MORE accuses the Council of turning IMAS into a real estate agency for the Civil Guard
The formation denounces that the institution cedes free of charge 21 apartments of the Germanetes to lodge agents temporarily assigned to Mallorca
MÉS per Mallorca has accused the Consell de Mallorca of turning the Institut Mallorquí d’Afers Socials (IMAS) into a "real estate agency for the Civil Guard" after the island institution decided to grant 21 apartments from the Hermanitas free of charge for agents temporarily assigned to the island to reside in. The party considers it a "serious political irresponsibility" to dedicate resources managed by the social services body to this purpose in the midst of a housing crisis.
The decision was presented by the president of the Consell, Llorenç Galmés, and the president of IMAS, Guillermo Sánchez. MÉS maintains that the accommodation of the agents is the responsibility of the Ministry of the Interior and believes that the Consell is assuming a state competence while hundreds of people are in a situation of residential exclusion in Mallorca.
"It is incomprehensible that, in the midst of the worst housing crisis Mallorca has experienced, the Consell's only initiative in this matter is to grant housing to the Civil Guard," criticized the spokesperson for MÉS in the island institution, Catalina Inés Perelló. "IMAS exists to protect the most vulnerable people, not to supplement the obligations of the Ministry of the Interior," she added.
Perelló has contrasted the cession of apartments with the difficulties of families who do not make ends meet, young people who are forced to leave the island, and people living in caravans because they cannot find housing. “The PP decides that its priority is to give away flats to a state body,” he denounced.
The eco-sovereigntist spokesperson considers that the measure symbolizes the island government's “wrong priorities” and has framed it within a situation that she attributes to mass tourism, real estate speculation, and the lack of institutional measures to guarantee access to housing. According to Perelló, the Council is more concerned with resolving the needs of another administration than with fulfilling its social function.
The grievance with other public workers
MÉS also denounces the comparative grievance with other essential professionals who have difficulty finding affordable housing in Mallorca. The party mentions doctors, nurses, teachers, social workers, local police officers, and other public employees, and warns that the housing problem makes it difficult each year to cover positions and provide basic public services.
“If the problem is to guarantee housing for public workers, housing policies must be promoted that benefit everyone, not use social resources of the Council to privilege a single group which, moreover, depends on another administration,” defends the party.
The island councilor and spokesperson for MÉS on the IMAS Governing Council, Rosa Cursach, has described the handover as "profoundly indecent" and has linked it to the arrest, a few days ago, of two activists protesting against the housing crisis and the effects of mass tourism.
“In Mallorca, activists are arrested who denounce that it is impossible to live on the island, while the PP gives a house to those who arrest them. It is a devastating political photograph,” declared Cursach, who considers that the police operation was “absolutely disproportionate” and generated “enormous social indignation.”
They demand that the Ministry of the Interior assume accommodation
Cursach has defended that all IMAS resources must be aimed at assisting people in situations of vulnerability and social exclusion. “It is not admissible for the PP to use facilities linked to social services to assume state competencies while access to housing has become the main social emergency in Mallorca,” he stated.
MÉS considers that IMAS was not created to resolve the housing problems of the State Administration, but to protect those who need it most. The party argues that each dwelling that ceases to be available for a vulnerable person or family is a lost opportunity to fulfill the social function of the organism.
The party demands that the insular government rectify and require the Ministry of the Interior to assume the housing of its staff. It also asks that all available residential resources of the Council be allocated to social and housing policies for the citizens of Mallorca.