Prohens warns that population growth threatens the "identity" of the Islands at the Balearic Islands Day event

PalmThe President of the Balearic Government, Marga Prohens, warned this Saturday that population growth threatens the "identity" of the Islands, an assertion she made during the Balearic Islands Day celebrations, an institutional event where the Ramon Llull Awards and the community's gold medal were presented. "We have watched with nostalgia as the appearance of our cities and towns changed. As we have doubled our population during this time, a population growth that we have embraced as a challenge we cannot ignore, a pattern of unsustainable growth. Unsustainable for our territory, for our identity, and also for our people." But, several paragraphs later, Prohens affirmed that "the Balearic way of being" remains unchanged: "Today we also celebrate, precisely, that there is something that does not change, that there is something that remains unaltered. (...) Our way of being."

From there, the president followed her usual pattern, repeating the same theme throughout her speech. In 2024 it was "we are"; in 2025, "pride"; and this year she began each paragraph of her address with "they say" (the motto was "A Way of Being"): "They say we know how to wait," "they say we are what is now called resilient," "they say we are a land of the self-employed," "they say our home is sacred." Immediately after referring to "our home," the president proclaimed that "private property is not questioned in the Balearic Islands" and demanded "legal certainty," referring to squatting, another mantra of the right and far right, along with immigration. She also praised the government's measures regarding Housing, Education, and the Environment. The president also referred to Catalan, "a language that we must preserve by being able to charm and seduce, avoiding confrontations or partisan attempts to appropriate it, and which coexists naturally with a common language that connects us with 500 million people around the world [Spanish]."

Prohens also used her speech to criticize the Spanish government's proposed reform of the financing system: "It continues to punish us, it despises us, and it ignores our reality. It disregards our population growth, the cost of living, which diminishes the impact of insularity and threatens our autonomy to lower taxes..." And that's where we stand.

The awards

Singer Jaume Anglada, currently recovering from a serious car accident, expressed his gratitude to healthcare and emergency workers as he received the Gold Medal of the Balearic Islands from an emotional Prohens. Minutes earlier, his fellow artist, Carolina Cerezuela, had performed. Regarding the Ramon Llull awards, gallery owner Joan Oliver 'Maneu' spoke on behalf of all the award winners, who are as follows: Association of Friends of the Railway of the Balearic Islands (AAFIB), Levante en marcha, the professor of Economics Eugeni Aguiló (posthumously), the sportsman Albert Torres Banca March, Joan Oliver 'Maneu', the researcher and doctor Estella Matutes, Association of Breeders of the Ibizan Dog (Podenco Ibicenco) of Ibiza and Formentera, the captain of the Merchant Marine Juan Bautista Costa, the Football Federation of the Balearic Islands (FFIB), the actress Laleta Pons (Respiralia Foundation), and the founder of the Trablisa Group, Miquel Bordoy.