Pride wins the arm wrestle at Palma City Council

Palma"Pride without LGTBI+ people is not Pride." This is how the technical coordinator of Ben Amics, Jan Gómez, summarized the collective's feelings at Sunday's demonstration, after the Palma City Council chose to commercialize the date and hold a party without a vindictive character. Cort's event, did not gather more than 150 people on Saturday in a Plaça Major that remained empty, while the two protests this Sunday – convened by Ben Amics and the platform Orgull Crític Mallorca – have gathered almost 3,000 people in the streets of Palma.

The demonstration led by Ben Amics passed by the Parliament and ended in Plaça de Cort. At the doors of the Chamber, a group of participants dressed in mourning and under a canopy left a coffin carrying "the dignity of Gabriel Le Senne", the president of the Parliament, who has positioned himself on several occasions against the visibility of the LGTBI+ collective. And the same at the Palma City Council, on this occasion with a coffin with "the dignity" of the mayor of Palma Jaime Martínez.

The parade of banners and flags left many tourists speechless, while shouts of "don't look at us, join us" could be heard. The main banner made it clear that this is not just a day of celebration and that the collective has much to claim at a time when it sees its rights in danger: "To the streets with pride. Dissidence and resistance," it read. "Pride is not a party"; "against the Vatican, clitoral power"; "you have taken away our party, not our voice"; "never again a life in silence"; "LGTBIQ+ education saves lives"; "man+ skirt= happiness"; "we are who we are even when you don't understand it"; "my banner is not radical, your transphobia is"; "your hate is not an opinion"; "free mommy hugs, this mommy does support you," could be read on many other signs.

"What happened with the Palma City Council is horrible. Politicians use private companies to sell a good image, when in reality they don't give a damn about people's rights," lamented Joan, who went to the demonstration with a friend, while slogans like "without a collective there is no revolution" could be heard in the background. Aina also criticized that "the City Council only wanted to have its party and did not support what Pride really represents".

This has been the first Pride demonstration for Dani, who went with his friend Marco. "It's great. I feel safe in an environment where I'm usually scared," he said, while Marco nodded in approval. Aina demonstrated in the company of her father and mother: "We are here for whatever may come, because our rights are in danger." Coretty attended surrounded by teenagers: her daughter and her friends, all with rainbow flags. "I'm here for them. I'm very worried about their situation. Things are complicated in every way and it's getting very ugly," she explained.

Tweets to Court

The whistles have erupted in Plaça de Cort, with the City Council shielded by the National Police, who didn't even let pedestrians unrelated to the protest walk on the sidewalk. "The mayor hasn't come, but we've brought the coffin of his dignity and his afternoon nap!", exclaimed Jan Gómez amidst applause, while another slogan was heard: "Where are they, they can't be seen, the PP's faggots". "If they know how to count, let them come and count", added Gómez, referring to the emptiness on Saturday at the Cort festival in Plaça Major.

"History teaches us that no right can be taken for granted: rights are won by fighting and defended every day. Our motto this year is a call for mobilization and combat: In the streets with pride. Dissidence and resistance", remarked the president of Ben Amics, Tatiana Casado, during the reading of the protest's manifesto. "We are taking to the streets because we find ourselves in a moment of regression that we cannot tolerate. In the City, we are suffering firsthand the offensive of the Palma City Council in the hands of the Popular Party and Vox, which has decided to explicitly turn its back on the LGTBIQ+ community", she continued. "Hatred and intolerance are translated today into public policies of censorship and invisibility", she added, as well as highlighting emergencies that all of society in the Balearic Islands is facing at this time, such as the lack of housing.

Regarding the Critical Pride demonstration, Casado has expressed his utmost respect. "The majority of citizens are with Ben Amics, that's why we have Plaça d'Espanya full," he remarked. This protest brought together half a thousand people who have criticized the institutionalization of the LGTBIQ+ struggle, under the slogan "No permission, queer revolution," as reported by the EFE agency.

Failure of the Palma City Council's party

On the other hand, the Palma City Council was only able to gather approximately a hundred people for the party it organized in Plaça Major, which was attended by PP politicians. After Ben Amics decided to distance itself from Cort because the entity was not willing to reduce the Pride's demanding nature, the City Council awarded the organization of the event to AgenciaCom. Toni Martorell's company has no experience or connection with the LGTBIQ+ collective and only obtained three out of 100 points in the call for tenders. The award was made because it was the only company that submitted a bid.

"What Cort has done has been a great failure. What has happened shows that Pride cannot be commercialized," said MÉS per Palma councilor at the City Council Miquel Àngel Contreras. The left of the City has participated with a unitary banner, without the logo of any party, which said "Palma, always proud, always anti-fascist." The candidate of MÉS per Palma for mayor in the 2027 elections, David Pujol, remarked that "there is a lot of fight ahead" and described the call as "spectacular." For Podem, Lucía Muñoz, assured that the success of the proposal shows that, despite "institutional indifference and hatred," there is "a demanding city that will not stop taking to the streets on Pride day and the rest."