President Armengol was back down to business today following the convulsions of PSOE's meeting in Madrid which resulted in the party's secretary general, Pedro Sánchez, resigning. She was in Formentera for a meeting with the presidents of the four island councils and government vice-president Biel Barceló.
Armengol had earlier insisted that, despite Sánchez's resignation, the party must maintain its "no" to the investiture of Mariano Rajoy as prime minister. "I don't believe that we can in any way take a decision that would be totally contrary to socialist ideology."
Among reaction from other parties, the Partido Popular's president in the Balearics, Miquel Vidal, merely said that the PP respected the internal decisions made by PSOE. He reiterated a standard PP line, which is that it is open to a "strong government" that comprises the PP, PSOE and Ciudadanos. He did, however, offer observations about the dismissal of the director of the Balearic Attorney's Office, Lluis Segura. The office should be one that is free of political interference, he stressed. His dismissal had broken the trust of the people in the government, he concluded. (Segura was dismissed for having dropped a prosecution for money laundering against former Balearic president Jaume Matas.)
Meanwhile, representatives of the two other parties of the "pact" for Balearic government with PSOE were also offering their views. Alberto Jarabo of Podemos and David Abril of Més were both assuming that PSOE's internal crisis will lead to an abstention that will allow Rajoy to continue as prime minister. There had to therefore be measures to "shield" the Balearic pact for government in the anticipation of further cuts that might be imposed by Madrid.
Jarabo described Sánchez's resignation as a victory for the "Susanistas" (a reference to Susana Díaz, the president of Andalusia). He warned that it remained to be seen whether the Balearic government would abide by "impositions" from Madrid. Abril said that more than an internal crisis for PSOE, the resignation represented a national crisis that could result in an "enemy" government in Madrid.