A company has been reported by the Artà City Council for organizing a mega scavenger hunt with no less than 900 people. It involved touring the urban center doing absurd things like painting on the ground or sticking adhesives on traffic signs or the town's walls.

It was not easy for Marga Prohens to find a substitute for Carlos Simarro in the Directorate General of Coasts and Littoral. There was little of the legislature left, and the PP had a somewhat complicated electoral commitment pending, because the main responsibilities for the coast are still state-owned: repairing the beach huts, the piers, and also other businesses within public domain. It was an electoral bet by Prohens, mainly in Formentera, and for this reason, a draft law on the littoral that seeks to avoid demolitions is very close to being approved. Maria Joanquina Ferrer has been a civil servant of the CAIB since 1996. She is a law graduate and, above all, honest: she has just reported an attempted bribery, precisely from a coastal business. At the time of this interview, the facts were not known.

Last March, the Ministry of the Water Cycle and the Sea signed the authorization to carry out the demolition of Pedro J. Ramírez's pool in Costa de los Pinos, after a long legal battle since 2004. The case was well known by its owner (now Agatha Ruiz de la Prada), but in the Balearic Islands there are dozens of other pools in public maritime-terrestrial domain. And not only that: hotels, restaurants, and –of course– villas have also been built, some directly on the beach. All these uses are prohibited because the public domain is a strip that occupies the first meters of the coast and extends as far as a beach, dune system, or wetland reaches. Some of these constructions obtained temporary concessions in the past, but most have already expired. In total, it is estimated that there are more than 2,000 irregular constructions, many of which with demolition orders. The lack of resources from the State Coastal Demarcation has allowed cement to illegally occupy the front line for decades. One of the most striking cases is that of Bungalow, in Palma, a restaurant that has never even had a concession and continues to operate despite demolition orders.

Contrary to what the courts had stated in the first instance, the Consell de Mallorca will have to compensate the developer who had a license to build a housing development in El Guix (Escorca). The Superior Court of Justice of the Balearic Islands (TSJIB) has partially upheld the appeal of the developer Urnova regarding the long urban planning dispute of El Guix, which triggered the controversy over the impact of a set of chalets adjacent to the Lluc monastery. The court recognizes the company's right to be compensated for five plots of land affected by the urban planning declassification that was carried out to prevent construction in such an emblematic location. The court, however, rejects the bulk of the compensation requested, corresponding to the main housing construction project that was never executed.

The Palma City Council has definitively approved the statutes and bases of the compensation board for the Son Ximelis Strategic Residential Project, a situation that opens the way to the urbanization of 143,649 square meters, where 1,080 homes can be built, according to municipal data. Of the total, 530 homes will have some type of public protection. The project had initial approval, but final approval was necessary to step on the accelerator.

Every 31 hours, a new villa is finished on rustic land in Mallorca. This means five per week in areas that should be designated for agricultural or natural uses, according to Terraferida's complaint. If we add the available data from Ibiza, we find that between the two islands, a new rustic house is finished every day. This is an accelerated process of land transformation that is no longer occasional but structural. Environmentalists are calling for it to be stopped immediately in Mallorca and the Pitiusas, as Menorca did more than 20 years ago, and for rustic land, considered "the crown jewel of the land," to be declared non-buildable, says Terraferida spokesperson Jaume Adrover.

The news, first reported by ARA Balears, about the Govern's authorization to demolish Pedro J. Ramírez's illegal pool took the case's complainant, Jaume Sastre, by surprise. "My lawyer is traveling and I don't know if they've notified us. Obviously, when I read it, I was happy because it's been many years of struggle, and it's one more step," he admits.

17,000 euros per night. This is the price that four people must pay if they want to sleep this Maundy Thursday at the tourist accommodation Villa Wave, a property in Ibiza of 280 square meters with five bedrooms, four bathrooms and sea views. The reservation is offered on one of the largest tourist accommodation portals, Booking.com, with a cost of 4,300 euros per person for only 24 hours of stay.

The Parliamentary Group of MÉS per Mallorca has informed the Parliament's Board that it will desist from processing any amendment to the Law on Strategic Projects that is not related to this regulation. In this way, the eco-sovereignists fully align themselves with the criteria of the chamber's jurists, who were very clear on the matter last week. As established by Article 125 of the regulations, amendments submitted to draft bills must be related to their subject matter, and only in case of unanimity among the members of the Board can an exception be made to introduce others.

A group of magnificent columnists are writing collectively this week what many of us think: it is urgent to change the economic model of the Balearic Islands. We all understand that this implies reducing a few million tourists and starting to truly bet on the primary sector and industry.

4,500 homes intended for residents only in Palma and a similar figure in the rest of the Balearic Islands. These are the forecasts of the Palma City Council and the Government to address the housing emergency suffered by citizens. These measures derive mainly from the legislation promoted by Prohens, based on the promotion of strategic residential projects. This is a figure that the sector considers reasonable, but with a key clarification: the majority of these homes will not be built for another five years.

Jaume Matas's time in regional politics will be remembered for decades, not only for the corruption cases that landed him in jail, but also for the financial burden he placed on the citizens of the Balearic Islands, who are still footing the multimillion-euro bill for his follies. The regional government will pay the final 2.7 million euros for the Palma Arena project in July: this infrastructure will have cost a total of 89.2 million euros, almost three times the initial estimate, and more than double the original tender amount.

Absolute majorities, or even significant majorities, are a thing of the past. Right now, both at the national level and in the Balearic Islands, we are witnessing the need to find ways to solve citizens' problems. But this isn't always the case. Small groups can wield excessive power over larger ones, and if this happens, it runs counter to the will of the people.

The Government is taking advantage of the parliamentary process for the decree-law promoting strategic projects to broaden the use of the "responsible declaration," a mechanism that allows citizens and businesses to ensure their compliance with the law without having to wait for the required permit. With the amendments presented this Thursday to the decree-law, the Popular Party's parliamentary group is significantly expanding the application of this mechanism. If the current wording is approved, the use of responsible declarations will apply to all procedures initiated by interested parties within the Balearic Islands' public administrations and instrumental public sector entities, provided they are accompanied by accredited documentation. This certification will be a document provided by a range of authorized entities, from professional associations to certified companies. The certifying entities will guarantee that the documentation accurately reflects the facts. Professional associations can do so within their areas of competence, chambers of commerce within their territorial scope, administrative certification bodies and entities regulated by sector-specific legislation, as well as other entities and legal persons that meet the solvency and efficiency requirements.

The Balearic Government is taking advantage of the amendments to the decree-law on strategic projects to carry out a profound reform of the Balearic Islands Tax Agency (ATIB), with the aim of regaining direct control over its management, especially in tax collection, which for years has been partially in the hands of a company owned by Gabriel Alzamora. The service provider has retired, and this situation has forced a series of reassessments that the Government is addressing with a structural change to the ATIB. The argument that motivated the partial outsourcing of the service was to increase the efficiency of tax collection, an objective that all governments have defended in the face of criticism of the model. Since the beginning of the 2010s, this partially outsourced management has been the subject of political and social controversy. Some sectors believed the winning company was reaping significant profits, while citizens and institutions identified shortcomings in efficiency, coordination, and transparency in tax collection, particularly in enforcement proceedings and appeals. The situation has changed, and the Executive has been preparing this operation for months. With the amendments presented by the Popular Party's parliamentary group, the Government proposes to directly manage the collection of taxes and other revenues for the Autonomous Community, the Health Service, and other dependent public entities and bodies, eliminating reliance on external managers and ensuring that management is entirely public. New organization

The reform also establishes a clearer and more functional organization for the ATIB, with departments and areas organized by subject matter, as well as central services and island delegations in Menorca, Ibiza, and Formentera to improve coordination, streamline processes, and allow each office to work efficiently within its territory. The collection area now assumes the functions related to the voluntary and enforced collection of regional and state taxes, the administrative review resulting from these actions, the management of taxes from other administrations delegated to the Balearic Islands, and the monitoring of insolvency proceedings affecting credits managed by the ATIB; all of this is coordinated with the regional legal department and under the supervision of the ATIB director. The amendment also allows the ATIB to accept powers delegated by municipalities and other local entities regarding the collection, assessment, inspection, and management of taxes and revenues through agreements.

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Ninety-three percent of the Posidonia seagrass specimens planted in Pollença Bay since 2018 have survived, which experts consider a significant success for this type of regenerative practice. The project, promoted by Redeia and the Mediterranean Institute for Advanced Studies (IMEDEA-CSIC), has consisted of the "active restoration of Posidonia oceanica in the Bay of Pollença,” as spokespeople from both institutions explained this morning in Esporles. According to the project's final report, the survival rate of the transplanted specimens confirms the initiative's strength and effectiveness.

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The Balearic Government is working on a new label, "Product Made in the Balearic Islands," which will allow manufacturers to promote their products made in the Islands, even if they use materials and raw materials from elsewhere. The initiative comes after current regulations on local products require that at least 50% of the ingredients be from the Islands for a product to bear the "Product of the Balearic Islands" label. This criterion, which many in the production sector fully understand, excludes many products made in the archipelago but with raw materials from elsewhere. This is the case, for example, with certain cheeses made with imported milk, cookies made with foreign flour, and traditional almond and coffee products that are made with imported ingredients. Although these products have a manufacturing process entirely rooted in the Islands, current regulations prevent them from obtaining official recognition as local products. According to the Director General of Industry, Alfons Gómez, the Balearic Government has made significant progress on the draft of the new seal, which "will allow, for example, a bleach producer to highlight that the process was carried out in the Islands, even if the ingredients used are not." In such a small territory, "it's not easy for raw materials to come from the Balearic Islands, but if processors add value, as is the case with many well-known brands, it's absurd that this cannot be recognized," he told ARA Baleares. "It's possible to differentiate between products with local ingredients and products made in the Islands, with a transparent system that reflects the production phase that does take place in the archipelago," he added. The measure aims to recognize and promote industrial and artisanal activity in the Balearic Islands and make it easier for consumers to identify products made in the Islands, even if they don't meet the 50% local ingredient requirement. It also aims to enhance the visibility of the work of local producers and boost the food and manufacturing industry of the Archipelago. considered by most experts as a catalyst for change in the current economic model, based on tourism monoculture.

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Until the 1970s, one in three workers in the Balearic Islands was employed in industry. The islands manufactured a large part of what they used and even exported to mainland Spain and abroad. Today, the figures are different and show how this sector, considered strategic and essential for creating quality jobs, is practically negligible in the overall economy and continues to lose ground. Tourism has become so dominant that, at best, industry represents 5% of economic activity. According to data from the Balearic Government, which uses less restrictive parameters, there are approximately 6,000 companies. According to the Impulsa Foundation database, the figure is less than 700.

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