Pere Duran: "We Mallorcans could live like kings and we will end up living like miserable people"

ManacorPere Duran will be, if nothing new happens, the Nou Ordre candidate in the next municipal elections in Manacor. With the alliance with Unió Mallorquina broken, he gives us a summary of the party's wishes and the videos on social media that have made him viral.

Does mixing denunciation and humor work?

— It is the most effective way to connect with people first, to then make them see the problem.

Peter or Pedro?

— I like to be called Pere, but on the electoral list I will appear as Pedro, because that is how it appears on my ID card. My mother used to call my father Pere and me Pedro to distinguish us.

What is your opinion on this encampment that has taken place until now in Plaza del Sol in favor of decent housing?

— I think it has been more of a propaganda move than a real one.

What does it mean?

— Because I think the housing problem comes from the migratory control we suffer, or rather, the lack thereof. More people enter Spain than should, and then they are distributed unevenly across the geography. There is no equitable distribution. It is concentrated mainly in the Levant, in Madrid, in Barcelona, and in all that are supposedly the richest areas; and this creates a tension and a demand for housing that is certainly very worrying. On the other hand, the Basque Country and Navarre, despite also being wealthy communities, do not experience it in the same way because, politically, they are more mature communities.

What would you do to solve this if you entered the City Council of Manacor. What measures can be taken so that this does not happen?

— I no longer trust in the possibilities of the Balearic Islands to create public housing.

From the Balearic Government, you say?

— And of the state and municipal government. Nor do I believe that is their function. In other words, the administration must create favorable conditions for the creation of new housing for all Spaniards, so that everyone can have one. But I think that housing will come from the private sector. And it will emerge as public administrations provide security and administrative and economic ease.

But were you talking about a migration problem... also in Manacor?

— Yes, but unfortunately I think there is not much to be done. It must be regulated from Madrid, starting with the arrival at Barajas airport.

Do you feel nostalgic for the Manacor of the past?

— It is not nostalgia, it is simply that Mallorcans and Manacorins could live like kings, and we will end up living like wretches due to our inability to organize ourselves politically.

Don't you think that overcrowding is more touristy than anything else?

— I no longer believe that tourism brings more well-being to the people of Mallorca. But I insist that we are also facing an uncontrolled migratory wave. This, which the major parties, the PP and the PSOE, could correct, they do not do.

What does uncontrolled mean?

— I do not necessarily refer to all the people coming from outside. Welcome to those who are already here, because we have to make the journey together... but among themselves there is already beginning to be friction. Therefore, I believe we can all agree on this issue.

Define New Order.

— It is a small local party that has the ambition to govern, to enter the municipal government of Manacor.

On the right, on the left, or wherever the numbers appear?

— On the right. If we gain representation in the next municipal elections, I always say that my first visit will be to the People's Party, who will surely be the winners. Now, all options are open.

Do you think that we speak Majorcan here and not Catalan?

— No, firstly because I have always liked Catalans and I have no problem with the name one might want to give the language, and secondly because I am very happy to be able to write and make videos in Catalan. And to be able to speak it with my son or my wife, who is Russian.

Isn't it a paradox then that you speak to me about the problems of immigration?

— When I speak of derived problems I am referring to the fact that everything has come very quickly. If these migrants had arrived gradually and as our possibilities to absorb them had allowed, it would be a different matter. In any case, I believe that the pace of recent years will end soon.

I have seen that you have Donald Trump in the window of the party headquarters. Is he a point of reference for you?

— I really like it... actually, all of us who make up New Order like it. We are Trumpists. Sometimes someone has suggested taking it out of the entry... and it has always been: "No, leave it, leave it".

Do you agree with everything he says?

— Let's see, Trump has his good points and others that are not so good; but as a good thing, I think he has redefined the right, what it means. He surely does bad things, but a ruler cannot always get everything right. But in general, I think America is doing better than before.

The model of the European far-right and the Spanish one would be somewhat the same...

— In Europe I see a lot of right-wing parties, but very very dangerous and disoriented. I do not like them at all.

Not even Vox?

— They have a very harsh anti-immigration or anti-Catalonia discourse, which we do not have. Vox's ideas do not fit at all with the traditional Mallorcan way of thinking.

There are quite a few anti-Catalanist Mallorcans

— In Palma yes, but in Manacor no. It is another code.

His videos denouncing what does not work in Manacor are quite curious

— We do it on purpose. Because it is the way to reach people, so they see us. Now one about potholes, another about cars abandoned on the streets of Manacor, one with glasses on the nose denouncing the stench of chicken droppings that reaches the town. We always try to give them a touch of humor, a bit of salt. Sometimes we have managed to exceed 20,000 views. We enjoy seeing that they work.

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What are the problems of the municipal government team in Manacor?

— You end up having many after so many years of bad habits. I think this government team came in with ambitions suitable for the municipality... but they have ended up doing Parliamentary politics, which looks very good but is of no use at the municipal level. And I believe they are a bit frustrated for not being able to obtain the results they would like. The problems derived from waste collection, water, the cemetery, urban planning and many more things... need less ideology and much more work directed at concrete things. They have become tired, I see them discouraged.

Have they been unproductive?

— I am not saying that they haven't done a lot of work, because keeping an administration up to date is very complicated. But there are many corners to fix and totally abandoned spaces that cannot be allowed.

How do things look from the sky for you who likes aviation?

— It is a way of looking, of seeing what Mallorca is with a clearer vision of where you are. From the air you realize that Mallorca is not lacking in territory.

Is territory not missing?

— There is a lack of organization. It is true that in the countryside a lot has been built over recent years, but there is no lack of land.

And a lot of swimming pool, and that is also an evil...

— A swimming pool does not consume water. If you keep it in the same condition and keep it covered during the winter so it does not evaporate, it does not consume. And it is something that provides a lot of well-being in rural areas. An agricultural reservoir surely evaporates much faster than a swimming pool in good conditions.

But has holiday tourism made life worse for the people of Mallorca, or has it not?

— Tourists are sold that they will find total silence here, that they will be able to rest, and that is not quite the case.

But very often it is they who make the noise in the evenings and do not let others rest.

— That is also true. But of course, they buy an imaginary product that has been sold to them before arriving on the island. Tourism itself, of one kind or another, is not the problem. The problem is the quantity.

Which council department would you like to manage?

— Urban planning.

Why?

— Because there are many things to do and we need a change of mindset. Currently, the department is diminishing the wealth, the potential wealth of the town, both for business owners and individuals. Franchises do not want to come, they see all the bureaucracy they have to go through and say, well, maybe I'll go to another town. It is clear that if a McDonald's wants to come, it will come.

Is Nou Ordre integrated into Unió Mallorquina, or not anymore?

— Let's see, when Unió Mallorquina split again, Víctor Martí called about thirty people from small parties in Mallorca. We reached an understanding and we were encouraged to put the sign here. But the party has been paralyzed for six months now and we know nothing about it. Therefore, we are once again solely Nou Ordre.

Toni Capó is his partner in the videos

— Yes, we are very good friends and we understand each other very well, both when it comes to making videos and when it comes to defining where we want the party to go.