A commission had been set up by the Council to consider if there should be a change and, if so, what the new date should be. 12 September (its significance is the crowning of King Jaume II in 1276 and the granting of privileges) was the date chosen by the Council in 1997, when the president was Maria Antonia Munar of the now defunct Unió Mallorquina.
This celebration hasn't ever really been particularly popular, a point that political parties and others have made in advocating the change to 31 December. The parties which voted in favour of the new date were PSOE, Podemos, Més and El Pi, while the Partido Popular and Ciudadanos (C's) were against.
Catalina Serra of the C's argued that the change to 31 December was in order to pander to nationalists within a "universe" of "pan-Catalanism", while it also commemorates the "massacre of 1229 in Madina Mayurqa".
The change will mean that the new Majorca Day will coincide with the Festival of the Standard in Palma, which commemorates events of almost 800 years ago when the forces of King Jaume I of Aragon entered Palma, brought about the end of more than three centuries of Muslim dominance of Majorca and established the historical bond between Majorca and the Catalan lands of the peninsula.
There has been some disquiet expressed about the possibility of the new date for Majorca Day undermining the Palma celebration of the festival. The Council is aware of this and so is looking to have another date when its official acts of recognition and distinction are to be held. This may end up being 24 April, which is the date when the Council was constituted in 1979. Although PSOE and Podemos voted in favour of 31 December, both had in fact pressed for 24 April to be the new date.
The Partido Popular, meanwhile, has suggested that it will change the date back to 12 September when it is next in power.
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