“We must look and learn from our mistakes”

THE spokesman for the coalition United Left and Greens Party, shortly to take a municipal seat in opposition in the City Hall of Palma, Eberhard Grosske, yesterday urged Catalina Cirer the next Mayor of the city “not to be tempted to govern unfavourably against 44 per cent of the population that voted in opposition to the new governing party”. Grosske, who stepped down as Balearic Minister for Labour to run for Mayor of Palma, made public yesterday that the Partido Popular candidate Cirer has to remember that nearly half of the city's population did not vote for her. Grosske said that 44 per cent had shown tendency towards “progressive options and for change” as opposed to another four years of conservative council rule. As a result, he sent “a message to Cirer”, congratulating her on her victory, so that she “might have the common sense” to “seek out spheres of collaboration and consensus.” With regard to the work of the coalition United Left/Green Party (EU-EV) in its municipal context, to be formally set up on 14 June, Grosske promised that the team will develop “an institutional agenda with the highest possible aims, in order to better the quality of life of the citizens of Palma and to lay the foundations for political change in the next legislature.” With this aim in mind, the United Left/Green Party coalition will attempt to “come to agreement with other strong progressive parties in order to establish the most united opposition possible to the Partido Popular”. Grosske is anxious to “give priority to positive proposals and to get new initiatives under way” to avoid becoming “an opposition that is only a drain on resources”. The EU-EV coalition wants to centre these initiatives on the issues of “housing, public transport, citizen participation, noise levels, cleaning, work and social policies in general.” The United Left leader also advised the other parties that formed part of the Progressive Pact to study the results of the election and be self-critical so that it should serve to “detect errors, but not to seek out guilty individuals.” For Grosske such a witch hunt would be a “futile exercise”. Furthermore, he considered that it would be “an additional piece of bad news for progressive voters” that members of the Coalition Pact should become embroiled in disputes amongst themselves regarding the results of the ballot box. These results had given the Executive Committees of the member groups cause for “deep, jointly held concern”. Between them, the reasons for the defeat should be properly examined. In relation to one of the electoral promises of the Partido Popular in Palma, the underground works along one section of the Paseo Maritimo, Grosske signalled that his party would oppose this project if it “mortgaged” the future of the city, owing to the high cost of the investment that local Government would have to approve. Grosske said the coalition would also oppose it if the Paseo Marítimo “turned into nothing more than a building site over the next four years.”