YOUR VIEWS

I found Andrew Ede's blog in The Majorca Daily Bulletin on Sunday 6 February 2011 most thought provoking.

Jaume Font was denied nomination for what he apparently had assumed his rightful promotion to Presidency of the Council of Majorca and his subsequent withdrawal from the party implies; arrogance, petulance or sheer genius. The passage of time will of course provide the appropriate answer.

However, I would be very surprised if Senor Font was not aware that within every sizable political party, there is no such thing as total agreement. Indeed, most parties openly admit that their members support centre, centre left or centre right political view points. Notwithstanding this obvious disagreement with the party line, each faction works hard to lobby within the party, to gain support for their perspective and any subsequent change. This sort of behaviour is commonly known as democracy. Andrew Ede specifically states that the left of the Partido Popular was alienated by Senor Font's anti-Catalanism stance, thereby indicating that Senor Font is aware of the differing beliefs within the party.

In Majorca there are quite a number of alternative political parties, each with its own position on how the country should be administered. The larger parties are the ones in which the population as a whole, have democratically decided which best represents their beliefs. Introducing more political parties to the Island, does not necessarily offer more choice to the electorate, nor is it an opportunity to air what could be interpreted as minority opinions; it only serves to dilute the overall electoral majorities. The well established parties will always win through in the end and it is much better to have a strong government. From an international perspective, a strong government, exercising the will of the voting population, is much more attractive than a squabbling mass of disjointed, ineffective, and self opinionated politicians.

I would have thought that with the amount of political choice available, Senor Font would have discovered something in common with at least one of the parties and thus be able to embrace them with his own philosophies . Alternatively, it could be perceived that Senor Font is purely driven by his own ambition and being thwarted by not receiving the nomination from his current leadership, has decided to start his own party.

If the latter is the case, then he is wasting any talents he has as a politician. Moreover, he should be directing his efforts from within the Partido Popular, which is more likely to be elected, so he can attempt to democratically influence the party members. Failure to realise that his political future lies with a truly electable party, will only result him ending up in a political wilderness, where, if he has talent in this arena, would be a loss for the Island.

Gerry Mulligan