Neither police violence nor the parties' attempts to gain political mileage should make us forget: on July 26, the people of Mallorca staged the second largest demonstration in the history of the Balearic Islands. Only the mobilization against the TIL in 2013, with 100,000 people who flooded the streets of Palma, surpasses the 70,000 demonstrators who filled Ciutat with the slogan 'Mallorca, at its limit', a figure that is even more impressive considering that in 2024 a similar mobilization gathered around 20,000.
Figures aside, the message is clear: the citizens of these islands are fed up with living poorly because of tourism. Whether directly, suffering precarious jobs within an absolutely extractivist and rotten system, or indirectly, with consequences such as massification and saturation of public services, pressure on infrastructure, or the destruction of the ecosystem, which advances unstoppable despite being, this, the main attraction for hoteliers and the Government. Faced with this, however, what is the parties' proposal? Will they finally heed this invitation to de-grow, or will they continue to disguise what can no longer be hidden even with all the clothes in the world?
The first thing that should have happened, after the actions of the Spanish Police, is the mass resignation of those responsible for the attack, starting with Alfonso Rodríguez, delegate of the state government, down to the last person involved, including Minister Marlaska. And this is not a symbolic demand: it is, surely, the most brutal police aggression perpetrated against the right to protest of the islanders, only comparable to the repression suffered by Catalans during the referendum and protests for the sentence of the Procés, or by the Valencian people during the hardest years of the Battle of Valencia.
And what do we have, beyond that? On the one hand, a PP that declares war on illegal tourist rentals and limits the number of rental cars while not daring to touch even an inch of the hoteliers' business, the cornerstone of the problem. On the other hand, a PSOE that was not brave enough during its years in government, and which now, in addition to being the first to hold the banner and at the same time wield the batons, has had the brilliant idea of proposing the Secretary of State for Tourism as a candidate for the presidency and, for the mayorship of Palma, the last councilor... of Tourism, too!
It remains to be seen if MÉS will be able to transform this anger into concrete proposals, and more importantly: if they will know how to make themselves necessary when governing and approving laws. And Coalició? Will they continue copying the discourse of Sílvia Orriols, which is increasingly xenophobic and a friend of Spanish power, or will they find their voice as a necessary center-right space in Mallorca?
The parties have just under a year to define themselves, before the elections. Whatever the case, they will do well not to ignore what is increasingly a consensus among the islanders: enough is enough. It is urgent to change course.
