The Balearic Parliament has ratified this Tuesday, in plenary session, its intention to reform the Spanish Constitution so that Formentera has its own senator, a historical insular claim that takes a new step towards its realization after several years of paralysis.
The House has approved the reaffirmation of the bill to amend Article 69.3 of the Magna Carta, an initiative that was already unanimously supported in 2018, but which was stalled in Congress for seven years. The vote has had 50 votes in favor and five against (all from Vox), and four absences have been registered.
Cordoba’s momentum reactivated reform after years of blockage
The process has been reactivated this legislature through a series of steps promoted by the deputy for Formentera, Llorenç Córdoba, who included the measure in point 20 of the July 2023 investiture agreement, negotiated with the Popular Party. Since then, Córdoba has maintained a discreet but constant strategy, with parliamentary interventions and specific proposals that have allowed the procedure to be resumed.
“With the tranquility of the facts, we take a useful and necessary step to provide Formentera with the representation it deserves,” said Cordoba after the vote.
The reform seeks that Formentera can be recognized as a distinct constituency of Ibiza, with its own senator, as already happens in other islands with consell or cabildo, such as El Hierro or La Gomera. Currently, both Pitiusas share a senator through a system of substitution that has been described as “anachronistic” and “unfair” by various groups, including the PSIB.
From plenary agreement to congressional calendar
The agreement approved today ratifies in the same terms the 2018 proposal, as requested by the Presidency of Congress, and commits the Parliament to send this Wednesday, November 12, the three names of the delegation that will have to defend the reform before the Lower House. This step is essential so that the Congress can include the matter in the agenda of an upcoming plenary session.
The process has a broad political consensus, supported by all groups and non-attached deputies, except Vox. In the plenary session, not only the work of the current legislature has been valued, but also the accumulated path since 2004, when the first municipal motion was approved in Formentera claiming its own senator. The creation of the Consell Insular in 2007 reinforced the institutional legitimacy of this demand.
“This is not about asking for more; it is about ensuring what corresponds to an island with its own Consell,” said Cordoba, who argues that this measure contributes to better represent the territorial architecture of the State.
The next step will be the defense of the reform in the national parliament, once the delegation is officially communicated. The objective is to get Congress to resume the interrupted procedure and submit the reform to a vote.
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