Councillor changed his mind in two months

JUST two months before resigning from the Majorcan Unionist (UM) Party in Calvia, giving rise to one of the biggest political scandals in the current legislature, councillor Joan Thomàs was opposed to the council accepting responsibility for the two Santa Ponsa developments owned by the Nigorra family. It was precisely this question that led to his resignation and to his voting with the Partido Popular (PP) in favour of accepting responsibility for the developments, which means providing utilities. But the minutes of a Calvia UM party meeting of May 24 record Thomàs, who was in charge of the council's maintenance, roads and work, environment and new technologies departments, as saying “it is not very likely” that the two developments would be incorporated into the urban framework of Calvia “because it is a thorny and conflictive matter.” Going back even earlier, at a party meeting in September 2004, Thomas said that the council “was light years away from reaching an agreement with the landowners.” That was before his sudden and drastic change of heart which made him break party discipline and vote with the PP.
At the last municipal elections, the PP won ten seats, leaving it one short of a simple majority, and so it signed a pact with the UM, which had two councillors. The UM had voted against accepting the developments by ten votes to two, with four abstentions. The two votes in favour were those of Thomàs, and his right-hand man Antoni Tirado. On July 26, the UM committee in Calvia agreed that at the plenary session which would be held 72 hours later, its two councillors (Thomàs and Isidre Cañellas) would vote against ratifying the urban agreement signed a week earlier by Juan Nigorra and PP councillor Alberto Leon, even though it was known that the UM would not back the terms of the agreement, although it was prepared to negotiate. What is not known is if the PP knew that it already had Thomàs's vote.
After leaving the UM, Thomàs also announced his unconditional support for other controversial projects such as the theme park in Can Vairet and the sports centre in Pla de Ses Penyes Rotges and Sementer de Son Flor. Both the PP and UM have said that they will decide the future of their relations in September.