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.

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.

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.

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."

"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.

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.

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.

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.

Jorge Campos, a Vox deputy from the Balearic Islands, criticized the Bishop of Mallorca, Sebastià Taltavull, who denounced the lack of support for migrants arriving in the Balearic Islands, while the islands receive millions of tourists each year. "How can we compare one welcome to the other?" the bishop asked, also distinguishing between visitors who "generate economic benefits" and people who arrive out of necessity. "It has always disgusted me that there are Christians with this attitude that goes against the poorest and most needy," Taltavull criticized in an interview with the EFE news agency. "Every poor, needy person has more than enough reason to be welcomed from the very first moment," Taltavull continued, quoting the Gospel: "I was a stranger and you welcomed me." The bishop considers it a contradiction that no obstacles are placed in the way of the arrival of millions of tourists while 7,000 migrants arriving in boats are denied assistance.

President Francesc Antich left office in the 1990s promising a progressive future, but Marga Prohens ends 2025 worried about the rise of the far right. Along the way, the Balearic Islands have been one of the most blatant examples of corruption in the Spanish state. The imprisonment of Maria Antònia Munar (Unió Mallorquina) in 2013 is one of the essential snapshots for remembering this first quarter-century. These have also been 25 years of major mobilizations: the most recent against tourist overcrowding and housing prices.

The neo-fascist groups operating in the Balearic Islands today are few. But they are young, they are radical, and they are increasingly visible on the streets and online. They are not known for widespread violence, but rather for a growing capacity to recruit, organize, and normalize discourses that until recently were marginal. Precisely for this reason, we cannot underestimate them. History has taught us that movements of this kind do not grow suddenly, but rather take root slowly, taking advantage of indifference, trivialization, or looking the other way.

"The more we know, the better." This was the response of the Minister of the Presidency, Antònia Estarellas, to the demand from Vox's deputy spokesperson, Sergio Rodríguez, to know the nationality of those who commit crimes in the Balearic Islands. "We are in favor of transparency. The more data we have, the better we can redirect our lines of action," she added, also criticizing the Spanish government for the lack of information on the origin and circumstances of migrants arriving in the Islands. Rodríguez asserted that "a foreigner rapes five times more often than a Spaniard" and criticized the other parties in Parliament for wanting to address the situation "by lighting candles," referring to the event held on November 25th in memory of the victims of gender violence. The IBDona study

In this regard, the President of the Government of Navarre, Marga Prohens, announced that the IBDona (Institute for Gender Violence in Navarre) has been conducting a study—since March—on sexual assaults, collecting data on the age, nationality, place of residence, immigration and employment status, income, criminal record, and prior relationships with the victims of the perpetrators. Prohens was responding to a question from the Vox spokesperson, Manuela Cañadas, regarding the profile of sex offenders.

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The path leading to the Ufanes springs was found defaced with Nazi symbols on several stones this past weekend. This was reported on Monday by Podemos, who condemned the increase in attacks by the far right in various locations across Mallorca, given that last week they again targeted the bust of Aurora Picornell on the Molinar promenade.

]]> Fifty years have passed since Franco's death and, with it, the formal end of a dictatorship that still casts long shadows over our public life. Half a century later, Spanish democracy continues to test its limits and its strength, and the Balearic Islands offer, now more than ever, a disturbing example. The far right, which openly embraces aspects of Francoism and revives principles that should have been buried by history, has a strong presence in the Islands' institutions, and we must remember this as often as necessary: it presides over the Parliament, is part of the government of Mallorca, and influences regional and often municipal politics. All of this reflects a growing presence on the streets, especially among young people, a phenomenon that cannot be underestimated.

]]> A few days ago, PEN Català (which is the name in the Catalan Countries of the international PEN Club, the entity that brings together writers from all over the world) awarded Palma, at the Colectiva venue, the Ve Libre award to Tahir Hamut IzgilTahir Izgil, one of the leading contemporary authors writing in Uyghur, a language spoken by seven million people in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region of western China, has been awarded the Veu Lliure Prize for fifteen years. This prize recognizes a writer from around the world who has distinguished themselves in defending the rights and freedoms of individuals and communities. Tahir Izgil more than fulfills the criteria for this award, and has endured a degree of personal suffering that should not exist.

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Several streets in Inca appeared this Monday plastered with xenophobic propaganda. The posters bore the message: "Against their submission, 'remigration.' The Inca that refuses to die." According to Podemos Inca, these posters, whose authorship is still unknown, "explicitly target and stigmatize the Muslim community and promote a discourse of exclusion and hatred." The party will file a formal complaint with the Inca duty court so that these acts can be investigated and any potential criminal liability for incitement to hatred determined. They are also requesting that the Inca City Council immediately remove these posters and refer the case to the appropriate authorities for investigation.

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At the America Business Forum (ABF), taking place this week in Miami, one of the most talked-about moments on social media unfolded. It was a friendly greeting between businessman and former tennis player Rafael Nadal and the President of Argentina, Javier Milei. Nadal greeted Milei with, "Hey, Mr. President, how are we doing?!" to which Milei replied, "I can't believe it! How are you, Rafael? What an honor!" The encounter occurred in the hallways of the venue where both were speaking at a conference. Nadal, who was accompanied by Carles Moyà, Carles Costa, and the Mayor of Miami, Francis Suarez, entered the reserved area just before Milei began his presentation. The Mallorcan former tennis player approached the Argentine president with a friendly, "Hey, Mr. President, how are we doing?" Milei, visibly surprised, responded, "I can't believe it! How are you, Rafael? What an honor!" They hugged before exchanging greetings with their respective companions. Argentine tennis player David Nalbandian was also present and shared the scene with winks. However, the encounter has generated a flood of reactions on social media, from people surprised to others less so, regarding the emphasis placed on the greeting between Navidad and the far-right leader. Below are some of the comments:

]]> When the Law of Democratic Memory and Recognition was passed in 2018, we said it was a law that, in and of itself, justified an entire legislative term, because it gave voice to silence and dignity to the names erased from history. Today, as the far-right conglomerate has decided to begin its repeal, strangely, I feel no sadness for the victims, nor for their children or descendants. Their memory is already written in the invisible, on the walls that heard their footsteps. The seed has been planted and has germinated. I feel sorry for my country, which, under the siege of political violence and hatred, has forgotten that democracy is also a form of tenderness.

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