Vox, a transmission belt for landowners
When the territorial map of the Balearic Islands was drawn up with relatively restrictive regulations, some affected parties took full advantage. For decades, they had tried to develop their land because it meant multiplying their wealth. The kind of urban planning scheme some, though not all, landowners dream of. This led, for example, to the infamous Reconversion Areas invented by Maria Antònia Munar. These were tailor-made rezonings with absurd justifications. If a hotel could be built in the north of Mallorca, a housing development could be built in the south. Fortunately, the GOB (Balearic Ornithological Group) and the Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office brought order to the situation, and although the legal case was dismissed, it was enough to put an end to the farce.
But some of those who own land, whether because they bought it around towns and cities (often with inside information), or because they inherited it from powerful figures, hadn't given up hope. And their greatest ally has been, or may become, the housing crisis. Okay, the housing emergency and Vox. Parliamentary spokesperson Manuela Cañadas already took it upon herself this week to ask the PP why urban development projects aren't being carried out in rural areas, after they themselves imposed this possibility on the Popular Party.
Cañadas knows what she's doing. She speaks for those landowners who have waited for years and who have now found an ally in Vox. Knowing that developable and urban land would suffice, and that the housing problem isn't solved by destroying the countryside, she makes pronouncements. For the gentlemen who commission her. Meanwhile, in Palma, Fulgencio Coll is walking a tightrope because favoring the landowners means turning the entire Son Sardina or Establecimientos neighborhoods against him.
