Celestí Alomar has died at the age of 76, leaving a great void, like an era. He did and was many more things, but he will be remembered as the counselor who implemented the ecotax in the Balearic Islands. He did this during his time as Minister of Tourism of the first government of the Pacte de Progrés, a government that had to endure the fiercest criticism during its existence—from adversaries, but also from those closest to him—and which now, twenty-five years later, many value and miss, and rightly so. The first Pacte de Progrés of the Balearic Islands governed from 1999 to 2003. In a short time, the deaths of President Francesc Antich and Vice-President Pere Sampol, and now Counselor Celestí Alomar, represent the premature disappearance of three key people in the recent political history of the country. I write "premature" because, although all three were around or over seventy years old, the death of those who truly work for the common good is always premature.The Pacte de Progrés was the first progressive government that the Balearic Islands had and it was a pioneer in many things, both there and in the Spanish state. The ecotax that Celestí Alomar promoted was ahead of its time in uniting tourism policies with serious environmental policies. Alomar understood this tax as a tool for self-government and social cohesion. It earned him a fatwa, a war with hoteliers, an economic sector with pretensions more of a caste than a lobby. In recent years I have had the pleasure of conversing a few times with Celestí Alomar and hearing him explain how one of those hoteliers chased him up the steps of the Consolat de Mar shouting at him: “Don't think you'll work in the Balearics again! Forget about it!” He told it laughing, because Celestí Alomar was a master of irony and good humor. A geographer by training, he had professionalized in tourism and did not renounce it, but he argued, in words and in writing, that tourism needs limits to prevent touristification, that is, massification and speculation. He pointed out that excessive dependence on an industry like tourism leads to an economic model crisis, which is where the Balearics and a large part of the Mediterranean are currently.A historic socialist, he was one of the founders of the PSI (later PSM, currently within the Més coalition) and then went on to join the PSIB-PSOE, from which he resigned in response to the approval of Article 155. He always thought and spoke freely, and at the same time remained loyal to a progressive mindset based on two inalienable ideas: common good and social justice. He did not want the creation of wealth to stop, what he wanted was for it to be distributed in favor of the community, of society. Good public services for citizens: this was his idea of country, of homeland. His legacy is that of reason over force, and that of strength (of will, of thought) in the service of reason. As the director of Ara Balears , Jaume Perelló, told me, it may sound like a cliché but there are no longer people like that in politics.

Pedro Sánchez has also returned to work, and the mainstream right-wing media headlines are charging him the bill for his holidays in the form of apocalyptic polls (for the PSOE), in which the socialists are losing everything and the sum of PP and Vox —their own propagandists already consider the sum a done deal, which until recently the PP was still trying to hide— exceeds 200 deputies in Congress. Well. Perhaps so. We have already seen these same polls, in one medium or another, or in several (but always the same ones) at other times. In the general elections of 2023, in which Sánchez ended up renewing his position as president of a coalition government. Or in the Catalan elections of 2017, when they put a photo of Inés Arrimadas with headlines that said "Presidenta".Well, we'll see. The Spanish right knows a lot about making a fuss and stirring up trouble, as has been seen throughout this August due to the migratory/humanitarian/political crisis in Ceuta. The Spanish government has made it easy for them, with a slow and cumbersome management of the situation, and even offering the spectacle of ministers disagreeing in public, as has happened with Robles and Marlaska. The government's tactic seems to have been to maintain a tone of calm and normality so as not to echo catastrophic voices, and incidentally protect Sánchez from burning himself out with the crisis by putting ministers in the firing line, but it hasn't gone well. However, surely the worst for Sánchez and his government is that they feel their hands are tied by the Moroccan government and are forced to emphasize the idea —which any observer with the naked eye realizes is false— that the Alawite regime has nothing to do with the mess. Quite the contrary, it is obvious that it is the direct cause, although it then makes gestures to make it seem like it is also part of the solution. But the call for massive entry was organized by someone, and someone also gave orders for there to be hardly any surveillance by the Moroccan police on the day of said massive entry. Not to mention the evidence that a move like this aligns perfectly with the anti-Europeanism of Trumpism and Israel, and also with that of Russia. What Mohamed VI (personally) gets out of it we don't know, but it is not out of place to suspect that he gets something out of it. And the same goes for his heir, Mulai Hassan.In his interview this Monday on SER, Sánchez underlined the “civic behaviour” and the “social and coexistence commitment” of the citizens of Ceuta. He is right here, because the majority is indeed like that. Those who go to burn immigrant camps and take to the streets or infest the networks with messages of hate are the minority, no matter how much they inflate polls. They are a minority and they are losers, including those who join in from Catalonia, and from the Balearic Islands. When we talk about welcoming, they come out with a question: “How many immigrants do you have at home?” It is a phrase as obtuse as “What does your ID card say?” or “Boys have penises and girls have vulvas.” This is their level and we must not allow them to drag us down to it.

“Operation Economic Outcast” is the catchy title that Trump and his administration have chosen to call their plan of economic strangulation against Iran, which was announced last week and which the world has received with a global raising of eyebrows. Many call it “Operation Economic Fury,” in ironic allusion to the pompous “Operation Epic Fury” that according to Trump was supposed to bring hell down upon the ayatollahs' regime. It is true that in the first offensive, the US and Israel managed to assassinate the supreme leader Ali Khamenei in a bombing. But then the regime managed to withstand the blow and Mojtaba Khamenei, son of the deceased, has turned out to be a supreme leader with a fanatical determination as tough as his father's (we recently read in the New Yorker that his government hires foreign assassins to liquidate critics of the regime scattered around the world). It has been fifteen days this Monday since the sixty days that the US and Iran had given themselves in June to “end the war” ended, according to a so-called memorandum of understanding of fourteen points, of which not a single one has been fulfilled. Trump's Gulf War has been a failure, and the attempt to tighten the noose on Iran through economic blockade sounds like a tantrum and a gesture of desperation. More so, when the so-called "Economic Pariah Operation" —which includes a block of sanctions against countries that have commercial relations with Iran— depends almost entirely on China's stance, a buyer of 90% of Iranian oil, and Beijing has already made it clear that its response could be harsh if the US "representatively extends" its threats against Chinese companies trading with Iran. Awaiting a new meeting between Trump and Xi Jinping, the possibility that the American president's intemperance will open a new confrontation with the other great world economy is viewed negatively by everyone. Also by the American electorate, tired of having fuel and the cost of living through the roof as a direct consequence of Trump's foreign policy, as belligerent and expansive as it is erratic and, ultimately, counterproductive.A year ago Trump boasted about having ended seven or eight wars (depending on the day) and went on an endless rant asking to be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. He didn't get it, but he did manage to have his mistress in Venezuela, María Corina Machado, bring it to him as a gift. As of today, the orange pachyderm's arrogance has subsided a bit, and he faces — now, in November — midterm elections that could cost him control of Congress. Such a blow could have interesting repercussions for Trumpists worldwide: including the Spanish enthusiasts of Trump, PP, and Vox, who face the last year of their term as a kind of springboard to propel them to an electoral victory that, in their opinion, was snatched from them in 2023. But an electoral setback for Trump could also have a revulsive effect in Europe and Latin America.

The “he who can do, let him do” well understood begins with oneself, and according to this evidence, former Spanish President José María Aznar has materialized in Ceuta, where he had not returned since 2004, with the sole purpose of intensifying the tension and further weakening Pedro Sánchez and his government: indeed, Aznar himself has repeatedly pointed to the current Spanish government as the cause of an unprecedented institutional crisis, in the face of which all means are legitimate. It is curious, on the other hand, that he too has ended up doing like other leaders of the Spanish extreme right and far-right (it's not a play on words, or not only): imitating their own agitators. Thus, Aznar goes to Ceuta to put on a show, like a Vito Quiles or an Alvise Pérez. This tactic of appearing in sensitive places to carry out clumsy provocations became a common political tool of Albert Rivera and Inés Arrimadas's Ciutadans, and is part of the toxic legacy that that far-right formation (it was nothing else) left within Catalan and Spanish politics.Speaking of legacies, it somehow makes sense for Aznar to go to Ceuta, if only to close a circle he opened there twenty-four years ago with the campaign for the sovereignty of the Perejil Island. That episode was labeled grotesque at the time by many voices, because it undoubtedly was. But it was the same kind of grotesque that we now consume by the spoonful: that of Spanish-style constitutional patriotism, an elegant way of calling lifelong ultranationalism, today turned into a political space shared/contested by PP and Vox, as well as a vast collection of civil entities that raise the flag (constitutional or not) and also their arms and faces to the sun with renewed energy. The pioneer of this return of the most rancid Spanish right was Aznar, first from the government and then from FAES, an artifact halfway between a lobby and a think tank that has been building the discourse and doctrine of the hardest Spanish nationalism over the last quarter of a century. A part of the PSOE also gravitates towards it (starting with another former president, Felipe González; it is curious that investigations into the activities and assets of former Spanish presidents have started with Zapatero and not with Aznar or González, nor Rajoy), and the main message is clear: when it comes to Spain (which for all these people means a system of personal enrichment), there are no jokes. When Aznar began to claim unabashedly Spanishness, to put flags everywhere and to go to joke wars like the one over Perejil or real ones like the one in Iraq, he could not imagine that a wave of the far-right would come across the West that would give a thousand horsepower to his ideas. But the wave has come, and he and his circle have enthusiastically ridden it. Aznar goes to Ceuta to proclaim the pride of the heirs of those who won the Civil War, and to make it clear that they are willing to win it again (and blame the defeated for it).

The intolerable episode of police brutality that occurred in Elche, when some police officers beat up a Barça supporter who was carrying an Estelada, has made it possible to confirm – without surprise, it must be said – that some fellow citizens get indignant with more or less intensity depending on the autonomous community from which the victim of police violence comes. Or depending on the flag they raise.It was just a month ago that more than twenty people were injured as a result of police brutality – entirely unjustified and disproportionate – against the massive demonstration in Palma protesting against tourism, speculation and overcrowding. And a few months ago, during the also massive, and admirable, mobilizations of Valencian teachers in defense of public schools and education in Valencian, a teacher was brutally assaulted by a police officer who made her fall face down on the ground with a push from behind. Some of those who are now exclaiming and indignant – with every right, moreover – about the police assault on a young Barça fan who was carrying an estelada did not find any reason to say anything about the cases of police brutality in Mallorca or the Valencian Country. On the contrary, some consider that we Mallorcans and Valencians deserve it, with the astounding argument that the PP (or the PP plus Vox) win the elections in these communities. As if to say: For them, among the victims of police violence there are classes. A Valencian teacher (retired, moreover) who defended public school and in Catalan: bah. Mallorcan demonstrators, activists and journalists protesting against housing speculation, environmental destruction and overpopulation: pse. Young Barça fan with an Estelada: attack against freedoms, historical grievance and national hero. Some of those who make these distinctions then usually also make great patriotic proclamations and give lessons –never asked for– about the country.The police officers who beat people are not that picky, and they themselves are clear about whom they beat and why. In all cases, police forces – and, around them, political and media powers (and judicial ones, when convenient) – hide behind a fierce corporate defense of violent police officers. They also resort to the tactic of perverting roles and presenting the victim as the aggressor and the aggressor police officer as the victim. There is no shortage of police unions, which stoke tension in accordance with a very specific and recognizable political ideology, that of the Spanish nationalist far-right. Faced with all this, however, some find that full consideration as victims should be reserved for some and not granted to others. It is strange behavior, which occurs in the distance between being a victim and exercising victimhood.

We must not lose sight of the unfortunate project to convert Ausiàs March's family crypt into a jacuzzi, which we already discussed here. The remains of the poet's family rest in the monastery of Sant Jeroni de Cotalba, in the Valencian region of Safor, and the complex is an architectural jewel of exceptional heritage, historical, and cultural value. However, the Alfauir City Council wants to move forward with its Special Plan for the Protection of the Northern Sector of the town, which is more of a plan for touristification and exploitation than protection, and which foresees, among other things, housing a hotel establishment with a spa within the monastery of Sant Jeroni de Cotalba. Doing so would not only be a desecration of the legacy of one of the most important European poets of the 15th century (a Valencian from Gandia who wrote his work in Catalan), but also a serious attack on the landscape and culture of a particularly sensitive area of the Valencian Country.There is one thing that can be done to stop it: submit allegations against the project. Everyone can do it, including you who are reading this article. The most effective way is through the website of the literary society Saforíssims (Saforissims.org), which provides instructions for submitting allegations. It takes less than ten minutes, the deadline is August 31st, and it is an excellent way to go further in civic activism than just complaining on social media. By the way, if you don't know them, you will have the opportunity to get in touch with Saforíssims, one of the most restless and interesting literary groups in the Catalan Countries.Social pressure (in the street, but also through administrative and, if necessary, judicial channels) is effective, even if some deny it. The feeling of impunity, of not receiving a response or resistance, is what often encourages bad rulers to commit aggressions against culture and the environment in favor of not at all hidden interests: behind the upheaval that the Alfauir City Council proposes to carry out, there is a hospitality company specialized in the gentrification of emblematic places, and therefore, there is also a dollar to be made. We live in times when saviors of the homeland dedicate themselves to trying to scare people by denouncing great dangers to the country, to see if they can thus scrape up a few votes through the easy path of blaming immigrants (the poor, the black; we will insist on this quite a bit). However, great destruction often comes from nearby, from within: from rulers who do not work to care for and protect but to damage and speculate; who do not seek the prosperity of society, but easy money for a few; who try to justify their abuses and outrages with excuses and lies; rulers like those in Alfauir (who, incidentally, are from Compromís) are the ones who most often do harm and do not repair it. But we citizens also have the right and the ability – the power, if you will – to do something about it. Let's submit allegations (it's a moment!) and defend Sant Jeroni de Cotalba.

Putin has completed twenty-six years in power this year (he did so in May). He was the second president of Russia, and is its fourth, and for two consecutive terms he and his loyal Dmitri Medvedev alternated as president of Russia and as prime minister. President of Russia is the position that was created to replace that of the president of the Supreme Soviet, the highest Russian authority during the years of the USSR. It was held, in the early years, by the dipsomaniac Boris Yeltsin, and then always by Putin, directly or through his puppets: first Medvedev and now Mikhail Mishustin, who serves as prime minister once Putin has ensured (via the 2020 Constitutional reform, known as the "reset counter" reform) that he can continue as president until 2036. How did he do it? He restarted the count of his terms with a law that "erased" the previous two. In this way, he has maintained the limitation of two presidential terms, but in practice he has added two more (of six years each) because the first two stopped counting.To remain in power, he needs to win the elections, but the tendency of his opponents to die prematurely and in circumstances as appalling as they are enigmatic is well known. Journalists like Anna Politkovskaya, Natalia Estemirova, or Paul Klebnikov, exiled magnates like Boris Berezovsky or his collaborator Alexander Litvinenko, the mercenary Yevgeny Prigozhin, or political leaders like Boris Nemtsov or Alexei Navalny form the list of the most prominent figures allegedly murdered by Putin's regime. Beyond these famous names, the victims of political repression in Putin's Russia number in the tens of thousands, including journalists, activists, writers, politicians, etc.Of these twenty-six years, it has been four and a half years since Putin gave the order to invade Ukraine, while in the West it was still being said that he would not dare. In 2022, Putin claimed that the war would be short and that he was carrying it out with the aim of “desnazifying” Ukraine, an argument that neither Putin himself remembers anymore. The war has generated hundreds of thousands of deaths on both sides and millions of displaced people and refugees, and for now, there is no end in sight. But the invasion (this one really is) and the war in Ukraine have become geostrategic actors that no longer cause surprise or scandal, but are fully normalized within European politics. Like Putin himself, who for a quarter of a century has committed crimes, violations, and breaches of international law in the face of the passivity of the West, underpinned by all sorts of economic, energy, and logistical interests. Europe has begun in recent years a night that will be long and extremely hot (due to climate change and violence), surrounded by howling wolves. It would be good if at some point someone thought about how Europe itself, instead of trying to fight the wolves that now harass it, has dedicated itself to feeding them.

It is clear that our society is largely made up of white people who feel, let's say, uncomfortable living with people of other colors or skin tones. Good people, no doubt, who are alarmed when they go out on the street and find that their neighborhood, or town, has been "filled" - that's their perception - with people of gradually darker pigmentation. The presence of these people makes them feel insecure, even more so if they are poor. This has a name: it is called xenophobia or racism, and also aporophobia. Aporophobic is not a word used in a derogatory sense, but racist or xenophobic is, and for this reason racists get very angry when they are called that. Being many, on the other hand, makes racism cease to be considered anomalous and become a normal, even banal, stance. Many would not go out to chase illegal immigrants through the streets, but they are bothered by an immigrant being ahead of them in the doctor's waiting room. Or that their children have to share classrooms with the children of these immigrants.Consequently, political options based on racism, xenophobia and aporophobia (from people arriving from outside, also from different ethnicities and religions, but with money, they never complain) are multiplying. In Spain, an absolutely electoral course begins and the Popular Party, in the words of Feijóo, has adopted the anti-immigration discourse of the hardest far-right: it already demands mass expulsions including minors, a demand that goes directly against the law – Spanish and European – and which has unsettled the barons of the PP: thus, while in Extremadura María Guardiola and her government speak of “complying with the law”, in Andalusia the moderate Moreno Bonilla gets bogged down in abstruse disquisitions to justify his submission to the government partners of Vox. The request to expel minors is not characteristic of any liberal center-right party, as Feijóo and his PP insist on presenting themselves. Quite the contrary, the neo-Nazi Alternative for Germany could sign it without problems, which by the way is about to achieve a victory in the elections of the state of Saxony-Anhalt on September 6, which would mean a very hard blow and a regression to the worst moments of its history for both Germany and the entire European Union.Obviously, what happens in Spain and Europe will influence Catalan politics, which is not entering an electoral year but a pre-electoral one. Junts, with statements from its general secretary, Jordi Turull, has distanced itself from the far-right and racist Aliança Catalana with a commendable forcefulness. However, within Junts' circle, there are quite a few voices in favor of normalizing AC within the Catalan political system and reaching agreements with it. They justify this by appealing to the need to confront the onslaught of Vox and PP, an ultra-Spanishist bloc that until now they said was a scarecrow but which is now starting to frighten them. They forget, however, that AC does not add up with Catalan independence: it adds up with PP and with Vox, especially with the latter.

Within Homer's Odyssey, one of the most beautiful characters – allow me to put it that way— is Eumaeus, or Eumeos, depending on the different versions (it is fascinating work, which obviously does not belong here, the comparative reading between the magnificent Catalan translations of the Homeric poem: that of Carles Riba, that of Joan Francesc Mira, and the recent one by Pau Sabaté, which do not confront each other, but rather add to and complement each other). Eumaeus is the swineherd of Ulysses or Odysseus, to whom he has remained loyal during his twenty-year absence. Along with Penelope and Telemachus, Eumaeus is the only one who still believes that Ulysses will one day return to Ithaca. He is the first to recognize him, but first he welcomes him into his home, convinced that he is a poor old man wandering without a home, without direction, and without identity. Eumaeus barely asks him questions; he sees someone in need and shares what he has with him: shelter, food, and a place to spend the night under cover. It seems little, but it is a lot: it is human dignity. In one of the most memorable passages of the Odyssey, Eumaeus converses with his guest and informs him of the misfortune of Ithaca and the difficult situation in which Penelope finds herself, cornered by a multitude of greedy, cunning, and parasitic suitors. He also tells him his own story: Eumaeus himself was of royal blood, son of Ctesius, king of the island of Syros. However, a slave girl handed Eumaeus over, when he was still an infant, to some pirates, who sold him as a slave to Laertes, Ulysses' father. Since then he has been the palace swineherd (the "divine swineherd," in one of the Homeric epithets associated with him), and his lofty origin serves as a reflection of Ulysses' own destiny, who left for the Trojan War as a king and warrior and returns to Ithaca, twenty years later, as an old beggar, dispossessed and uprooted, whom everyone presumes dead. Everyone except those who still love him. Eumaeus's intervention is one of the most delicate parts of the Odyssey. If you want to see a good film adaptation (without judging Christopher Nolan's, which I haven't seen yet), the 2024 film The return, directed by Uberto Pasolini and starring Ralph Fiennes, Juliette Binoche, and Claudio Santamaria as Ulysses, Penelope, and Eumaeus, respectively, is well worth it.

The Spanish right wing lives in anticipation of some catastrophe that will bring down Sánchez's government. They have been like this for eight years, and it's not that opportunities have been lacking: pandemic, wars, crises, natural disasters caused by fire and water, etc. There is also the corruption of the PSOE, which exists, but here they have the problem of the corruption of the right wing itself, which exists to a greater extent because it is structural. And finally there is immigration, which serves this type of right-wing to stir up hatreds, fears, and base instincts. With the crisis driven last week by Mohamed VI, halfway with Trump and Netanyahu, PP and Vox thought their opportunity had finally arrived, especially when some European countries appeared (ultraconservative Finland and the Italy of the fascist Meloni) that cried out to the heavens and even spoke of closing the Schengen area (which, by the way, is impossible, as no member state of the European Union can do it unilaterally). However, once again it did not quite work out for them. Some paid agitators, like Vito Quiles or Alvise Pérez, had to be escorted out of Ceuta by the police (in other places, like Palma, instead of protecting them, the agents prefer to beat citizens). Abascal, acting as a glorious admiral aboard a passenger ferry that he tried to pass off as a war frigate, managed to lose the patience even of the ultra Jiménez Losantos, who reproached him for his lack of patriotism. On the PP's side, the comic duo formed by Tellado and Feijóo has once again stammered their catastrophic discourse, which is already predictable and routine. Finally, Marlaska attended the meeting with the other European Interior ministers, and instead of a scolding, he managed to get general support.Faced with this failure, they have moved on to the second phase of the plan, which consists of initially resisting the reception of the quota of minors rescued in Ceuta corresponding to each autonomous community. The communities governed by the PP, many of them together with Vox, wanted to close themselves off in advance to receiving these minors (although they will eventually comply with the law, as they are also obliged to do so). Junts is added to this, which once again threatens Sánchez with withdrawing all support if he decides to send immigrant minors to Catalonia. It is the right wing that refuses to welcome, with a supposed discourse of protection of its own national integrity, or territorial, or whatever it may be, but which in reality is only a discourse of xenophobia and aporophobia, the hatred of the poor. In the case of Junts, it is somewhat pitiful to see them wallowing in this quagmire — so disrespectful of Pujol's thinking, which was always open to immigration — just to compete with the little fascists with espadrilles and carquinyolis from Aliança Catalana. As for Europe, the absence of a democratic right-wing leader like Merkel, who eleven years ago opened Germany to nearly a million people, mostly fleeing the war in Syria, is intensely felt. What a decline, in these eleven years, for the European right wing.

While the interior ministers of the European Union are meeting telematically to discuss the tightening of border controls, this news appears, which you can read in Ara Balears: seventeen people have died trying to reach Mallorca in a makeshift boat, after two weeks adrift. Salvamento Marítimo found two people inside the boat, malnourished and dehydrated, who before being admitted to Son Espases hospital were able to report that there were nineteen people on board. All the others had died. These seventeen deaths are added to the more than five hundred so far this year on the migratory route that attempts to reach the Balearic Islands from Algeria. It is one of the main entry routes for immigrants into the Western Mediterranean, and also one of the most dangerous.When we talk about migration, we are talking about this, about poor people dying drowned at sea, or of thirst and hunger. Whether mafias are the ones who brought them there, or governments that encourage their own citizens to go to their deaths, as we have seen these days, does not exempt First World countries from the political and moral duty to help these people, to welcome them, and to have foreseen all the mechanisms that civilization, democracy, and wealth allow in the service of an objective superior to any other: to recognize, restore, and protect their dignity as people. Before the mafias and depraved governments, the force that pushes these people is desperation, pure and simple. They assume the risks, the scams, and the humiliations because they know that here, in Europe, a relatively few kilometers from their villages devastated by corruption, living conditions are better. And they are: objectively, we are better off here. Let's prove it: let's develop migratory policies based on the civilizing and inalienable principle of human dignity. It is from this principle that the institutions of the post-World War II world order were built, starting with the United Nations and the European Union. It is these institutions and the world order that the great authoritarian powers – the USA and Russia – now want to dismantle, with the help of smaller but equally criminal governments like Israel or Morocco. That the European Union approved less than two months ago a pact on migration that includes the imprisonment of immigrants in prisons (they call them "centers") in non-EU countries is worse than a shame: it is a defeat. It is the European Union proclaiming to the world that it is incapable of being itself. That it is preparing for dismantling. Returning to the Balearic route, the local government of PP and Vox says it is "overwhelmed" by the eleven thousand people who have arrived in dinghies from January 2025 to July 2026. They are not, however, overwhelmed by the twenty million tourists who are destroying the islands during this tourist season. No, saying this is not do-goodism, nor wokism nor demagoguery: demagoguery is using migration crises to try to scrape votes by stoking discourses of hatred and racism.

According to data released by the Balearic Government, the support of the citizens of the Balearic Islands for public schooling in Catalan continues to be very widely in the majority. Overwhelming, if we prefer similar adjectives. In Mallorca, 81.85% have chosen to enroll their children in schools in Catalan. In Menorca, 89.7% of families have done so, and in Formentera, 82.45%. The exception to the general trend has been Ibiza, where only 53.28% of families have chosen Catalan, compared to 46.71% who have chosen Spanish.The total in the Balearic Islands as a whole has been 78.57% of favorable votes for Catalan, although this percentage does not represent reality accurately enough, because it is necessary to differentiate between the results from Eivissa and those from the rest of the islands. Naturally, results need to be improved everywhere: normality would be a percentage of 90% or higher in favor of Catalan on each of the islands. Even so, taking into account the demographic revolution that the Balearic Islands have experienced in the last 25 years (which requires careful study, not with prejudice or broad strokes) and the strong pressure against the use of Catalan exerted by Spanish nationalism, not only through politics but also through tourism as the sole dish of economic activity, certain media, and networks, these are reasonably good results. Not to contemplate them and congratulate ourselves, but to urgently get to work to reinforce the use of the native language of the Balearic Islands in their own territory. The case of Eivissa is the most difficult and, for that very reason, does not need defeatism or sterile apocalyptic messages (and almost always interested ones), but full support for the people of Eivissa who work in favor of Catalan in a more than meritorious way on a daily basis.For three years, this government, presided over by Marga Prohens, has given parents the "freedom" to choose the language of schooling for their children. This is what remains of a linguistic segregation plan that, at the insistence of Vox and with the approval of the PP, intended to separate students by language and thus create a social fracture with public schools as the scene of confrontation. A socially undesirable separation of students into "mallorquinites" (locals), "forasterets" (outsiders), and "immigrantets" (little immigrants), so as not to have to share classrooms with certain people (there are, it seems, those who propose this same thing for Catalonia). The plan in question was fully rejected by the educational community of the Balearic Islands, but the "freedom of choice" has remained and yields similar results each year. Some say that the PP is fine with it, because in this way it satisfies its Vox partners without everything translating into any notable change in practice. We must think that this is not the case, because if it were, we would be facing the most absurd and stupid educational policy imaginable, which would degrade public schools through gestures without content or meaning. And the rulers of the Balearic Islands would not engage in such a policy. We are sure of that.

It is opportune to recall that Morocco, as a political regime, is an authoritarian monarchy – a dictatorship – and that the current monarch, Mohamed VI, besides being an eccentric millionaire, has also proven to be a business shark, much more ambitious and greedy, and also more skillful, than his father, Hassan II, a bon vivant who got along very well with Juan Carlos I. Mohamed VI (and now also his heir, Mulai Hassan, who each day assumes more power, due to the absences and health problems of his father) has gotten down to business, and possesses a fortune that Forbes calculates to be over 5,000 million euros, the first in Morocco and the fifth on the African continent. The Alaouite monarch is richer, for example, than the British one. Just in terms of known official residences, Mohamed VI owns twelve palaces with more than a thousand servants that cost more than a million euros each day. Needless to say, these are, from his perspective, merely current expenses. With all this, it means that we are talking about a deeply corrupt regime that intends to perpetuate itself. A royal lineage from which hangs the vast and powerful investment fund Al Mada, which controls key sectors such as banking, mining, agriculture, telecommunications, and distribution.The Alawite regime uses its country's resources for its own benefit, starting with its geostrategic situation and the Moroccan population itself (more than eighty deaths in this latest crisis in Ceuta). It should not be forgotten that the geopolitical maneuvers of this regime are directly linked to the enrichment of the royal family and its extensive network of partners, accomplices, propagandists, and flatterers. For this reason, as Tesh Sidi (a Sumar deputy born in a Sahrawi refugee camp) has recalled, migratory crises like the current one or the one in 2021 cannot be understood without the triangulation of interests between Morocco, Israel, and the US. With Spain playing the role of a pawn that goes from colonization to the recognition of the Moroccan autonomy plan for Western Sahara, the hardest and lowest moment of Pedro Sánchez's foreign policy.Even harder and lower because it has served no purpose. Morocco continues to use migratory crises as a tool to destabilize Europe through Spain whenever it suits them, which strengthens xenophobic or populist discourses such as those advocated by Vox and, in their own way, the PP. One only needs to see a recent interview with Abascal in which he emphasizes that Morocco “is not the enemy,” contrary to what has been traditionally preached. Solutions? Few. As diplomat Joan Manuel López Nadal has said, one possibility for the Spanish state, in the long run, is to decolonize Ceuta and Melilla (and ask, in return, for the decolonization of the Sahara by Morocco), but this, indeed, would be major words. A lesson? As Cristina Mas wrote in an analysis in this newspaper, “we have known for a long time that it is not a good idea to subcontract a regime without democratic guarantees to monitor your borders, and now it is being demonstrated again”.

The saying that some news is better understood when placed side by side sometimes works. For example, it is a fact that the Community of Madrid has purchased, through a public company, a nearly 500-square-meter penthouse in one of Madrid's most luxurious areas. This purchase, valued between four and six million euros, was made without public bidding and was not budgeted for anywhere. The response from the president, the inevitable Ayuso, has been to play the victim once again (she stated she is once again the victim of a "smear campaign"). She also offered a kind of explanation according to which this luxury penthouse will be an "office" where "institutional meetings can be held temporarily" while renovations are carried out on another building, and that it is not clear if she will have to use it. On the same day, Ayuso announced that they were opening a section on the Community of Madrid's website to "safely channel donations for the reconstruction of the Sierra Oeste," and the next day, the Community made the astonishing announcement that they will now sell the penthouse in question "to help those affected by the fires": neither is public money managed like this, as if it were a child's game, nor are citizens necessarily idiots. "Reconstruction," by the way, is the word used by the Generalitat Valenciana to administer, also with notable opacity, the funds intended to repair the damage from the storm of October 29, 2024. Still in Mazón's time, the Generalitat's coffers received twelve million euros in donations from citizens who wanted to contribute to this cause, of which nothing more has ever been heard. There is no news that either Mazón or Ayuso have had to appear before the courts for the very alleged corruption surrounding them.On the contrary, it is another known fact that, despite the forceful ruling of the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) in favor of the amnesty law, and despite having granted a handful of more technical amnesties in homeopathic doses, the Spanish Supreme Court refuses to grant amnesty to the political leaders of the Procés for a crime of embezzlement that has only existed in the imagination of the accusers and the magistrates who convicted them. The call for a referendum on self-determination was part of the electoral program of the parties that formed a fully legitimate and democratic Government, and with the expenses to carry out this referendum, it has not been proven that anyone profited from it. Furthermore, the then Minister of Finance, Cristóbal Montoro, stated that "not a single cent of public money" had been spent on "the Chinese ballot boxes". By the way: the so-called Montoro case, a major corruption scandal in which the Tax Agency and the Ministry of Finance would have been used to commit extortion and other crimes, has seen the judge extend its investigation by six more months this week, a speed inversely proportional to the gravity of the case. As we were saying: sometimes, putting news side by side helps to understand it better.

Police officers who hit demonstrators in non-violent and legitimate mobilizations – such as the massive protest last Sunday in Palma, against overpopulation and «turistification» – do so protected by the anonymity of their helmets and badges: they are not people with a face and a name, like citizens, but rather there is a conscious effort to give the police officer who represses citizens an aspect as dehumanized as possible. This is well known, studied, and denounced. The other great instrument of concealment for the repressive police officer is corporatism. This is the foundation for the development of police accounts that, to put it mildly, clash with or contradict reality. That they lie, to put it bluntly. They know they can do it because corporatism, a kind of misunderstood and perverted camaraderie, makes it impossible for a police officer to ever dare to report the bad practices — and whoever says bad practices, says crimes and offenses — of their less exemplary colleagues.The National Police of Palma has produced a report on the events of Sunday evening in which they do the usual: victimize themselves and state that they had to resort to charges to "defend themselves" from "violent demonstrators" who caused "fear". The song of individuals who like to line up as muscular cabinets, armed to the teeth and trained for whatever may come, who claim to feel intimidated and scared to death by defenseless demonstrators who – in the case of Palma – do such fearsome things as sing La Balanguera. It is tiring, above all, because it is a lie. From the police of October 1st to those of Altsasu, including those who have been in charge of repressing pro-Palestine demonstrations with batons, they all claim to feel deep fears when they have to confront the unleashed hordes of violent demonstrators. The reality, repeated over and over again, is that the provocative, aggressive, and – if necessary – violent elements in demonstrations and other citizen protest events are the police officers themselves. This is what happened in Palma, where there were more than twenty injured, including a photojournalist who had to receive six stitches in his head. The police attacks were unjustified. And, above all, intolerable.False police reports and statements – and, when necessary, false declarations before courts by police officers and high-ranking officials – are repeated because the political leaders do nothing about it (they are afraid, these ones). The government delegate in Palma, Alfonso Rodríguez, is asked to resign. He should also present it due to his incompetence in having done the dirty work for the tourism businessmen and the PP and Vox Government chaired by Marga Prohens. They have achieved the objective of tarnishing a demonstration that was as powerful as it was civic, and on top of that, they can blame a socialist government delegate. They probably think they have made a masterstroke, but more or less everyone sees through them (this does not mean that the delegate must resign, of course).

After a minimal truce (we won't call it "courtesy", because that has disappeared), and as expected, the Spanish ultra-nationalist right and Spanish woman has burst out to take advantage of the disaster of the great fires (those everywhere, but especially, as expected, those besieging Madrid) to engage in demagoguery and politicking. You can read the chronicle of Roger Hernàndez Pujol in this diary.More astute and agile, Pedro Sánchez got ahead of them with a proposal: a state pact for the climate emergency, which he had shelved last year. It is true that, to counteract his perennial parliamentary weakness and face the last year of this bruised and fierce legislature, it would be very beneficial for Sánchez to lead a state pact of whatever. But it is equally true that, beyond Sánchez's political conveniences, there is no shortage of areas in great need of major agreements and long-term improvement projects: education – as we are seeing particularly starkly these days in Catalonia –, femicide, alternatives to real estate speculation and mass tourism, boosting research and development, etc. If politics had not turned into a grotesque spectacle similar to Ibai Llanos's that Mònica Planas criticizes in her article, the parties would know how to make these major pacts and, at the same time, maintain the tone and task of the opposition. But this is not the case: it is easier to follow the inertia of systematic polarization and tension, even at the cost of crashing directly into reality: it is what we know as negationism. When Sánchez brings up his proposal for a state pact for the climate emergency, he does so knowing that PP and Vox will not only not sign it, but will reject it with the usual negationist outcry. He also does it to expose them.It is not, however, a minor issue. Global warming reached 1.37 degrees above the pre-industrial era in 2025, and by 2030 it could reach the 1.5-degree increase that the 2015 Paris Agreement set as a limit. We are already suffering the consequences now, in the form of fires and extreme weather phenomena. We do not need to give in to apocalyptic imagination to understand that the lifestyle developed by the West in the last hundred years is not sustainable in the next hundred: not, at least, in the way we know it. Resources, both human and economic, will have to be dedicated to finding alternatives that are, at the same time, environmentally acceptable and do not represent a setback in people's way of life. Some, however, are clear about it: in the Balearic Islands (currently in the news), a denialist government of PP and Vox has legislated to deregulate rustic land and protected natural areas, in order to build and speculate there. The threat of the far-right is against democracy, certainly. But also against nature and people's health, in exchange for the economic benefit not of an elite (a word too prestigious), but of the usual smart alecks.

Mallorcans have, or we have, as a society, a certain reputation for being apathetic and conformist. I won't say it's not a somewhat deserved reputation, but it has a more interesting flip side. This same society also forms a country of sensible and elegant people, with a deep allergy to bad manners, rudeness, exaggerated gestures, and violence in any form. For the citizens of this country called Mallorca, there are few things less interesting than losing one's composure and irony, losing one's temper, becoming solemn or intransigent. And let's not even mention becoming aggressive: all of this, in Mallorca, is frankly frowned upon.This country, despite what some say, exists, and it manifested itself again on Sunday in a massive and exemplary way through the streets of Palma. More than 70,000 people came out to demand that good sense be applied to tourism and real estate policies. The current model is extractive and parasitic, with large profits concentrated in a few hands and a very long list of social problems that citizens/taxpayers suffer. Speculation, the impossibility for a large part of the population to access housing, the expulsion of people who literally cannot afford to live here, growing inequalities, job insecurity, premature abandonment of studies, overpopulation, coexistence difficulties, and social fracture. It was against all this that the Majorcans demonstrated this Sunday.The success of the call – by the platform Menys Turisme, Més Vida, with the support of 145 entities – materialized in a true human wave (as you can read inAra Balears) that marched through the center of Palma without insults, without tension, with a cheerful tone and impeccable civic attitude. The protest was truly historic, comparable to few in Mallorca's recent history. Faced with a mobilization of this magnitude, business owners and politicians can only do one sensible thing: get to work on the corrections they are being asked for.On the other hand, what they did was send the National Police to beat citizens. Provocations, impediments and, finally, police charges with batons and rubber bullet shots, resulting in several minor injuries and a photojournalist seriously injured in the head. An absolute and intolerable disgrace, the primary responsibility for which lies with the delegate of the Spanish government, Alfonso Rodríguez, who should indeed resign, as is demanded from all sides. The PP and Vox government should not think, however, that they benefit from this: they wanted exactly this, to be able to accuse the demonstration of being “violent”. They had been trying for weeks to disqualify and criminalize the protests, and Vice President Antoni Costa went as far as to invite those who request a reduction in tourism to “pack their bags”. On Sunday, the Majorcans set an example of dignity, and their rulers, of indignity and ineptitude. Sunday, too, something broke between the Majorcans and their institutional representatives.

The death of Joan Roca, the bassist of Antònia Font, was one of those low blows of life that fit badly. Last Saturday his friends and bandmates – Joan Miquel Oliver, Jaume Manresa, Pere Debon, Pau Debon – paid him a tribute on the last day of Mobofest, the festival born and raised in Sant Joan, in Pla de Mallorca. It wasn't just any concert, nor is Mobofest just any festival. Mobofest celebrated its tenth edition this year, which will have been its last, because it is a festival that was born with a very well-defined spirit (collaborative, non-profit, understanding culture as a form of coexistence, knowledge, collective improvement) and despite the impressive success it has had in each of its editions, it has managed never to deviate from this foundational spirit. When Mobofest began, Antònia Font was already a star band, and they bet on this small festival because they felt a full affinity for it. Joan Roca wanted to do this concert one way or another. For a few days, it was no longer possible. The tribute (a mini-concert with the enormous Bathyscaphe Katiuscas performed by the choir La Corrala; the previous day Maria Jaume offered a beautiful version ofSamurai climbers, another flagship song from the Antònia Font repertoire)will always be remembered. Mobofest too. Joan Roca too, but we would have liked him to be on stage, the tall, strong man with white hair, an indestructible smile and an inner metronome.Before the tribute to Mobofest, the premature death of Joan Roca had been news in the media.Some of the headlines had repeated a rather cliché phrase: “the discreet and reliable bassist”, they said. Discreet for sure not, and not only because his physical presence was striking. His artistic personality was also striking, and without his bass, albums that are true peaks of Catalan pop music –A Rússia, Alegria, Taxi, Batiscafo Katiuscas, Lamparetes, let me add Vostè és aquí and Un minut estroboscòpica– would not sound as they do, nor would the more than a thousand concerts the group has offered in the years Joan Roca has been its bassist, from 2000 until now. Joan Roca was a bit more than reliable: he possessed a talent and musical knowledge as inexhaustible as his ability to improve the lives of the people he loved."Things aren't easy for anyone / inside this igloo", says the lyrics of one of the many hits by Antònia Font, songs that make you smile but also tend to carry a touch of melancholy, as with good pop songs. Now things will be a little less easy, without Joan Roca. I know it's basic and whatever you want, but every time a good, brilliant, talented person who loved life and made it better for others dies prematurely, I can't help but think of the overwhelming list of boring and dangerous scoundrels who overwhelm us every day. I think Joan Roca would have agreed.

Zapatero granted an interview to TVE to give explanations, as far as he is willing to give them for reasons of procedural strategy. It is legitimate: he is the first former Spanish president to be judicially investigated, and he is so on important charges, such as criminal organization, influence peddling, and document forgery.

The Town Hall of L'Alcúdia de Crespins, in the Valencian region of La Costera, has decided to remove the name of the writer Isabel-Clara Simó, who died in 2020, from the local secondary school. According to the mayor, from the PP, such an illustrious, relevant, recognized, applauded, read, and beloved author "does not represent the neighbors" because, according to him, "her idea of the Catalan Countries divides." He also says that "she was not a resident of the town," because Simó, in fact, was from Alcoi. Let's be precise, master. It is true that Isabel-Clara Simó was a citizen of the Catalan Countries and a convinced independentist, but even this mayor should understand that she would also have "divided" if she had been a strong supporter of the unity of Spain, because all positions and opinions "divide." But, lo and behold, if she had been a Spanish nationalist, she would no longer have "divided." Even being born in Alcoi surely would not have been a demerit either.The mayor and his government team are falling into a true classic of municipal policy by the Popular Party, which is to try to erase the names of Catalan writers in municipalities where they govern. Joan Fuster, Vicent Andrés Estellés, Blai Bonet, Josep M. Llompart, Miquel Àngel Riera, Damià Huguet, and even Ramon Llull, to mention just a few, are authors whose names, at one time or another, have been attempted to be erased from a school, an institute, a library. Or a bust, a memorial, whatever, has been vandalized. On another level, the current Valencian Generalitat, presided over by Mazón's successor, Pérez Llorca, decided, during this past academic year, to exclude Catalan and Balearic authors from the baccalaureate curriculum, with the utterly stupid argument that "they are not Valencian" and "they do not write in Valencian." All of this is always about the same thing: denying any form of recognition or visibility to writers who are part of their blacklists, and – even more seriously – promoting misinformation and ignorance of Catalan literature among public school students (in private and subsidized schools, they already ensure that "what is appropriate" is taught). It is part of the same offensive against the Catalan language and public education that occurs with PP and Vox governments, both in the Valencian Country and in the Balearic Islands. Isabel-Clara Simó was a successful writer and a particularly distinguished figure of her generation, as well as a tireless defender of the language, culture, and independence of the Catalan Countries. Also a feminist writer, left-wing ("fiery red") and environmentalist, who always spoke out in favor of diversity and minorities. The decision to remove her name from an institute has nothing to do with the excuses given by this insignificant mayor, but is political and ideological. I had the honor of being a friend of Isabel-Clara Simó, and I dare to say how she would react to news like this: she would laugh, let out a curse or two, and remember that if they are like this, it means we are doing well. She worked, she never cried.