Political wheeling and dealing under way

WHO the new Mayor of Calvia will be is expected to be made clear by the end of next week, with both the Partido Popular and the PSOE socialist party now having officially contacted the UM, Majorca Union party, which is clutching the keys to the Town Hall. Behind closed doors, political wheeling and dealing started on May 26, the day after the local elections.
PP sources in Calvia are proud of the fact that its candidate for Mayor, Carlos Delgado, and the UM's Isidre Cañellas, have been working closely together for the past four years. They officially discussed forming a political pact on Monday; yesterday it was acting Mayor, the socialist leader Margarita Najera, who opened negotiations with Cañellas who has made no attempt to hide the fact that he would like to be Mayor. It was disclosed to the Bulletin yesterday that, at grass roots, UM members in Calvia would like to see the party pact with the Conservative Partido Popular. “Many say that they worked so hard to fight this election in order to see a change in Calvia,” one source said.
But there are further hurdles in the political process, whatever the outcome in Calvia.
The UM have already contested, and won, 18 votes, which earned the party its second council seat at the expense of one of the PSOE's ten and now Najera is apparently contesting one vote. If her complaint is accepted by the Electoral College then the new Calvia Council may not be fully sworn in and able to sit until July 4, “Independence Day.” At regional party level, the Partido Popular and the UM are set to spend the next few days locked in talks to resolve a handful of other local councils and the big issue of who will govern the Insular Council of Majorca. UM party leader Maria Antonia Munar is the acting president of the Insular Council and newly elected PP Balearic president Jaume Matas claimed yesterday that defeated PSOE leader Francesc Antich will have offered Munar pretty much a clear mandate to govern the council in exchange for blocking the Partido Popular.

The Insular Council is one of the few places where former government leader Francesc Antich can make Matas's life difficult and he has made it clear he is pushing for a pact with the UM.

MAJORCAN NATIONALISTS
LOOKING FOR PARTNERS

THE Secretary General of the Majorcan Socialist Party (PSM), Mateu Morro, gave assurances yesterday that his party is open to joint negotiations, without “pre-set conditions”, with all nationalist and leftist parties for the setting up of a progressive government in opposition to the Partido Popular in the Balearic Parliament. The PSM called a press conference in order to nip in the bud declarations made by other party leaders that suggest the PSM (Majorcan Socialist Party) would not consider setting up a reorganised Progressive Party coalition in the local Parliament. Morro stressed that “the position of the PSM is made clear by their own spokesmen” and not by others. The PSM leader insisted on his “complete openness to talks” with other progressive parties and called for a meeting with representatives of the Unió Mallorquina, with whom “we have had no contact” since the elections of 25 May, he said. Morro explained that two days ago he had “a conversation” with the Secretary General of the Socialist Party (PSOE) Francesc Antich - for a primary “exchange of ideas”, and also pointed out that the outgoing leader of the Balearic Government had assured him that meetings were beginning with a view to exploring a possible Parliamentary accord of leftists and nationalists. However, the PSM leader signalled that “it seems that the process of dialogue has started in a similar way to that witnessed in 1999”, with initial negotiations between the UM and the PSOE later opening up to other parties. In this sense, he considered that “it would be absolutely necessary” that all parties that formed part of the ”Progressive Pact” coalition in the Balearic Parliament during the last period of office be part of the negotiations and insisted that “we owe it to society that any agreement reached should be made crystal clear. “We cannot enter talks with pre-set conditions already in place, because the first aim is to discuss the possibility of a realistic political proposal” and reach agreement on key issues such as territory, urbanism or highways, Morro pointed out. The PSM secretary general considered that it “wouldn't be a good idea” for his party to approach this dialogue with a pre-scheduled “agenda” and made a special point of stating that Unió Mallorquina had “immediately announced that they were to form a coalition with the Partido Popular” following the elections of the 25 May, but that ultimately they had declared themselves open to the possibility of forming a coalition “with more progressive forces”. With regard to his party's strategy for local coalitions, Morro declared that “each municipality is different” and that individual political groupings are free to work “within the specific limitations of each locality”.