10 months left until the election campaign and less than 11 until the elections. And nothing has changed compared to two years ago, when a depressed and unmotivated left-wing opposition was beginning to be seen, that the Government was toying with Vox and that the PP and the far-right would add up again next time.The most significant fact that confirms everything is as it was is Francina Armengol's renunciation of disputing the presidency with Prohens again. If one only reads the bold print of the deed, or as the island PSOE has sold it, one cannot appreciate in any way the political burden it truly carries. To value it in its just measure, it must be placed in the pertinent context.Armengol received the 2023 defeat as a blow, if not personal, at least against her political pride. And a very deep one. This is explained by what her circle asserted throughout the year before the elections. That what they called 'the Francina effect' existed, the attraction directly attributable to the leader's public personality and her management in the Government, which would produce a sufficient number of votes that would dispel assumptions about a potential right-wing victory, a possibility they disdained, especially because they did not believe Prohens had the capacity to regain enough support for the PP.It was a conception of electoral politics that deliberately abstained from the main characteristic that the behavior of suffrage in the Balearic Islands has had in recent decades: the growing importance of the national key. Despite this phenomenon, easily perceptible in the evolution of the results at the polls since at least 2007, they faced the 2023 elections with that conviction.It is worth saying that it was not only the Armengolian environment that said so. It was a more widespread perception. Even among certain nationalists, it was believed that the president had a personal and political advantage that would help her — and incidentally, the entire left — to be re-elected for the third consecutive time. And this was not only happening in the world of political aristocracy: trade unionists and members of independent civil associations, anti-PP and pro-left, thought much the same.Everything, however, changed when a few weeks before the elections the socialist leadership began to understand – surely because of the internal polls that would reach them from the central office – that the fantasy of the aforementioned effect was fading, if it had ever existed.The electoral night did nothing more than confirm the catastrophe: the left lost the Government and Armengol, the presidency. Suddenly, however, the socialists warned – it was a correct reading, there was no doubt: they were right – that they were not responsible for the disaster, but for the collapse of the far-left. Undeniable: Podemos went from 6 deputies to 1. Neocommunism was sinking and dragging the entire left towards the opposition abyss.The slogan that the local PSOE leadership then imposed was that the defeat was a mere parenthesis and that Prohens, in her incompetence, would not manage and Armengol would return to be president in 2027, even if she had fled to Madrid, taking advantage of the general elections of July 2023.It is believable that he thought so. Or, at least, that he was eager to return and "finish the job".At the end of 2024, at the PSOE federal congress in Seville, Armengol hinted at least to two Majorcan journalists – who later recounted it – that she would indeed be a candidate against Prohens. It is even more forceful than when the regional congress was held in March 2025, the website of the Balearic Socialist Party welcomed the re-election of the undisputed leader with: “Armengol announces the first measure for when she returns to being president in 2027…”.The following months, in fact, throughout that year, things – possibly based on fierce polls for the socialists – changed. When in February 2026 the newspaper Última Hora reported that Armengol would resign due to the evidence that the chances of winning again were nil, it was certainly already decided for several weeks.The same newspaper recently published the poll – conducted by the always reliable Balearic Institute of Social Studies – of voting intention which made clear the reason for the resignation: the PSOE is already losing 3.7 percentage points compared to the 2023 result and, worse, loses 4 seats, while the far-left disappears. The nationalists only add one more deputy, in Menorca, and the regionalists get none; the PP is close to an absolute majority and if it doesn't have it – which is more likely – it will be able to make a deal again with Vox, which will at least increase by one seat.This is the reason that explains why Armengol wants to stay in Madrid and confirms what was beginning to be seen two years ago and that the PSOE has now implicitly confessed: that the left has nothing to do.

Pedro Sánchez will not repeat with Francina Armengol the strategy of entrusting the leadership of regional battles to his most mediatic allies. After the setback of sending the first vice-president and Minister of Finance, María Jesús Montero, to Andalusia and obtaining the lowest result in the party's history in the territory, the president of Congress will remain sheltered in Madrid and will be definitively tied to the PSOE's future in the general elections. In the Balearic Islands, the definitive confirmation that she will not run again in the regional elections has caused an internal upheaval. For this reason, she will remain as general secretary of the PSIB, to control her succession from the apparatus.

A PSIB in flames. This is the party preparing for the 2027 elections with Rosario Sánchez as the new candidate. Francina Armengol's electoral succession can be read in a friendly way, as renewal and generational change. The usual narrative when a party tries to turn an obligatory change into a strategic decision.

The commissioner Víctor de Aldama has assured in his statement before the National Court judge Ismael Moreno that he was never aware that the former president of the Balearic Islands and current president of the Congress of Deputies, Francina Armengol, requested or received commissions for the purchase of masks or PCR tests from the companies investigated in the Koldo case.

Francina Armengol is beginning to show signs of doubt. "A year ago, she expressed her desire to be a candidate for the Balearic Islands in informal conversations," says a source who knows her well. "Lately, it's not so clear." This sense of insecurity has also permeated party ranks, who are already wondering what they will do if the Socialist ultimately decides not to run. In response, the PSIB (Socialist Party of the Balearic Islands) has begun searching for potential successors. With just over a year until the elections, they need to act. Sources within the party apparatus confirm that the Secretary of State for Tourism, Rosario Sánchez, is gaining traction in the race. The party leader in Mallorca, Amanda Fernández, is also gaining ground, although the initial plan is to primarily develop her as a candidate for the Consell de Mallorca (Island Council). The final decision will rest with Armengol, who remains all-powerful in the Balearic Islands, and ultimately with the Spanish Prime Minister, Pedro Sánchez, who will oversee the process. "It's too early to rule out Armengol running," a Socialist source asserts. "Everything will be decided in the primaries," the parliamentary group emphasizes. But, although the final decision on candidates rests with the membership, the establishment's support is decisive in any internal process.

The Council of Ministers approved on Tuesday the posthumous awarding of the Grand Cross of the Royal Order of Charles III to the former president of the Balearic Government, Francesc Antich. death earlier this year.

The PSIB showcased its state power in Palma this week. The Speaker of the Congress, Francina ArmengolHe participated in several events, but Minister Óscar Puente—who presented the Paseo Marítim renovation—Catalan President Salvador Illa (PSC), and leaders of the PSPV also arrived in Palma. Minister Diana Morant was also scheduled to attend but ultimately declined. With this show of force, the Balearic Socialists aim to turn the page on two years in which they have focused on mounting a strong opposition to the PP, establishing an institutional profile and asserting themselves as a viable alternative government. All of this is underscored by the new role their leader has acquired in Madrid: representing state institutions and maintaining close ties with other Catalan-speaking territories.

The Speaker of Congress and Secretary General of the PSIB-PSOE (Spanish Socialist Workers' Party), Francina Armengol, denounced this Saturday that the PP is using migrant minors as a "shield" to "cover up their incompetence" through a "sectarian policy of confrontation."

The secretary general of the PSIB (Balearic Socialist Workers' Party) and president of the Parliament, Francina Armengol, neither confirmed nor denied that she is the party's candidate for the 2027 regional elections. "I try to be respectful of the party's interim processes. We are governed by primary elections, and when the time comes, they announce it," she said. Armengol made this statement during her appearance to explain the topics to be discussed during the PSIB's parliamentary sessions to address the new political year. The secretary general described the Catalan government's willingness to reject the €1.741 billion debt write-off proposed by the Spanish government as a "betrayal of the Balearic Islands." "It's a betrayal to obey Feijoo's orders," she continued. "I would be surprised if no regional president of the PP with a certain esteem in his homeland accepts the write-off, because how will he defend it before Parliament?" she asked.