The presence of the PP candidate from the Balearic Islands at a meal organized by a man convicted of corruption, also from the PP, has caused a political storm on the islands with unforeseeable consequences just two months before the regional elections.
Marga Prohens, who is also a deputy in Congress, attended a lunch organized by the former general secretary of the PP of the Balearic Islands, José María Rodríguez, who is currently in the third degree of prison after a conviction for corruption.
Some 60 people attended the meal, which was held at a private home, including the PP candidate from Palma, Jaime Martínez; the general secretary of the party in the islands, Sandra Fernández, and a party deputy, among other positions. The leadership of the PP had asked that neither images of the meeting nor the content of what was discussed be leaked, something that they have not achieved. The PP already knows who has leaked the matter.
In an interview given on local television Channel 4, the candidate has indicated that it was not a "correct" decision. She has said that the food was made "with good intentions" so that a group of people would know it and she has denied that the preparation of the lists was addressed to Palma City Council. "There was no talk of lists", she has emphasized herself. "The Palma lists are made by Jaime Martínez, who has all the authority and my confidence," she insisted. The Genoa leadership has also reprimanded the candidate by assuring that the meeting was not adequate.
José María Rodríguez was general secretary of the PP with Jaume Matas and José Ramón Bauzá and has always been considered the person who mobilizes the militancy in the party, something that has earned him enormous enmities in the formation. However, the controversy with the food has not come from the fact that he lost power in the party, but from the fact that he is serving prison for corruption crimes during the Government of Jaume Matas. Right now he is in third degree prison.
Rodríguez was a government delegate in the Balearic Islands during the term of Mariano Rajoy, but had to resign due to intense rumors that he could be charged. José Ramón Bauzá used his convening capacity while he was president of the Balearic PP, but Rodríguez was forced to resign as president of the PP of Palma when it was learned that he would be accused of a scandal related to the Local Police of the Balearic capital that finally came to nothing. .
The Balearic PSOE considers the explanations given by the president of the popular of the islands insufficient and assures that it is a very serious case. The political storm comes at a time of maximum political uncertainty about what the result of the elections in the Balearic Islands may be, since the polls show very tight numbers for both the left-wing bloc led by Francina Armengol and the right-wing one led by Marga Prohens .
