Demonstrations, actions, mobilizations

The great human chain on July 5th means (or will have meant, depending on when you read these lines) a couple of things. It is the renewal —generational, also, and this is important— of the commitment of the Mallorcan citizenry to the defense of one of its most emblematic natural spaces, the Trenc and Salobrar de Campos Natural Park. This also means a citizen positioning against caciquism, an old scourge of Mallorcan society that has unfortunately also been passed down from generation to generation and which today is personified by rulers such as councilor Joan Simonet, president Marga Prohens, councilor Antoni Costa, and Peixet (forgive me: parliamentary spokesperson Sebastià Sagreras). People who truly continue to think that winning an election and governing is equivalent to having a kind of blank check to use public institutions in favor of the interests of very specific groups or, even, of specific people or families. To command for our own, as it has always been said.The great human chain on Sunday the 5th also has a continuation as significant or more so next Sunday the 26th, with the great demonstration in Palma against the tourist overcrowding in the Balearic Islands convened by the platform Menys Turisme, Més Vida. The reason for the protest is evident and known, and it becomes more evident and more known with each summer, with each season: the tourism model of the Balearic Islands, based on mass tourism, is unsustainable and significantly undermines the quality of life of the citizens and their options to live in equal conditions in their own homes. From all points of view: economic and residential, but also in terms of coexistence, culture, and language. And, of course, landscape, ecology, and the environment. In summary: if we don't take it seriously, soon there will be no Balearic Islands left to defend, because they will have already passed through our eyes. Particularly Ibiza and Mallorca, which have become the new major target. It is the last great round, the definitive moment for Mallorca, the moment when it is decided whether it should be the Mallorca of the Mallorcans or that of the speculators. Immigrants are not a threat, as the right and the far-right want to assume. The great threat are the speculators, some of whom are very close to the Government, the People's Party, and Vox.The amendments to the Omnibus Law, in force since last June 11, and the deregulatory provisions of the agrarian law, turn a large part of the territory of Mallorca into buildable land. This includes (it's worth repeating) emblematic spaces such as El Trenc, Cabrera, La Calobra or the Serra de Tramuntana, until now untouchable, not only technically, but also within the imagination of most Majorcans. Now they are left at the mercy and whim of the Governing Council of President Prohens, subjugated, in turn, to the demands of Vox.Therefore, we must understand that we cannot count on our rulers: quite the opposite, we have them against us. For this reason, the demonstrations this July are so important, and it is even more so to make citizen mobilization permanent, a real pressure that these rulers cannot disdain or underestimate. Whoever loves Mallorca does not destroy it, and whoever governs against the general interest of Majorcans, Minorcans, Ibizans and Formenterans pays for it at the polls and in the streets full of citizens protesting democratically, civilly, but also so energetically that it is impossible not to listen to them.