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Armengol secures her investiture as Més implode

Francina Armengol was smiling; there were glum Més faces. | Jaume Morey

| Palma |

Francina Armengol's investiture as president of the Balearics was approved yesterday evening. The voting, as had been expected, was 32 in her favour (out of 59) with 24 against (the Partido Popular, Ciudadanos and Vox) and three abstentions from El Pi.

The second day of the debate was almost a sideshow as the gathering turmoil within Més became ever more apparent. Nevertheless, the leader of the opposition, Biel Company of the PP, attacked the polices that Francina Armengol had set out on Wednesday.

Company was particularly scathing about the government promise to establish an observatory for housing; its function will be to monitor prices and - as Armengol had explained - to adapt prices according to the financial resources of citizens. Company wanted to know if she plans building a chiringuito beach bar in order to house this observatory.

He went on to accuse her of wanting to segregate people in neighbourhoods with the housing observatory. He called on her to show greater humility and said that she always adopts a "supremacist" attitude in parliament when, in his opinion, "the supremacy of the left is not as it seems". He wanted to know how Armengol thinks she is going to reduce cruise tourism, regulate all-inclusive and promote extraordinary measures to help with housing.

Concluding the debate, Armengol stated that she was proud of the agreements for the new government, which will act with transparency, rigour and honesty. The agreements, she observed, are not everything. They are a road map and the minimum. "There is an historic responsibility to repeat a progressive government and consolidate the policies started in 2015."

The debate became almost secondary to the crisis within Més. The day had started with the news that the party's executive committee was reconsidering the political appointments that had been made as part of the agreement for government - Miquel Ensenyat to become a senator and Fina Santiago and Vicenç Vidal to continue as social services and environment ministers respectively.

It then became clear that the three had in fact been told that the party wasn't prepared to go along with their appointments and that this had been done on Tuesday. Those who had conveyed the decision and seemingly been behind it were Bel Busquets and Guillem Balboa.

The three weren't being "punished", Busquets told the media. Other sources suggested that they were yesterday's news and that new blood was needed to revive Més following a poor performance at the election. All three were in parliament for the debate and vote - Ensenyat represented Més in the debate - but there was little hiding their feelings; Santiago in particular looked bereft.

It was later suggested that the three were seeking to drum up support and get the decisions reversed and to take the attack to Busquets and Balboa. In all, it was a most bizarre day.

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