Palma, May 25 (EFE) of them will become the next president of the Balearic Islands.
Socialist and Popular, the main parties in the Balearic Islands, are aware that the victory will be tight and that they will need the support of other political formations to be able to form a government. The scenario of an absolute majority like the ones enjoyed by the popular ones with Gabriel Cañellas, Jaume Matas and José Ramón Bauzá is unlikely.
Bauzá, today a MEP for Ciudadanos, achieved the last absolute majority of the PP in 2011, but in 2015 Armengol defeated him and managed to agree with Podemos and the Més eco-sovereignists to form a government.
Closing government deals is his specialty. The Socialists have never governed alone, and Armengol hopes to renew his third term with a coalition, while Prohens is running for office for the first time.
It is the first time in regional history that two women compete with options for the chair in which Armengol was the first woman to sit.
According to published polls, the socialists will need the support of Unidas Podemos and the ecosovereignists of Més to form a government.
The PP will also need the Vox contest, which intends to enter the government, although the goal desired by the popular is solo management.
It remains in the air what role formations such as Ciudadanos or Proposta per les Illes Balears (Pi) will play after 28M. It cannot be ruled out that they will become the necessary “hinge”, as Unió Mallorquina (UM) was in its day, which decided governments with only 3 deputies out of the 59 seats in the Balearic Parliament.
It could also happen that the only deputy from the island of Formentera tips the balance. All at his time.
In the political chess of the islands, the rules that to govern the Balearic Islands you have to win the capital, Palma, where a third of the population resides, are usually followed, and that whoever gets the autonomous government can also take control of the four island councils , But it’s not always like this.
In fact, currently, the councils of Mallorca, Menorca and Formentera belong to the progressive forces and only the one in Ibiza is controlled by the PP.
The two candidates have several points in common: they are women of the party, staunch defenders of their ideas, socialism and liberalism; They are from “fora vila” (from outside Palma), Armengol from Inca and Prohens from Campos; They have developed their professional lives in politics and their mother tongue is the language of the Balearic Islands, with the nuance, not small, that the socialist is identified with Catalan and the popular with Mallorcan. One looks more towards Barcelona and the other towards Madrid.
Regarding the campaign messages, the left-wing parties boast of having achieved “full employment”, of raising wages for workers, of caring for the most disadvantaged classes and of trying to control the avalanche of tourists that arrive year after year. year after year to the archipelago -quality for quantity is the motto-, although the latter have not yet specified how to do it. In addition, they will apply the Housing Law immediately.
In this matter, the PP has in its program to maintain the eco-tax, a socialist project, as a final tax, and to study the regulation of the entry of cars on each island.
It also defends the free choice of educational centers and the language of instruction, and that Catalan is a merit and not a requirement to work in hospitals and health centers. In addition, Prohens has promised a tax cut that will affect 80% of the population.
Sources from the main parties consulted by EFE point out that “everything is up in the air”, that the agreements will be unavoidable and that the undecided vote will tip the balance of one side or the other, for which they have tried during the campaign to convince this voter segment.
Javier Alonso