Pollensa’s mayor and the underage drinking “tardeo”

During the fair, a ‘Tardeo’ party, replete with DJs and bands, was postponed because of meteorological concerns until last Saturday. The postponement probably didn’t make much difference to the outcome, which sees Mayor Cifre once more being taken to task by opposition parties - the mayor and the councillor for youth affairs, Mateu Soler.

Tardeo is one of those words (concepts) that has no obvious equivalent in English. Essentially, it is a gathering of people for the purpose of having some fun until the evening. You may recall that when bar opening hours were being restricted, there was at one point a specific restriction whereby bars had to close at 5pm and were then allowed to reopen at 8pm. The reason that was given for this restriction was fear of the “tardeo” - whole groups of people gathering (around 5pm) and drinking.

The hours for a tardeo, it has to be said, are something of a movable feast. Generally speaking, though, and pretty much by definition, the tardeo will end well before two in the morning. In Pollensa, however, or more specifically at Ca n’Escarrinxo, the flexibility of the hours did indeed stretch to 2am. Which is just one reason why the opposition are unhappy with Messrs Cifre and Soler.

Going on until two o’clock wouldn’t in itself have been an issue, had it not been for the fact, say the opposition, that there were no Covid measures, no controls on who could get in, no social distancing, and no mask-wearing in the marquee erected for the occasion. But more than all this was that there was underage drinking.

Kids had to be sixteen to attend this prolonged tardeo, but kids of sixteen and seventeen aren’t supposed to drink alcohol. At the tardeo, they apparently were, and Tomeu and Mateu are being blamed.

Junts Avançam say that at a time when the health authorities are studying measures to control the spread of the virus, the mayor has been organising a party. And a party, moreover, with the apparent sale of alcohol to minors. Instead of alternative and healthy policies for the age group in question, these policies are limited to a party where they serve alcohol.

This is, I suspect, stretching things a tad, as Mateu Soler and his youth affairs department no doubt do have alternative and healthy policies. But on this occasion, it would seem that they were abandoned - according to the opposition, that is.

So this is the latest controversy to raise its head at the town hall in a week when the administration has also incurred the wrath of the opposition over Tomeu’s intention to modify urban planning regulations and so facilitate the building of a hotel on pine wood land in Cala Sant Vicenç.

The next council meeting threatens to be a feisty affair, even more than usual. For the mayor, it never rains, it pours. Which it quite literally has been and continues to. The imagining of Ca n’Escarrinxo, a “fun and participative day for everyone”, as the town hall has publicised it, might require imagining it when it’s dry. As for the fun, this will be of a different order to that of the tardeo.