Prohens attacks immigrants and increases their residency requirement to three years to access aid.

PalmPresident Marga Prohens consolidated her toughened anti-immigration rhetoric in her second general policy debate. In the first session of the debate, this Tuesday, the Prime Minister once again sought to compete with Vox on the right and reinforced her criticism of newcomers, especially those arriving illegally. In this regard, she announced that she will raise the minimum residence time on the islands to three years to access various benefits. "We cannot contribute in any way to a pull effect on a migratory route that is growing exponentially," she said.

On the one hand, she will amend the Guaranteed Social Income Law to extend the terms. Furthermore, she warned that she will make receipt of the benefit conditional on the beneficiary's participation in a job placement program. Along the same lines, he has also stated that he will triple, also to three years, the minimum period of guardianship in the Islands so that young immigrants can receive an emancipation benefit, which will limit access for many minors who arrive in the Archipelago when they are already approaching the age of majority. "We cannot be offering a benefit to someone who reaches an age where they cannot even attend school, and therefore train and integrate, and after a year or a few months, upon being placed in guardianship, is entitled to the emancipation benefit, which is designed for other profiles, those who have already been within the system for years and whom we do not want to leave alone in the transition."

The Prime Minister also attacked the Spanish government, accusing it of failing to stem the arrival of small boats via the Algerian route, which reaches the coasts of the islands. "Although we don't have the authority, the Second Vice President [Antònia Estarellas] already has an appointment for the day after tomorrow to meet with the Algerian ambassador to Spain," she announced during the debate. She also considered "European cooperation" to be "essential" to stem the migratory wave. "Since the Spanish government hasn't done so, next week the presidents of the four regional governments and I will meet in Brussels with the European Commissioner for Home Affairs and Migration, Magnus Brunner, to explain our situation," she insisted.

While in the previous debate, Prohens focused on addressing overcrowding and saturation of tourism, this time he pointed to an excess of residents. In this regard, she spoke of the "demographic challenge" of the Islands: "We are the greatest example of the Spain that is filling up." The Popular Party member recalled that since 2000, the population has grown by 47%, going from 845,000 inhabitants to 1.24 million, a rate three times that of Spain and eight times higher than the growth rate of the European Union. Furthermore, she warned, the Islands will still grow by 20% according to forecasts from the National Institute of Statistics (INE): "Unsustainable growth." In this context, she praised the government's policies to strengthen the growing needs of public services, education, and the promotion of affordable housing.

"Language is not the property of any ideology"

The split with Vox has been evident in Prohens's more modest announcements this time. After seeing the thwarting of plans to increase the Sustainable Tourism Tax (ITS), the water fee, and tax rental cars, which he announced in the first general policy debate, this Tuesday he avoided making structural proposals. He focused on minimal proposals and called on the left to support them. Regarding mass tourism, he explained that the Catalan government "is negotiating with the shipping companies to renew the memorandum limiting cruise ships in the port of Palma, with the aim of maintaining the current cruise limits, but going a step further and reducing the weekly cruise passenger count in Palma." He also announced the launch of a psychological support program in Primary Care and the promotion of a disability law, warning the opposition that "it would be incomprehensible" if they did not support it.

The president also attacked Vox, which last week overturned a government decree in retaliation for not accepting its proposal to strengthen Spanish in schools to the detriment of Catalan. Despite admitting the inclusion of the vehicular use of Spanish in the Education Law (which is part of the budget agreement), she warned that this should not be confused with "taking steps backwards in the protection of our language and its forms." "There are lines we will never cross," she stressed. The Popular Party (PP) bench applauded her profusely, but not the Vox deputies. "Language is not the heritage of any ideology," she emphasized: "It is the heritage of those who speak it, choose it every morning, and teach it to their children freely."

Neither Gaza, nor democratic memory

The president closed her speech by denouncing the "scourge of gender-based violence" and remembering the victims of 2025. She also noted that this Tuesday, October 7, marks two years since the Hamas attack in Israel. However, she once again avoided mentioning the genocide in Gaza. She also did not mention the repeal of the Democratic Memory Law, which has been under consideration in Parliament since September to comply with the budget agreements with Vox.