“The trend at the moment is to bring out a protest banner every day.”

DEMETRIO PEÑA COLLADO is the ex-president of PIMECO, the small to medium-sized business association. Following retirement, he is intending to have “a sort of one year sabbatical, without doing anything in particular.” We asked him how much of his professional career he was willing to leave behind. l Don't you even want to go on getting the Association's magazine?
No, I stopped taking it when I left PIMEM and PIMECO. That doesn't mean I've come to a standstill; after 28 years with PIMEM, it's really left its mark on my life. It was the first few years of that particular responsibility that set me on my career path.
l Historically, the image that we have most clearly of you is holding a banner in flagrant support of keeping Parc de la Mar instead of promoting a real estate project. In those days, it was quite a daring thing to do.
Franco was still living then, but his era was drawing to a close. Unfortunately, nowadays, you can unfurl banners every day because it's an accepted trend. I get the impression we are engaging in a competition of who can come up with the strongest slogans. For example, this horrific plan to build “skyscrapers” in the area of Son Moix in Palma. That is a consequence of urban development getting out of hand as it has also done at the new Son Dureta hospital where there has been massive private land purchase. And I'm not talking about the Island Council ...
l Would you return to putting up TV screens?
Yes. We live in an age where the pace of life is forever accelerating.
Technology is playing an increasingly important role - even this little tape-recorder has a memory larger than what used to be the largest computer on the market; and of course, all large companies want air conditioning these days. Yes I would start in the same way all over again, winning national prizes for success achieved in repairing electrical household products.