Government in minority in the Balearics

Even though the Partido Popular of Marga Prohens were victorious in the local elections they failed to gain an overall majority leaving the far-right Vox as the matchmakers. No Vox, no majority. This has meant that Prohens is in a very uncomfortable position, she is the President but her overall power is controlled by Vox and their merry band of local MPs who have made it very clear that they will use their voting power to get their own way.

This is not the first time that Vox have hijacked the local political scene and it certainly won´t be the last. There isn’t much that the President can do really apart from hoping for a minor miracle. Opposition parties have rounded on the Balearic government saying that their power-making process is governed by the far-right.

To be honest what Vox wanted was not over the top. By scrapping the millionaire’s tax (which penalised people with big fortunes) it could mean that more big spenders will move to the island giving the real estate market a boost. In fact, I can’t understand why it wasn´t in the Partido Popular´s manifesto in the first place.

The choice of language is probably more tricky. It will certainly reopen the debate over Catalan teaching in local schools. It must be remembered that the last Partido Popular President of the Balearics (José Ramon Bauza), who called for a reduction in Catalan teaching in favour of a three-language system (English, Catalan and Spanish), was ejected at the next election with far fewer votes. Vox will be making Prohens’ life difficult, they have made this very clear. She just has to hope that their wish list gets shorter.