Ask for whatever you want, and I will answer whatever I feel like

Palma'Parliament' comes from the verb 'to speak', not from 'to listen', 'to negotiate', 'to dialogue', 'to reflect'. It is enough to spend a while in our Chamber to verify it. What it is about every Tuesday is to place one's own monologue and to get on top of the other. Debate? What is that? The deputies and the ministers are there to have their say, receive applause from their colleagues and leave for home satisfied if they have managed to post some video on social networks.

There is no shortage of examples. PSIB deputy Amanda Fernández asked the Minister of Education, Antoni Vera, for explanations regarding the high temperatures that students in the Balearic Islands are enduring at the start of this school year. Fernández gave a chronological review, which began in August 2023 with the announcement of a pilot air conditioning plan and ended this year. The result of these three years is "the tender for the list [yes, the tender for the list, you read that right] of projects to improve air conditioning in 12 educational centers" (in the Balearic Islands there are about 300).

"The [Spanish] government is cutting 309 million from Education to pay for the expenses of Sánchez's government Presidency," was Vera's response –he read a press headline–, in addition to ensuring that the PP did not find "a single completed air conditioning project in 2023" upon arriving at the Executive. "Look, socialist gentlemen, get your act together this school year, start having a project and elevate the debate. If there were PISA tests on a parliamentary scale, you would be well below the Spanish average." The minister dismissed the explanations about the pilot plan in this way. The issue went from classrooms at 35 degrees to Sánchez and, from Sánchez, to the parliamentary PISA tests.

“Ms. Cabrer, do you share the opinion of the employers' associations [favorable] regarding the regularization of immigrants?”, asked fellow socialist Carles Bona to the Minister of Labor, Catalina Cabrer. “This government absolutely respects everyone's opinion,” was the non-answer from the minister. It is curious how political representatives feel the need to remind us that they respect what is obviously to be respected. It is a minimum for us all to live together. Beyond that, Cabrer repeated for the umpteenth time that too many people are being regularized in the Balearic Islands and lamented that 1,033 of these migrants had the audacity to register at the SOIB and had spoiled the statistics. “90% are unemployed and have only attained primary education,” she said. “Do you share their diagnosis or not?”, Bona did not lose hope in the reply. “Look, Mr. Bona, I invite you to ask yourself a question: what kind of labor force do we want in the Balearic Islands and what economic model do we want in the Balearic Islands?”, asked Cabrer in response. Then the magic happened and the minister spoke about the Sustainability Pact. “We are working for added value, a change of model, and the productivity of our companies. They have planned for the entry of 51 million visitors to the airport, but we do not. We have already said that enough is enough, enough of this vortex because we have reached the limit; we cannot lose sight of the capacity of our territory and the quality of life of the people who live here”. But, is the Minister of Labor in agreement with the employers' associations or not?

Regarding the Sustainability Pact, one of the star initiatives of the beginning of Prohens' legislature, Cabrer assured that no one had left it: “It is not true that only four actors remain, all the members of the Sustainability Pact remain”. This is what the minister said to the PSIB deputy Llorenç Pou. Let’s review the list of departures to refresh our memory: the Civil Society Forum (November 2024), the Federation of Neighborhood Associations of Palma (December 2024), the GOB (December 2024), and EAPN (December 2024). In fact, government sources acknowledged the situation at the beginning of 2025.

Faced with Pou's insistence on asking for explanations about the Pact, Cabrer made a safe bet: talk about Aena and airport expansions.

Expropriating from the Mallorcans

Housing is often another topic of confrontation among island politicians. In fact, the Popular Party members are very indignant at the possibility that islanders might not be able to buy second homes to keep them empty if they feel like it. And, of course, a good way to show indignation is by overacting. “Mr. Apesteguia, what did you mean to tell us? Must the houses be expropriated from the residents of Mallorca, from the Mallorcans who have them empty in their town? This is what you have told us here today. Because, once again, you are turning housing policy into ideology, because the difficulty of accessing housing is just an excuse for you, an excuse to implement this ideological agenda that you have told us about here today: expropriating homes from Mallorcans who have their house empty in their town,” replied Prohens in the plenary session to a question from the spokesperson for MÉS per Mallorca, Lluís Apesteguia, gesturing and with a dramatic tone.

We have searched and researched the Parliamentary session diary of September 22nd where Apesteguia speaks about expropriating houses from Mallorcans. He does not do so anywhere. “We believe that in a municipality where more than half of the houses are empty, the town council must be able to say that, for 10 years, whoever buys the houses must be to live in them, they must be the residents of these municipalities. Companies must not be able to come and buy housing in these municipalities.” This proposal generated a flood of accusations of expropriation. Venezuela was the only thing missing.