Cort, on the legal offensive by Ben Amics for Pride: "It is very good to report anything that is considered badly done"
The mayor, Jaime Martínez, defends the municipal management after the organization of a festival that did not reach fifty attendees.
PalmaThe mayor of Palma, Jaime Martínez, has defended the municipal management of the LGTBIQ+ Pride events and has assured that the contracting has been carried out in a “escrupolosa” manner, after Ben Amics filed a complaint for possible irregularities in the awarding procedure and criticized the organization model of the festivities. Martínez has placed this weekend's celebrations within normality and has rejected the collective's criticism. “It is very good for Ben Amics to report anything they consider has been done wrong, and I am convinced that the legal services, the technicians, and the political leaders have done it scrupulously, as always,” he stated.
The mayor has defended that the usual festivals have been held and that the citizens have been able to participate in them "with freedom", in a context marked by the breakdown between the City Council and Ben Amics following the new management model of Pride, which this year has been carried out without the entity's involvement.
Thousands of people
The technical coordinator of Ben Amics, Jan Gómez, summarized the collective's discontent by stating that “Pride without LGBTI+ people is not Pride,” after the organization denounced the loss of the event's activist character and described the institutional programming as a “commodification” of the date. The conflict resulted in a double mobilization. On one hand, the demonstration called by Ben Amics gathered thousands of people who marched through the center of Palma to Cort and claimed the political character of Pride. On the other hand, the platform Orgull Crític Mallorca also brought together hundreds of people in a second protest under the slogan 'Without permission, revolution' queer, with criticisms of the institutionalization of the LGTBIQ+ struggle.
The two mobilizations together gathered nearly 3,000 participants in the city, according to the organizations' figures, on a day marked by banners, slogans, and symbolic actions against what they consider a setback in rights. Ben Amics' main march stopped in front of the Parliament and in front of Cort, where some demonstrators performed actions with coffins referring to the "dignity" of the President of the Parliament, Gabriel Le Senne, and the Mayor of Palma.
The Ben Amics demonstration was led by a banner with the slogan 'In the streets with pride. Dissidence and resistance' and combined moments of political protest with testimonies from participants who have denounced the current situation of LGTBIQ+ rights.
Failure of the Court's act
The good attendance at the Pride demonstration contrasts with the failure of the party organized by the City Council last Saturday in Plaça Major, which registered a very low attendance, with just over a hundred people, after Ben Amics distanced itself from the program due to disagreements with the organizational model.
Martínez has assured that there has been no conflict with Ben Amics and has stated that no meeting has taken place, because, as he said, the entity has not requested it. The mayor has insisted that the Consistory has activated all the necessary resources for Pride to develop normally. The weekend has thus evidenced a fracture between the organized LGTBIQ+ movement and the institutional model promoted by the Palma City Council, with two opposing readings on the meaning and format of Pride in the City.