Galmés bets everything on vehicle limitation

PalmaLess than nine months before the insular elections, Llorenç Galmés faces the last political year with the vehicle limitation pending in Parliament, decisions to be finalized on tourist places, and the Tirme contract questioned by Intervention, among others. The president of the Consell de Mallorca claims to have fulfilled more than 95% of the government agreements, while the opposition focuses on the issues that remain open.

The president of the Consell de Mallorca staged this Wednesday the start of the last political year after a summer marked by protests against tourist overcrowding, the import of waste from Ibiza, and warnings about the cost of waste treatment for public coffers. Galmés met his executive at La Misericòrdia to visualize a final push for a term with structural issues still to be tied up.

The opposition questions the president's balance sheet and assures that he reaches the end of his term with "everything pending," in the words of the socialist Catalina Cladera.

Vehicles: a pending law and a tight schedule

The regulation of vehicle entry is Galmés's main focus for the final political term. The president defines it as "the main containment measure of this legislature" and presents it as a response to the island's saturation.

On September 9, he will defend before Parliament the consideration of the bill. He will do so without guaranteed support from Vox, which abstained on June 5 in the vote in the Council, but he is confident in the opposition's votes to move forward with the initiative.

The proposed timetable foresees approving the law this autumn, setting before the end of the year limits for vehicles from outside Mallorca and for rental cars, and applying them during the 2027 tourist season. Council sources assure that they are already working on the fiscal ordinance and the load study that will underpin the caps, with approval scheduled for October.

The socialist spokesperson on the Council, Catalina Cladera, doubts that the measure can be applied this term. "The promise to eliminate traffic jams in Palma has not been fulfilled," she states, and maintains that "the vehicle limitation law will not have time to be applied."

The MÉS per Mallorca candidate for the Council, Miquel Oliver, also questions the timetable. "We requested the possibility for Parliament to hold an extraordinary plenary session to advance the processing, and they went on vacation," he recalls. For this reason, he adds, "we are concerned that it will be another promise that remains pending due to processing times."

In parallel, Galmés has announced the start, before the 2027 elections, of the works on the Sóller road roundabout and the first section of the second ring road. These actions are part of the Plan for the Improvement of Access to Palma, with a budget of 164 million euros.

Tourist places: the ceiling to be specified

In terms of tourism, the Council "will continue to bet on promoting responsible tourism and intensifying the fight against illegal supply, with more staff and resources than ever, to ensure coexistence between residents and visitors". Even so, no concrete announcement has been made in this regard and, with no news about the modification of the PIAT, the load study remains on the table at the request of the Decree Law against illegal supply to determine the total number of tourist places that can be marketed.

The socialists qualify Galmés's tourism management as a "failure" and recall the different dismissals and resignations that have occurred in the department. They accuse "political instability" in the face of "empty promises of degrowth without even having modified the PIAT or having carried out the carrying capacity study". MÉS per Mallorca also points to the changes and crises within the department as a sign of the "contradictions of the PP" in tourism matters.

Tirme: rates under review

The waste management model is another of the open fronts. This summer, the Council has approved an extraordinary contribution of 41.4 million euros to regularize tariffs, within the framework of the commitment to reduce them by 10%. The operation coincides with the import of waste from Ibiza and with the warnings from Intervention regarding Tirme's tariff system.

The PSIB calculates that during the term of office, more than 100 million euros have been allocated to support tariffs and calls for a review of the concession's conditions. Galmés has announced that he will commission an audit to verify Tirme's management and that he will study whether the formula used to calculate the treatment price can be modified. For now, the announcement does not imply an approved review of the contract or the tariff system.

Territory: two open procedures

In territorial matters, the Council has yet to finalize the processing of the future law for the Serra de Tramuntana. The preliminary proposal was presented in February and the deadline for objections ended on April 15th. The text still needs to undergo the necessary processing to reach Parliament and become law, although Galmés made no reference to it in the press conference following the meeting of his councillors.

The final approval of the fourth modification of the Territorial Plan of Mallorca, initially approved on April 10th, 2025, also remains pending. These are two initiatives with which the insular government will have to specify its territorial balance before the elections.

Social Services and Equality

The president of the Council has also announced the creation of 300 places within the Housing Access Plan for people with disabilities, with an investment of 6 million euros. Likewise, "progress will continue to be made in matters of equality, expanding and strengthening services for women victims of gender violence". In this regard, it should be recalled that one of Galmés's first decisions was the suppression of the Insular Directorate of Equality, reconverted into the Insular Directorate of Families.

The relationship with Vox, in the background

For the opposition, relations with Vox run through a large part of the debate on the end of the term. Oliver points them out as one of Galmés's main problems and describes him as a "kidnapped president".

Cladera, for his part, reproaches the insular government for what he considers a "false ending" to the case about the alleged use of institutional vehicles for private and party activities by the Minister of Environment, Pedro Bestard, who has an investigation open by the Prosecutor's Office.