Vox speaker, Gabriel Le Senne

Vox speaker, Gabriel Le Senne. | CATI CLADERA

Andrew EdePalma02/02/2024 11:36
TW
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Political parties from wherever they come are prone to factionalism. Legitimate ideological differences may be the cause, but more often than not it boils down to naked ambition for power and for self-interest. When parties are comparatively new, this dynamic can seemingly be intensified.

Spain and the Balearics have provided some fine (sic) examples over the past fifteen years or so - the now defunct UPyD; Ciudadanos, who are doing their best to disappear down the political plughole; Podemos, usurped by the hardly unambitious Yolanda Díaz in her Sumar disguise; and now Vox in the Balearics, where rebels with a cause (their own) have managed to bring both the party into disrepute and the Balearic parliament.

Immature parties in developmental terms, personal immaturity has been staggering. Yes, justifications have been offered, but what amounted to a coup when the five rebels ejected the party president and the president (speaker) of parliament from the parliamentary group looked as if they were playing at their own version of the ‘pronunciamiento’ by which the military consistently caused upheaval in Spain in the nineteenth century. No shots were fired, but these were adults waving toy guns.

Extraordinary it all was. Who could have imagined that PSOE’s Iago Negueruela would go off to a bar with the Vox speaker, Gabriel Le Senne, for a quiet chat? Political opposites, but Negueruela was one of the grown-ups left in the building, as also were members of the Partido Popular and Més, and even Le Senne himself. They were defending the integrity of parliament, and no, this wasn’t like when Xelo Huertas of Podemos was ousted as speaker; she was kicked out of the party.

What do they want? Cause another election with Vox Mark I and Vox Mark II deputies hating each others’ guts and making government even more impossible. Grow up.