What are we islanders gambling on in the Housing elections?

PalmaThere is an old military barracks in Palma that has been waiting for more than two decades to be converted into public housing. It is Son Busquets, an immense state-owned plot where 831 protected homes are currently planned. 20 years of announcements, projects, and discussions between administrations that have not served to make the apartments available to the public. Meanwhile, housing has gone from being a major problem to becoming a social emergency.

It is an image of what we islanders are at stake for in a general election marked by the housing crisis. Also, of the little we have managed to resolve, regardless of who has governed in Madrid, at the Consolat de Mar, and at Cort. Because in Son Busquets there are state, regional, and municipal competencies. And what there are not are apartments.

“In Son Busquets there has been a project to build public housing for two decades,” laments the jurist and former deputy Josep Melià. He considers that the case summarizes to what extent the Balearic Islands have little weight in Madrid, where the major state parties do not always place the needs of the Islands among their priorities. But Melià does not forgive the inaction of the local institutions either. He points out that the Palma City Council has been unable to approve the necessary urban planning and recalls that, when he was a deputy, he demanded a specific law to unblock the project.

“The Government was good at making a law for Rafael Nadal,” he reproaches, in reference to the regulation approved in 2012 to facilitate the construction of the Manacor International Tennis Centre. That law is not a simple anecdote. The explanatory memorandum acknowledged that the ordinary urban planning procedures were not advancing and that a law was needed to give a decisive boost to the project. The Parliament approved a specific regulation that established the urban planning conditions for the action.

According to Melià, that precedent demonstrates that, when there is political will, extraordinary solutions can be sought. He asks why there has not been similar determination to build public housing in Son Busquets. The comparison brings institutional priorities to the table. The jurist speaks of state, regional, and municipal negligence. And he anticipates that now, when the housing crisis has erupted, the major parties will throw it at each other during the election campaign.

The case portrays one of the great contradictions of the autonomous model: competencies are distributed, but responsibilities are not always so clear. When an action depends on several governments, the discussion about who should do what can last much longer than the legislatures.

The right to a home

The UIB Constitutional Law professor Amir Al Hasani Maturano usually poses an essential question to students from the very first day. To guarantee a constitutional right, it is not enough to include it as a general principle: “It must be developed”.

It is a fundamental distinction for understanding the housing crisis, which will mark the 29N elections. Article 47 of the Constitution recognizes the right to enjoy decent and adequate housing, but places it among the guiding principles of social and economic policy. It does not, therefore, have the same judicial guarantees as fundamental rights.

Al Hasani considers this to be one of the system's major shortcomings. Rights need laws to define them, obligations that can be demanded, and resources to make them effective. “Now that there is so much sensitivity regarding the topic, it is appropriate to remind governments that it is necessary to legislate in order to translate into concrete norms and policies a right that we see today as essential for acting in a moment of emergency like the one the Islands are suffering,” he points out.

The professor underscores that the different governments have not developed the right to housing with enough ambition, but they have developed other issues that, “for whatever reason,” have been of more interest. The Islands have powers over housing and urban planning, but Madrid retains decisive instruments: civil and tenancy legislation, the foundations of economic planning, state taxation, and a significant part of public assets. Therefore, what is at stake for us in the general elections? Among other things, the laws that regulate the rental market and evictions, and an uncomfortable political question: how is it possible that the constitutional recognition of a right has coexisted for 40 years with the inability to guarantee sufficient access to it?

Powers without funding

The distribution of powers is articulated mainly through articles 148 and 149 of the Constitution and the statutes of autonomy. Article 148 allows for the assumption of certain matters; 149 establishes those that remain reserved to the State –some exclusive and others that accept the development of norms or regional execution. The system was a historical advance, but, more than four decades later, it still generates conflicts. Al Hasani points out that the model is excessively open in certain areas and advocates for an evolution “towards a federal structure that better defines the responsibilities” of each administration.

But it is one thing to assume powers and another to exercise them with sufficient resources in a community with great investment needs, adds Melià. He considers that the Balearic Islands have insufficient funding and that this limits the possibility of promoting decisive policies regarding Housing, Health, and Education. “Right now they are the twin of the social blockade we are suffering,” he states. The comparison with the Basque Country, which has an economic agreement system different from the common regime, is “clarifying” to him, typical of a model that “works better”.

The Menorcan economist Guillem López Casasnovas, a specialist in regional financing and professor emeritus at Pompeu Fabra University, also denounces the limitations of the system. It is not just about distributing income in a different way, but about adjusting resources to real needs. “That immigration is not recognized within regional financing is an error that must be solved,” he said in an interview with ARA Balears, in reference to the arrival of new population and the attention it requires. He also warns that reform proposals do not sufficiently take into account the cost of living, a decisive factor in the Islands. In the general elections, majorities are decided that can modify the financing system.

The low weight of the Islands in Madrid

Money is not the only problem. López Casasnovas puts his finger on the sore spot of another issue that Melià also denounces: the low political weight of the Balearic Islands in Madrid and the lack of pressure to influence state decisions. “We live dangerously from tourism and from a submissive policy from Madrid,” the economist warned in the aforementioned interview. He was even more explicit when comparing the political weight of the territories: “The pressure that the parties of Catalonia have exerted in Madrid, we have never experienced in the Balearic Islands.” He also lamented that “Parliament has never requested the accounts of the fiscal deficit”.

The criticism is not addressed only to Madrid. It also challenges the major parties of the Islands and their dependence on state-level leadership. Melià shares this view from a political perspective favoring greater self-government. He points out that the dominance of forces with state-level obedience conditions the defense of the specific interests of the Balearic Islands. The powers set out in the Statute are not the whole answer: it also matters who negotiates, with what strength, and what priorities they defend.

Health and Education: who pays for it?

Health and Education are powers assumed by the autonomous community, but the State continues to regulate essential aspects of them. The Government manages hospitals and educational centers, while Madrid maintains powers over the foundations and general coordination of Health and over the basic rules of the educational system. Melià warns that the demographic growth of the Balearic Islands has increased the demand for public services without funding having adapted enough to this reality. López Casasnovas emphasizes a point: public services must be able to attend to the arrival of new population, because without adequate integration, social cohesion is put at risk.

The population is growing and more professionals, schools, and health centers are needed. But the community does not have full fiscal or regulatory autonomy to decide on the instruments that condition this response.

Trapped by the cost of living

Melià reports that the high cost of housing makes it difficult to fill and maintain National Police and Civil Guard positions in the Balearic Islands. The rotation of agents harms the continuity of service and knowledge of the territory. "In the general elections, we are at stake regarding state decisions on staffing, remuneration, and resources" to ensure that agents can settle here.

The same happens with Justice. Melià reports that the price of housing also "makes it difficult to fill judicial official positions in the Balearic Islands," while Al Hasani warns that the system does not sufficiently adapt to territorial differences in the cost of living. The lack of personnel and rotation affect the service that citizens receive.

Airports, the gateway

It is one of the most evident examples of the debate on competencies: the Government has competencies in tourism and land use planning, but it does not control the main infrastructures that condition air connectivity. Recently, it has been verified how “the entire Ibizan society has said no to the expansion and has been ignored”, Melià recalls. In the general elections, it should be decided whether this airport management model is maintained or if its rules are modified to give more participation to the island institutions, without allowing “ports and airports to elude any urban or environmental control of the community where they have an impact”, he says. To no one's surprise, “there is no intention among the major parties to touch the current model”, Melià states.