Vox blocked the first attempt by the President of the Council, Llorenç Galmés, to regulate vehicle entry into Mallorca, but this time the President of the Council has ignored his governing partner and will approve the law with the left. A lack of "loyalty", in the words of the party's parliamentary spokeswoman, Manuela Cañadas, which in the opinion of the far-right party, cannot go unanswered. As ARA Balears has learned, Vox is studying the possibility of overturning the Agrarian Law, the project on which the minister of the sector, Joan Simonet, has been working all legislature, as well as the Coastal Law, which the Government planned to bring to the Council of Government imminently, to ensure parliamentary approval within this legislature.

MÉS per Mallorca has registered a request in Parliament for the appearance of the Minister of the Sea and the Water Cycle, Juan Manuel Lafuente, to explain the regulatory changes approved by the Government that allow avoiding or limiting Water Resources reports in certain urban development projects. The initiative comes after ARA Balears revealed that a modification introduced into the Omnibus Law opens the door to exempt some planning from re-certifying water availability.

The Government introduced a last-minute legal modification to water regulations to exempt some urban development operations from the need to obtain authorization from the Directorate General of Water Resources. An additional provision of the Omnibus Law approved by the PP and Vox allows for the avoidance of new water sufficiency reports (water availability) in certain cases, provided that a specific plan or project is not considered to increase demand or that the circumstances justifying previous reports have not changed.

The Portitxol members' assembly has ratified the reform project, which will involve a significant renovation of the facilities, valued at 10 million euros, and which has caused tension and confrontation within the entity. According to some, it is a project that “reduces the model of social boating, because more moorings for large lengths are being made,” laments a historic member like Jaume Garau. But, according to the board and another part of the members, “it preserves the essence of the club and the facility does not grow outwards.” “80% of the moorings will continue to be less than eight meters,” explains the president of the Palma club, Pep Santander.

The group of companies on which the Mallorca Live brand is based, which includes, in addition to the festival, the Mallorca Live Nights and Es Jardí series, has received more than three and a half million euros from public entities in the last five years. Of these, more than two-thirds since 2023. Among the different contributions, which include sponsorships and grants, one of the most notable is that of AETIB, the Balearic Islands Tourism Strategy Agency, which since 2023 has allocated around half a million public euros to the Mallorca Live festival within the framework of a call for sponsorships for major cultural and sporting events.

More than one reader has sent us comments about the image where the President of the Government and the OCB representative are seen talking amicably at the popular singing event of La Balanguera. The head of the Executive's communication council did not waste time posting on social media the image where Prohens even puts her hand on Antoni Llabrés's shoulder, when it should be remembered that the president has not stopped eroding the demands for Catalan and has even forced the OCB to go to court.

At Mallorca Live, in reality, the music is secondary. This sensation, which is increasingly repeated when talking about festivals, becomes a certainty in the island case if one analyzes the financial architecture that sustains the events linked to the Mallorca Live brand. Above all, a festival that in two weeks will celebrate its ninth edition, rebranded as Mallorca Live Occident. The entry of new sponsors and partners into the new promoter La Isla & Co is the latest step in a path full of countless commercial movements that are difficult to follow and, above all, to decipher: the tip of the iceberg of a network of dozens of companies that move millions of public euros to turn culture into a financial asset.

The Portitxol Nautical Club faces next Tuesday one of the most decisive assemblies in its recent history. Members will have to vote on the ratification of the reform and expansion project promoted by the board of directors, an initiative that has caused a strong internal division and which many interpret as a choice between maintaining the social and popular character of the club or turning it into a large infrastructure aimed at large-sized boats. The meeting, convened in the assembly hall of the Port Authority of the Balearic Islands (APB), comes after weeks of internal campaigning and a climate of growing tension between sectors in favor and detractors of the project.

The ultra concentration of Nucleo Nacional scheduled for this Sunday at La Feixina has revived the debate on the advisability of preserving this space. ARCA is one of the most prominent entities opposed to its demolition, which a large part of the progressive movement calls for, because the monument represents "Francoist exaltation", according to entities like Memoria de Mallorca. The vice-president of ARCA, Àngels Fermosselle, wants to "completely" dissociate the entity from "any responsibility for a gathering for which only the conveners are responsible", she told ARA Balears – ARCA has also publicly condemned the call.

He was manager for a brief period of the Palau de Congressos de Palma and, therefore, also knows public management. However, Josep Sintes has dedicated a good part of recent years to studying the phenomenon of the excessive increase in real estate prices, in which he currently works. Doctor in Economics, he has sent a proposal to all parliamentary groups in the Balearic Islands to find concrete solutions to the housing emergency, which he has named the Insular Framework for Territorial Equilibrium (MIET).

The Court of Auditors has detected widespread deficiencies in the internal control mechanisms of the town councils of Mallorca, Menorca, and Ibiza. The report for the 2024 fiscal year, recently published, concludes that a significant portion of the councils fail to comply with basic obligations of “economic auditing, public accounting, and financial supervision”. Among the main criticisms is the control of expenses, as the regulations are not complied with in most cases. In fact, municipal comptrollers admit that they do not have sufficient human resources to adequately perform these functions.

1.- Build 10,000 affordable homes in the coming years

The Balearic Islands and the Canary Islands share the dubious honor of being the autonomous communities with the fewest protected homes built in the last 25 years. Today they are two of the communities with the most problems in meeting the housing demand of a large part of the population – for different reasons, but also for this one. A tiny fraction of the 300,000 houses and apartments built since 1981 are public housing. Therefore, the first measure to tackle the housing crisis in the Balearic Islands involves decisively increasing the public housing stock, and doing so "constantly" is demanded by consulted experts, such as real estate advisor Pedro García. "The problems are not solved in one or two legislatures," he assures, and emphasizes that if 10,000 protected homes are not built in the coming years, it will not be noticeable.

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Politicians must represent the people. This is such an obvious maxim that when public representatives ignore it, it is very disappointing. It turns out that the Government promoted a regulation that allows the largest developable lands in Palma, mainly in the hands of development companies, to build 45% more homes on the same plot than stipulated by the General Plan. In other words, where developable land owners could build 100 homes, they can now build 145 in the name of the housing crisis.

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It is a joy to see deputies, councilors and members of the Socialist Party of the Balearic Islands with the Correllengua t-shirt, filling social networks with their enthusiasm to protect the Catalan language.

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Palma wants to continue growing in population and Jaime Martínez's team does not intend to give up on this despite the lack of water that the Water Resources technicians already detected and confirmed in the year 2023. This is one of the conclusions of the Sustainable Water Management Plan promoted by Emaya, which has just completed the public exhibition period. The document advocates for increasing desalination and extracting more water from underground: up to 10 million more liters per day than are currently obtained, despite the delicate situation of the aquifers.

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Pedro Bestard ordered that one of the new vehicles acquired by the Department of Environment of the Consell de Mallorca be reserved for him and that it not be labeled as an official car of the institution. "This car, reserve it for me," sources familiar with the matter confirm that Bestard said, who would be responsible for not labeling it.

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The companies that organized the maritime excursions known as party boats based in the port of Palma have decided to take to court the decision of the Port Authority to expel them from the area where they are currently located (in front of the Auditorium) due to the new layout of the port of Palma. Five companies in the sector, Barca Samba, Cruceros Marco Polo, Mallorca Sailing Catamarans, Nautical Adventures, and Ociana Calvià have filed an administrative contentious appeal against the tender promoted by the Balearic Port Authority (APB), which in practice means their expulsion from the 'golondrines' pier and a profound shift in the model of tourist activity within the port precinct.

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Year 1994. In Son Espanyolet, a residential neighborhood of Palma characterized by its ground floors and corrals, life revolves around a couple of nerve centers. There is a parish center, owned by the Theatines, which hosts everything from the Espanyol basketball club to the now-defunct Nostra Terra theater company. On a corner, on Contestí street, a haberdashery is much more than a shop: it is a meeting point, where many people who learn to sew and crochet spend their afternoons.

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The first of May used to mark the start of the tourist season, which ended on November 1st. It was a radical change; hotels opened and taxis began to make trips compulsively. Today, thanks to the de-seasonality we so longed for, things are more diffuse. Not only because there are tourists all year round, but in terms of space occupation. As Professor Nofre Rullan well diagnosed, in a few decades we have gone from having tourists concentrated in a dozen Balearic locations for six months, to having them scattered everywhere, all year round.

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