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.

Island Social Promotions. This was the name displayed half a century ago on a premises on the central Can Verí street in Palma. Near where the newsroom of this media outlet you now hold in your hands, or on your screen, is located. Perhaps some might wonder what these promotions were. The answer is as simple as this: it was the front for a political party, then illegal, like all the others: the Socialist Party of the Islands (PSI), whose initials coincided with those of this entity. And that was its headquarters. Fifty years ago, on January 18, 1976, that PSI, which would later become the Socialist Party of Mallorca (PSM), made its presentation to the press.