The two highest ranking officials of Vox in the Balearic Islands, under judicial scrutiny

PalmaVox is facing the final stretch of the legislative term with its top officials in the Balearic Islands under the scrutiny of the justice system. On one hand, the President of the Parliament, Gabriel Le Senne (who is also the president of Vox in the Islands), will be tried for an alleged hate crime on October 25, 26, 27, and 28, 2027. On the other, the Balearic Islands Prosecutor's Office has filed a complaint against the second vice president of the Council of Mallorca, Pedro Bestard, for the alleged irregular use of cars from the island institution's Department of the Environment. In both cases, the far-right party has closed ranks and maintains that both Le Senne and Bestard should remain in their positions until there is a judicial ruling.

The President of the Parliament tore up a photograph of Aurora Picornell and the 'Roges del Molinar' (Red Women of El Molinar), who were murdered by the Francoists on January 5, 1937. The second vice president of the Bureau, Mercedes Garrido (PSIB), had the image on her computer as a sign of protest. Le Senne expelled her, along with the second secretary of the Bureau, Pilar Costa (PSIB), who also displayed a photo of Picornell on her laptop.

Relatives of the victims, memorialist entities, and the PCPE and PCE parties then initiated legal actions against Le Senne, who has resisted all pressures demanding his resignation and maintains that it was an accident. In this way, the second highest authority of the Balearic Islands had to testify as an investigated person at the end of September 2024, weeks after surviving the parliamentary debate regarding his removal thanks to the support of the PP. The 'populars' criticized the behavior of the far-right leader, but in no case have they gone further regarding the consequences of his action.

The Prosecutor's Office requested the dismissal of the case against Le Senne, considering that he did not have the intent to humiliate the victims. It qualified Le Senne's actions as disproportionate and contrary to parliamentary decorum, but did not find evidence of a hate crime. However, the investigating judge rejected the dismissal and ordered the proceedings to continue because he did find evidence of a hate crime. Almost a year after the events, the Provincial Court of the Balearic Islands dismissed Le Senne's appeal against his prosecution. On October 28, Le Senne became the first president of the Parliament of the Balearic Islands to sit in the defendant's bench during the preliminary hearing, in which the start of the trial was set for October 25, 2027.

Bestard: official cars for private travel

The Pedro Bestard case broke out in May 2026, when it became public that he was using two official vehicles from the Council of Mallorca without markings and for private trips. A report from the Technical Secretariat for the Environment estimated at three the cars that Bestard had for his exclusive use, while the department that the far-right politician heads suffers from the problems of an aging vehicle fleet (19 cars were unusable at the time the document was drafted). A Dacia Sandero (acquired at the end of 2023), a Ford Ranger (2024), and a Subaru Crosstrek (2026) were the three vehicles that the island vice president arrogated to himself, even though he could use an official car with a driver for his trips.

Bestard appeared before the Transparency Commission of the Council of Mallorca, but did not provide any information. He did not clarify if he gave orders to leave the vehicles without markings, nor the routes, nor the kilometers he traveled, nor why two institution cars had also been seen spending the night in front of his house. "I want apologies to be made to me publicly," he snapped at the PSOE spokesperson, Catalina Cladera.

The PSOE was precisely the party that filed a complaint with the Public Prosecutor's Office of the Balearic Islands, and attributed to Bestard possible crimes of continued embezzlement of public funds, malfeasance, and document forgery. The Prosecutor's Office opened proceedings against the Vox vice president in August, and at the beginning of November, it became known that it had agreed to file a lawsuit, a decision that opens the door to the judicialization of the case.