The Government approved this Friday the mobilization of 15.3 million euros for a social package that complements the anti-crisis decree law. The Executive has divided the social shield into two decree laws: the first, which contained the economic measures aimed at the sectors most affected by the war in the Middle East, was approved at the end of March with the support of the PSIB and the vote against Vox. The parties have not yet commented on whether they will support this new measure. However, on this occasion, the PP has taken into account the demand for national priority established by Vox in the package of aid approved by the Consell de Mallorca, and will also require a minimum number of years of residence for anyone wishing to access direct aid.

The Government has approved this Friday the mobilization of 15.3 million euros for a social package that complements the anti-crisis decree law. The Executive has divided the social shield into two decree laws: the first, which contained the economic measures directed at the sectors most affected by the war in the Middle East, was approved at the end of March with the support of the PSIB and the vote against from Vox. The parties have not yet commented on whether they will support this new measure. However, this time the PP has taken into account the demand for national priority established by Vox in the package of aid approved by the Consell de Mallorca, and will also require a minimum of years of residence for those who wish to access direct aid.

The second vice-president of the Consell de Mallorca, Pedro Bestard, appeared this Thursday before the Transparency Commission of the Consell de Mallorca to give explanations on the use he has made of two vehicles of the island institution. But, beyond denying personal use, Bestard has not provided any concrete information. He has explained, however, that his department is scattered throughout the island and that this forces him to travel. "If I go from Manacor to Alcudia and I have to stop to eat in Ses Torres, I will stop. Or in Es Cruce," he said at one point during his speech, during which he did not clarify whether he ordered the vehicles to be left unlabeled, nor the routes, nor the kilometers traveled, nor why two Consell cars have also been seen spending the night in front of his house. On this occasion, Bestard arrived at the Consell in an official car with a chauffeur and demanded that, once the reports commissioned by President Llorenç Galmés are released, the left-wing parties apologize to him. "I want them to apologize to me publicly," he snapped at the PSOE spokesperson, Catalina Cladera.

The Government plans the implementation of an Engineering faculty of the University of the Balearic Islands (UIB) in the Balearic Park of Technological Innovation, the Parc Bit in Palma. It is the main bet of the Ministry of Economy and Finance to boost this business park in the technological field. This is confirmed to ARA Balears by sources from the department, who detail that the project would serve to complement the main research centers in the Islands, along with the UIB campus and the Health Research Institute (IdISBa). The same sources point out that the distance between the university campus and Parc Bit is a few minutes by bicycle and only 1.5 minutes by metro, which is why they consider it relevant to foster dialogue between the two spaces. However, this is a proposal that would see the light of day with a view to the next legislature.

New offensive by PP and Vox against the extraordinary regularization of immigrants. The two parties voted this Tuesday in favor of a Non-Law Proposal (PNL) rejecting this measure promoted by the government of Spain, which could affect some 30,000 residents in the Islands. The text also demands the "repatriation of all migrants who illegally access" Spain, and also that of unaccompanied minors, in addition to the "deportation of any legal or illegal immigrant who commits serious crimes or makes minor offenses their way of life".

The PP and Vox pact in the Balearic Islands had just been signed when Marga Prohens gave an order that, over time, has become an internal benchmark of her term. It was October 17, 2023, and Parliament was debating a non-binding proposal (PNL) from Vox with no legal effect on Catalan in schools. Despite its symbolic nature, the text specified a point of the agreement between the two parties that the PP had deliberately left open: how the free choice of language should be applied. When Prohens opted to abstain, the initiative failed and the first crisis with her partners opened up. The clash resulted, shortly after, in Vox's rejection of the incoming government's first spending ceiling. "We lost a fundamental law over a PNL," recalls a Popular Party source ironically. Now that the PP is once again revving up its electoral machinery, party sources recall this episode as one that best explains the first three years of the legislature.

Marga Prohens recovered at the presentation of her candidacy to lead the PP a slogan from the 2023 electoral campaign: “We are the party of the local people”. How has this translated into the Government's management?

Every time a rental contract ends and needs to be renewed, tenants face a possible price increase. In the Balearic Islands, due to the context of constant demand increase, this rise can be significant. After the fall of the royal decree-law that established an automatic extension of contracts ending in 2026 and 2027, up to 40,000 tenants in the Islands (according to data from the Ministry of Social Rights and Consumer Affairs) may once again be faced with this situation. However, the Balearic Government will not take any alternative measures to compensate these residents.

"It is impossible to put an end to illegal tourist offerings." This is how forceful an inspector from the Consell de Mallorca, who wishes to remain anonymous, is in conversation with ARA Balears. She knows firsthand the work done by the 26 inspectors of this island institution, who monitor both regulated and unregulated offerings. According to this source's account, it is much easier to detect infringements by licensed owners than to penalize those who operate outside the system. "It's not easy at all to prove there's illegal offering," she points out: "They are very clever." In this regard, she warns that, although fines have been toughened, her perception is that "very many procedures expire.

"Private property is defended, and squatters are removed within 24 hours." This is how the president of the Govern, Marga Prohens, responded to a parliamentary question from Unides Podem about the social function of housing. In the same vein, she accused the purple deputy José María García of wanting to equate "doing social housing policy with protecting criminals, defending occupation, and placing social responsibility on the shoulders of property owners".

PP and MÉS per Mallorca have allied to vote in favor of airport co-management in this Tuesday's plenary session. The two parliamentary groups have railed against Aena for its "expansionist logic" and their "colonial treatment" respectively. The spokesperson for the eco-sovereignists, Lluís Apesteguia, has railed against the company and its president, Maurici Lucena, for hindering the movement of residents. "We are condemned to more overcrowding and saturation to maximize Aena's profits," he denounced.

The PP and MÉS per Mallorca have allied to vote in favor of airport co-management in Tuesday's plenary session. The two parliamentary groups have criticized Aena for its "expansionist logic" and its "colonial treatment" respectively. The spokesperson for the ecosovereignists, Lluís Apesteguia, has criticized the company and its president, Maurici Lucena, for hindering the movement of residents. "We are condemned to more massification and saturation to maximize Aena's profits," he denounced.

The spokesperson for the parliamentary group of Vox, Manuela Cañadas, has accused President Marga Prohens of "falling into contradiction when criticizing the national priority clause. The Popular Party member distanced herself yesterday from this idea, included in the agreements between the PP and Vox in Extremadura and Aragon, and called it "populism." In response to these statements, Cañadas has asked if, for the same reason, Prohens' government "is populist": "It is already applying a national priority thanks to the demands of Vox".

More than 30,000 undocumented immigrants in the Islands now have the possibility to emerge from invisibility. Since April 16, long queues at town halls have become the image of the extraordinary regularization driven by the Spanish government. They have been preparing documentation for months, but until the last minute they did not know that they would also need a vulnerability certificate, and that explains, in part, the system's saturation. "I don't understand why they want it, if all of us who are undocumented are vulnerable," reflects Abdou, a 32-year-old Senegalese man. Despite this, the priority is clear. "Even if we have to lose days of work: papers are papers," assures Khalid.

Marga Prohens has hung up her presidential robes, put on some jeans, and bet everything on blue in her first purely electoral event, this Thursday in Portitxol.remodelled once) without seats, while the deputy spokesperson in the Parliament, Marga Duran, acted as an improvised hostess and directed the attendees.

The doctor in Political Science from the University of Valencia and author of La extrema dreta a Europa (Tirant), Anna Isabel López Ortega, considers the agreement between the PP and Vox in Extremadura "a warning for navigators with neon lights": "It marks a turning point for future agreements". Especially, due to its harshness in the anti-immigration discourse, because the text of the agreement proposes, for the first time, a clause of "national priority" to access public aid or subsidized housing in general. In fact, the two parties have already replicated the formula in Aragon, and are beginning to bring national priority to debate in other institutions, such as Congress or the Balearic Parliament.

The Government has achieved the support of the PSIB, MÉS per Mallorca and the deputy for Formentera for the anti-crisis decree to face the price increase due to the war in Iran. Vox voted against it, arguing that it is a stratagem by the PP to push through hidden budgets. "We will not be accomplices of this mockery," said Cañadas: "They are taking advantage of it to push through budgets".

Ever since Spanish president Pedro Sánchez recovered the historic slogan 'No to war' (which refers to the social rejection of the invasion of Iraq in 2003), the PP has been uncomfortable. At first, the leader of the PP, Alberto Núñez Feijóo, insisted that "the relationship with the United States (US) must be preserved", and avoided a frontal rejection of the war in Iran. But little by little, the popular party has been modulating its discourse. Especially since the conflict has generated a price increase in the State as a whole. In the plenary session of the Parliament this Tuesday, the first vice-president and Minister of Economy and Finance, Antoni Costa, joined Sánchez's slogan without reservations: "We say no to war, no to any war, and no to a war that has consequences on the daily lives of the Islands".

The Government has secured the support of the PSIB, MÉS per Mallorca, and the deputy for Formentera for the anti-crisis decree to address the price increase due to the war in Iran. Vox has voted against it, arguing that it is a PP stratagem to push through a hidden budget. "We will not be accomplices in this mockery," said Cañadas: "They are using it to push through a budget."

The PP and the PSIB continue to fight for the extraordinary regularization of immigrants approved by the Spanish government. The President of the Government raised her tone this Tuesday and once again attacked the measure, insisting that it fosters "a pull effect in the midst of an unprecedented migration crisis." In line with her Extremaduran counterpart, María Guardiola, Prohens insists on the anti-immigration discourse, a banner that the PP has set out to dispute with Vox.