Palm as a symptom
Between the reform of the Capital Law, the eviction of the old jail, and the debates on housing and saturation, the City is the stage where all the contradictions of the Balearic model become visible.
PalmWhile the Parliament began to process the reform of the Law of capital of Palma, a hundred people had already received the order to leave the old prison without knowing where they will live when the judicial process ends. This image summarizes the political moment that the Balearic Islands are going through. The capital that the mayor Jaime Martínez claims as the economic and institutional engine of the Islands is also the scene where many of the tensions that have marked the PP's return to the main institutions are concentrated: the housing crisis, tourist saturation, demographic pressure caused by the need for labor in the tourist economic model, the fragility of public services, and a discourse increasingly obsessed with poor migrants.
Five days. This is the deadline that the mayor gave to the 101 people who still live in the old prison to leave it before Cort resorts to judicial action to evict them. Martínez has not stopped making statements to justify that they must leave, but he has not found convincing arguments when reminded that most of these people will be left on the street. In a radio interview, he had assured that living in a space as degraded as this is "a personal decision and not a matter of vulnerability." In a press conference, he warned that access to social services is voluntary and insinuated that some people had rejected this help. Later, however, he admitted that irregular immigrants cannot access it, after having stated that 70% of the residents of the old prison are in this situation. A narrative full of contradictions that does not answer the central questions: what will happen to these people once they are out, and whether Cort's action can be sustained in humanitarian terms.
If Isabel Díaz Ayuso stated at the time that “Madrid is Spain”, the mayor of Palma did not hold back during the parliamentary debate on the reform of the Capital Law, which, if it concludes as he expects, will bring 30 million euros more to the municipal coffers. “Palma is the great generator of economic, cultural, technological, and scientific activity”; “a national and international tourist destination of reference”; “Palma is not just the capital… it is also the political, economic, cultural, and social capital”; “exercising capital status requires leadership, planning, institutional stability, and strategic vision”; “when Palma prospers, Mallorca and the Balearic Islands also prosper”, said the mayor. The pity is that, in this narrative, Palma disappears as a concrete city: the one with the old prison from which a hundred people are awaiting eviction; the one with settlements of shacks and motorhomes that now receive fines; the one with neighborhoods like Son Gotleu, marked by precariousness and social tension; the one with public transport saturated in high season and a center converted into an extension of the tourism business; the one with homes that are no longer for the people who live there all year round; the one with traditional commerce that is receding while the street becomes a leisure space. Palma does not have the exclusive on the Islands' problems, it is true, but it exemplifies them clearly.
Ghost measures
Given that we have des-seasonalized without really knowing how —while measures beyond the announcements are still expected—, tourist saturation once again occupies a central place in the political debate, with a Minister of Tourism who has been celebrating for months having changed the name of the decree on excess tourism to responsible tourism. Jaume BauzàIf we talk about the Parliament, it should be noted that the Minister of Housing, Territory and Mobility,If we talk about the Parliament, it should be noted that the Minister of Housing, Territory and Mobility, José Luis Mateo, continues to work tirelessly for another week: "We got to work, we didn't look away"; "criticizing is very easy, what is complicated is proposing something"; "we were the ones who got to work"; "we continue to bet on public housing"; "criticism is the refuge of those who do not have the courage to build". In short, Mateo did not like being reminded that the mayor of Ibiza, Rafael Triguero, is suspected of having committed irregularities for converting a premises into a limited-price dwelling in Can Misses. Perhaps criticism is the refuge of those who do not have the courage to convert.
The chair game
Regarding the Consell de Mallorca, the vice-president Pedro Bestard and the president Llorenç Galmés faced the first plenary session of the island institution after the scandal over Bestard's private use of his department's cars broke out. Beyond the left's demands for Galmés to dismiss him and the president trying to withstand the pressure until the reports he has commissioned arrive, it was striking how the president and vice-president carried out their version of musical chairs.
During the plenary session they practically did not coincide: when one was there, the other left, and so on until the end of the session. The time Bestard spent alone had difficulty even knowing what he should do. It also didn't help that he barely lifted his head from his mobile phone during the five hours of debate. If he hasn't ended up with a sore neck, it's a miracle.