Council signs off on gold medal and Sant Jaume distinctions

ple sant jaumeIn a special one-off plenary session held today, members of the Formentera Council unanimously moved to award the Medalla d'Or de Formentera (the gold medal of Formentera) to the island's local collective of dancers, traditional folksingers and instrumentalists as well as three premis Sant Jaume (Saint James awards) to Joan Torres Mayans, aka Joan des Moliner, the Santa Maria holidays commission and Ildefons Juan Marí.

Medalla d'Or de Formentera

CiF councillor of culture Susana Labrador spoke about the importance of the work of Formentera's collective of dancers, folksingers and instrumentalists. “With this award, we recognise this collective's work reviving, maintaining and passing down our traditional dances, songs and sonatas—that immaterial cultural heritage of the Pitiüsa Islands,” explained the councillor.

Premis Sant Jaume

In 2015, the first of three recipients of the Sant Jaume award was Joan Torres Mayans, known locally as Joan des Moliner (the miller). In the words of Councillor Labrador, the decision came from a desire “to applaud Torres not just in his profession as miller, but for his active participation in the restoration and revival of the different wind and flour mills across Eivissa and Formentera”. The Santa Maria holidays commission (Comissió de festes de Santa Maria) was also at the receiving end of the same honour “for its 25-year history defending and fighting for the social, cultural and linguistic values of Formentera as a land within the historically Catalan-speaking territories,” said Labrador. The councillor also praised the Council's third Sant Jaume honouree: Ildefons Juan Marí (1950–2011): “This award, given today posthumously, is in recognition of Juan's career as an educator, a position from which he put in place innovative learning methods and defended and promoted local Pitiüsa culture”.

Official ceremony

The president of the Formentera Council gave all those recognised his congratulations and invited the entire island to take part in the award ceremony, scheduled for next Friday 24 July at 8:30 p.m. in the cultural hall of the Council, the cinema.

Resignation of Margalida Font

Attendees of the day's plenary also made the unanimous decision to approve the resignation submitted by Margalida Font Aguiló in the her role as socialist party councillor. Font, who will keep her position as director general of the Govern Balear, cited incompatibility of functions as her motivation in abandoning her post as PSOE councillor. She is succeeded by Ana Juan Torres, also a member of the Partido Socialista.