Pride arrives in Palma with two demonstrations and conflict with Cort in the background

PalmaPalma will experience an LGTBIQ+ Pride this Sunday marked by fragmentation and open conflict between Ben Amics and the City Council. Two demonstrations will depart from Plaça d'Espanya a few minutes apart and will tour the city center on a day that comes after the breakdown of historic collaboration to organize the Pride celebration.

The first call will be for Orgull Crític Mallorca, which will depart at 6:30 PM with the slogan 'Without permission, queer revolution' and will end at Plaça de les Columnes. The platform calls for mobilization against the rollback of rights, conservative reaction, and fascist threat, with a critical discourse also on 'pink capitalism' and the institutionalization of LGTBI struggles.

Half an hour later, at 7 PM, the Ben Amics demonstration will depart with the slogan 'To the streets with pride, dissent, and resistance'. The march will end at Plaça de Cort, an especially symbolic conclusion after months of tension with the municipal government of Jaime Martínez.

A breakdown that marks the day

The conflict between Ben Amics and Cort began when the entity warned that the Pride festival could be cancelled due to the lack of municipal response. The situation became tense after Ben Amics declared the party cancelled and accused the City Council of giving in to the far-right.

The entity had also conditioned any agreement on issues such as the display of the LGTBI flag on Cort's balcony and the recovery of the sexual diversity workshops of Palma Educa. The City Council, on the other hand, rejected attempts to "twist its arm" and ended up organizing the party on its own, without Ben Amics' participation.

The celebration promoted by Cort took place this Saturday in Plaça Major, but Ben Amics has harshly criticized it and defined it as a "tourist spectacle" and a "pinkwashing" operation. The tension has also reached the courts, after the entity filed a complaint for possible irregularities in the awarding of the contract.

A more vindictive Pride

With this scenario, Ben Amics proposes this year's demonstration as a political response to what it considers an attempt to empty Pride of its demands. The organization defends that now is the time to take to the streets and remember that Pride is not just a party, but a mobilization for the rights, visibility, and safety of LGBTI people.

The two marches will turn the center of Palma into the setting for a Pride marked by political tensions, but also by the will to keep the mobilization alive at a time when organizations warn of the increase in hate speech and LGBTI-phobic aggressions.