This time next week the Balearics will be going to the polls to elect European MPs and the local ministers and councillors who will govern these islands for the next four years. Non-Spanish EU citizens can vote in the European and council elections but they can’t decide who will be the next leader of the Balearic government. Having said that, these are big elections for British citizens living in the Balearics. For British expats it is a good time to regroup after the Brexit debacle and concentrate on the place where they live and not the one they have left behind. I feel that these local elections are a golden opportunity for British citizens to get involved in local affairs.
The perception of Britain in some circles on the island is that it is a country which has turned its back on Europe and is not really interested in anything that happens south of Dover, even though more than one million British citizens live on the continent including 300,000 in Spain. If you live in Majorca, you should be interested in who is going to be your Mayor or your councillor. This is one of the reasons why we contacted the principal parties to get their candidates to give a clear message in English which hopefully will encourage more British citizens to vote. This is not a time to sit back and think of Brexit, this is the time to think about your home (Majorca) and its very future. British citizens need to send a clear message to the local authorities and the local people; the British do care about Majorca and they do care about its future. Remember that if you don’t vote, you can’t moan about who is in power.