Guys, the holidays are over: eight months to arrive alive at the polls

The Balearic Islands are approaching the end of summer months that, thanks to climate change, are more of a thermal penance than a period of leisurely pleasure. Curiously, the last summer of the legislature has served for the PP to close the circle: Marga Prohens began the term with massive protests against saturation, and is ending it in the same way. However, there is a difference, because in the summer of 2023 the police did not assault the demonstrators. The island society continues to await the report commissioned by the Spanish government delegate, Alfonso Rodríguez, who assured that he had given instructions to maintain calm. It's better not to think what would have happened if he hadn't given them.

Fortunately, we have enjoyed iconic moments, such as the one gifted to us by the mayor of Campos, Francisca Porquer, when she tried to hinder the demonstration in defense of Trenc in a bikini, because, as she said, she was at an event for multiple sclerosis. Why not combine a solidarity event with an exhibition of behavior with an anti-democratic flavor? Opportunities like this should not be missed.

We cannot forget the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Environment, Joan Simonet. He is like that definition that Mariano Rajoy made of Catalans: he does things. We have seen him harvesting carob beans and happy that the price has risen a little, a few days after a real estate company bought Carob, a company specializing in this crop. He put on the yellow Ibanat polo shirt to better manage things on the day of the eclipse – the Minister of the Presidency, Antònia Maria Estarellas, wore the blue Emergencies vest. He fearlessly grabbed an invasive snake to talk about the lizard. And, of course, he also dipped his feet in the Trenc. All to demonstrate that the Government has changed the regulations simply for the pleasure of changing them, because this spot in Mallorca will remain just as protected.

An uneven final stretch

You have to prepare yourself for what's coming, because the final stretch of any legislature is a matter of endurance. There will be a constant barrage of announcements, promises, parties, and smiles. Also accusations, furious criticism, and overacting. As they say: bad students try to save the course when there's little left for it to end.

On the right, the PP is trying to convince the audience that everything related to overcrowding is the fault of the two legislatures of Francina Armengol and that Prohens' Government has implemented containment measures. The problem isn't whether or not they have been implemented. The question is which ones have been implemented, what their effectiveness has been, and whether we citizens of the Balearic Islands live a little, even if it's a microscopic bit, better.

On this point, of living better, the Minister of Housing, Territory and Mobility, José Luis Mateo, will have little to say, after tormenting public transport users in Mallorca throughout August and having practically no public housing promotion started in the Balearic Islands.

There are those who continue in search of the Pact for Sustainability that the Government announced in the style of Armengol: with a spectacular photo and then with a PowerPoint, thanks to the director of the Impulsa Foundation, Antoni Riera. Legend has it that 540 proposals arrived on an online platform, but their exact content is unknown.

For its part, the left is still looking for some kind of leadership, however small. The PSIB has opted for Rosario Sánchez. That is to say, the socialists consider that the Secretary of State for Tourism is the alternative to Prohens amidst a festival of protests against tourist saturation and with a large part of the society of the Islands cursing Aena for making us swallow the expansions of the airports of Palma and Ibiza.

It is not just any position, the Secretary of State for Tourism. The question is: if Sánchez truly wants to bet on Balearic Islands exhausted by overcrowding, shouldn't she have resigned already? Because the contradiction is too great for it to be sustainable at the polls in May 2027.

For its part, MÉS per Mallorca does what the left does best: throwing reproaches at each other. The reflections of the deputy Ferran Rosa in a political podcast and his criticisms of the Pact's management have shown the wounds of the eco-sovereignists and have put on the table how complicated it is to be part of the system and be against the system at the same time. Because at this point, the PP must be agreed with. The saturation is not new and we have all, whatever our political color, participated in this party that has now caused us a colossal hangover. Does no one remember that even John Charles I said "I made a mistake" after killing an elephant? Is it that complicated?

We will have to pay attention to the uproar that Vox may cause in the coming months, which are so important for marking its profile. The far-right sees how the PP is swallowing it up and must become more extreme if it wants to retain the votes of the most fervent. However, it will be difficult for it to move from its sphere, which is based on attacking Catalan, migrants, feminism, and the LGTBI collective. One cannot ask for sophistication from a party of basic pillars.

And it remains uncertain what role Coalició per Mallorca will be able to play. Will it opt to be the Catalan Alliance of the Balearic Islands? Will it get rid of the backpack of El Pi and the remnants of UM? Will it be able to unite the remains of a Mallorcanism that seems to be more part of the island's past than its future?