Miquel Ensenyat Riutort (born 30 October 1969) is a Spanish politician of the party

Més per Mallorca Més per Mallorca ( en, More for Majorca, MÉS) is a Majorcan political coalition formed by Socialist Party of Majorca (PSM), IniciativaVerds (IV) and Entesa per Mallorca (ExM), as well as some small independent, local parties around the island. It ...

. He was the mayor of

Esporles Esporles ( es, Esporlas) is a locality and Spanish municipality of the autonomous community of the Balearic Islands. Situated on the island of Majorca, around the zone of the Serra de Tramuntana. It's about 15 km from Palma de Mallorca. The to ...

(2005–2015), the president of the Island Council of

Mallorca Mallorca, or Majorca, is the largest island in the Balearic Islands, which are part of Spain and located in the Mediterranean. The capital of the island, Palma, is also the capital of the autonomous community of the Balearic Islands. The Bal ...

(2015–2019) and his party's leader in the Parliament of the Balearic Islands (2019–).

Biography

Ensenyat was born in Banbury,

Oxfordshire Oxfordshire is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in the north west of South East England. It is a mainly rural county, with its largest settlement being the city of Oxford. The county is a centre of research and development, primarily ...

, England to

n immigrants. He graduated in Social Education, and also studied theology and philosophy before moving to the town of

at the age of 24. In 2003, Ensenyat was the lead candidate of the

Socialist Party of Majorca The Socialist Party of Majorca ( ca, Partit Socialista de Mallorca, PSM; ), officially PSM–Entesa after the incorporation of Entesa per Mallorca (ExM) in February 2013, is a political party in Majorca, Spain. The PSM defines itself as socialis ...

(PSM) in the municipal elections in Esporles. They lost to the People's Party (PP), but through a

motion of no confidence A motion of no confidence, also variously called a vote of no confidence, no-confidence motion, motion of confidence, or vote of confidence, is a statement or vote about whether a person in a position of responsibility like in government or mana ...

, he became mayor in 2005, serving for a decade. In 2011, he was elected to Mallorca's Island Council as third in Més's list, and was an unsuccessful candidate in elections to the

Congress of Deputies The Congress of Deputies ( es, link=no, Congreso de los Diputados, italic=unset) is the lower house of the Cortes Generales, Spain's legislative branch. The Congress meets in the Palacio de las Cortes, Madrid, Palace of the Parliament () in Ma ...

. Ensenyat became president of the Island Council in June 2015, with the support of fellow left-wing parties the Socialist Party of the Balearic Islands (PSIB) and Podemos. In June 2018, he took 68% of the votes to be Més's candidate in the

2019 Balearic regional election The 2019 Balearic regional election was held on Sunday, 26 May 2019, to elect the 10th Parliament of the autonomous community of the Balearic Islands. All 59 seats in the Parliament were up for election. The election was held simultaneously with ...

, ahead of Fina Santiago. He was elected, while the party fell from six to four seats. Ensenyat is in favour of ensuring the civil rights of

LGBT ' is an initialism that stands for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender. In use since the 1990s, the initialism, as well as some of its common variants, functions as an umbrella term for sexuality and gender identity. The LGBT term is a ...

people, as well as defending the

Catalan language Catalan (; autonym: , ), known in the Valencian Community and Carche as ''Valencian'' (autonym: ), is a Western Romance language. It is the official language of Andorra, and an official language of three autonomous communities in eastern Spa ...

and Mallorcan culture and heritage. As a gay man and a Catholic, he wrote to bishops to denounce priests endorsing right-wing candidates. Ensenyat has been harassed and threatened over his sexual orientation.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ensenyat, Miquel 1969 births Living people People from Banbury People from Mallorca Politicians from Oxfordshire Mayors of places in the Balearic Islands Members of the Parliament of the Balearic Islands Gay politicians LGBT legislators in Spain LGBT Roman Catholics LGBT mayors of places in Spain