is sometimes difficult to extract anything meaningful. However, because polling firms do their job well—most of them, at least—they provide highly relevant information, regardless of how the polls are presented by the leading publications of each political camp.

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