Pedro Sánchez arrives in Palma with police charges and the Balearic agenda on the table

PalmaPedro Sánchez will arrive this Wednesday in Palma with the crisis open due to the police charges that ended the demonstration against the tourist overcrowding on Sunday. With more than twenty injured, a possible collective lawsuit against the officers and a protest that on Tuesday demanded the resignation of the Spanish government delegate, Alfonso Rodríguez, the Spanish president will first meet with the president of the Balearic Islands, Marga Prohens, and will then hold the traditional summer meeting with Felipe VI.

The first meeting will begin at 5:30 p.m. at the Consolat de Mar, headquarters of the Balearic Government. Once finished, Prohens will appear before the media to explain its content. At 6:30 p.m., Sánchez will travel to the Almudaina Palace, where he will be received by the king. The Spanish president also plans to appear later, around 7:30 p.m.

The visit comes just three days after police action that has placed the government delegation at the center of the controversy. The charges occurred at the end of the 'Mallorca al límit' mobilization, after a part of the protesters could not access Les Voltes, the space where the reading of the manifesto and musical performances were planned.

The National Police attributes the incidents to a "radical minority," which it accuses of having thrown stones, cobblestones, and sticks at the agents. According to the police version, four officers were injured. The organizers, on the other hand, denounce a "disproportionate" action and assure that the police charged against people listening to the manifesto in the Parc de la Mar without any provocation.

More than twenty people have injury reports after being attended in ambulances or hospitals, and one remains hospitalized. According to Menys Turisme, Més Vida, more than a dozen suffered head injuries. The affected parties are now considering filing a collective lawsuit against the officers who participated in the operation.

The government delegate's response has not lowered the tension either. Alfonso Rodríguez has defended that the operational decisions corresponded to the police commanders deployed on the ground and has emphasized that the delegate does not decide when a charge occurs. The conveners, however, maintain that when they asked the agents for explanations, they replied that they were following orders from the government delegation.

Tuesday, nearly half a thousand people gathered for more than an hour in front of the institution's headquarters to demand Rodríguez's resignation, the dismissal of the new head of the National Police in the Balearic Islands, José Antonio Puebla, and the identification of the agents involved in the charges. The Delegation was surrounded by a significant deployment of agents, fences, a helicopter, and a drone, but Rodríguez did not appear before the protesters.

Prohens has so far avoided classifying the charges as disproportionate, but has requested explanations from the delegate. Wednesday's meeting with Sánchez will offer a new opportunity for the president to set her position and for the head of the Spanish Executive to comment on the actions of the National Police and the continuity of its highest political representative in the Islands.

Prohens' demands

Beyond the police crisis, Prohens has announced that she will again hand Sánchez the so-called Balearic agenda. The president includes demands on regional financing, debt cancellation, rail and road investments, and the management of the increase in migrant arrivals by boat.

The head of the Executive had already warned on Friday, after meeting with Felipe VI, that she did not trust Sánchez to attend to her requests. “I will ask him for what I have been asking him for three years at the presidents' conferences and at meetings both at the Consulate and at Moncloa,” she stated. She also assured that she would hand him the Balearic agenda again: “Let's see if by dint of copies I manage to get him to commit to something”.

Prohens has particularly criticized the differences between the debt cancellation proposed for Catalonia and that corresponding to the Balearic Islands, as well as the lack of a new rail agreement and a road agreement. She also intends to address the new regional financing model and the migratory situation.

Sánchez and Prohens have already held three summer meetings, taking advantage of the Spanish president's trips to Mallorca to meet with the king. The meetings have usually ended with two opposing interpretations. Housing, financing, infrastructure, and the distribution of unaccompanied minor migrants have been some of the main points of disagreement.

Office at Almudaina

After the Consulate of the Sea, Sánchez will meet with Felipe VI at the Almudaina Palace. The summer meeting thus changes setting compared to previous years, when it was held in Marivent. The Royal Household has officially confirmed the meeting, but has not yet disclosed its contents.

It is foreseeable that the forest fires that have affected various areas of the State will occupy part of the conversation. Sánchez has defended an state pact against the climate emergency in recent days, while Felipe VI already expressed his concern about the fires during the audiences he held on Friday with the main authorities of the Balearic Islands.

The meeting will foreseeably be Sánchez's last official act before starting his vacation. It also comes after the president reaffirmed this week his intention to exhaust the legislature and try to approve new budgets despite the fragility of the parliamentary majority.

The subsequent appearance will allow us to know if Sánchez gives any concrete response to Prohens's claims. But also if he endorses Alfonso Rodríguez's management or if he announces any action in the face of police charges that have turned his annual visit to Palma into something more than a summer formality.