What a mess, says Mes

Biel Barceló of the Més Majorcan socialists, who might be the next president of the Balearics, has admitted that arriving at a pact between the parties of the left is problematic because of the “open warfare” between PSOE and Podemos which exists at national level and which is therefore being felt in the Balearics. Barceló believes that both PSOE and Podemos have their eyes on the general election in November and so their election strategies nationally are impacting on those locally. “We have been trying to make them see that these national strategies are not what is important. We are staking the future of Majorca, Minorca, Ibiza and Formentera. Therefore, Podemos and PSOE have to forget the war between Pablo Iglesias and Pedro Sánchez.”
Barceló said that a party cannot come to the negotiating table with a definitive proposal that another party simply cannot accept. He was alluding to the fact that PSOE want their leader, Francina Armengol, to head the next government because they have more parliamentary seats, while Podemos oppose this.
At present, said Barceló, a minority government formed by PSOE and Més is not on the table, though he admitted it was a possibility. Més would prefer that there was a three-way coalition to include Podemos. He didn’t rule out there being an arrangement whereby Més and PSOE shared the presidency, i.e. one party would hold it for two years and the other party for the final two years of the administration. But, quite obviously, such an arrangement has never happened in the Balearics. Més had not placed any condition other than that a pact should be pluralist, and he was convinced that the problem will be solved so that there will be a three-party coalition government.
 He insisted that there was an “obligation” of the Balearic left to reach an agreement. Voters would not understand if this were not to be achieved, especially given the “historic” context of there being 34 deputies in parliament (more than the number needed for a majority) made up of the socialists, Més and Podemos who had been voted for after “four disastrous years” of the PP.
Barceló pointed to areas where there is agreement, such as on repealing the decree on trilingual teaching and the law of symbols. As far as an eco-tax is concerned, Barceló believes that it is “indispensable” in that it would raise some 100 million euros per annum to be spent by town halls on improving the environment. The objective would be for all tourists to pay this and so not only those staying in hotels.