Investigate the mayor of Sóller for malfeasance

PalmaA court in Palma has opened proceedings against the mayor of Sóller, Miquel Nadal (PP), and several councillors and former councillors of the City Council for an alleged case of favoritism towards a former councillor of the same party and current owner of two establishments in Port de Sóller.

The lawsuit has been filed by a local company in the restaurant sector operating in the Santa Catalina neighborhood of Port de Sóller and is also directed against the first deputy mayor, Carlos Darder; the former councillor for Urban Planning and Activities, Juan Antonio Lorente, and the former PP councillor Joan Ruiz Mesquida, owner of the businesses Can Joan and Vint.

According to the complaint, first reported by Cadena SER and Diario de Mallorca, the municipal officials allegedly favored the businessman for years through administrative resolutions, omissions, and "arbitrary" legal interpretations aimed at benefiting his interests.

The main focus of the case is on the business license for the restaurant Can Joan. The complainants assert that the City Council allegedly applied different criteria in practically identical situations, both in fact and in law, depending on the establishment affected.

In this regard, they recall that establishments such as Ham and Coupage, also located in Santa Catalina and a few meters from Can Joan, were closed or had their licenses revoked for being on public land, after the City Council itself considered that urban planning expressly prohibited it.

In contrast, when in 2024 a review of the Can Joan license was requested ex officio for the same urban planning reasons, the City Council rejected the petition. The lawsuit describes this decision as "legally aberrant" and maintains that it would have been specifically constructed to avoid the legal consequences that were applied in other cases.

For the complainants, this difference in treatment constitutes one of the main indications of the alleged crimes of administrative prevarication and influence peddling attributed to those under investigation.

Furthermore, the document includes other actions that, according to the lawsuit, would form part of a sustained pattern over time: alleged irregularities in sanctioning proceedings for occupying public land, non-execution of administrative resolutions affecting businesses linked to the former councillor, concessions of authorizations allegedly contrary to municipal ordinances, and regulatory modifications that would have particularly benefited his establishments.