These are times of emergency, when finding housing that we can afford is more difficult than ever, almost impossible. It's not just about having a roof over our heads to sleep under: housing has a dimension that goes much further, that is part of people's emotional experiences. There are houses that are homes, places of happiness, welcome, and refuge. Others are simply passing places, with a limited imprint on the personal stories of those who have spent time within those four walls. This is precisely what the project Homes explores, by the collective La forma dels somnis (formed by people from the Degree in Catalan Language and Literature at the UIB, the Mental Health area of the Hospital Comarcal d’Inca, and the association La Nostra Veu).

These are times of emergency, when finding housing that we can afford is more difficult than ever, almost impossible. It's not just about having a roof over our heads to sleep under: housing has a dimension that goes much further, that is part of people's emotional experiences. There are houses that are homes, places of happiness, welcome, and refuge. Others are simply passing places, with a limited imprint on the personal stories of those who have spent time within those four walls. This is precisely what the project Homes explores, by the collective La forma dels somnis (formed by people from the Degree in Catalan Language and Literature at the UIB, the Mental Health area of the Hospital Comarcal d’Inca, and the association La Nostra Veu).

"Stop making a fool of yourself and deceiving. You, ideology and zero management": this is the accusation that the Minister of the Presidency, Antònia Maria Estarellas, launched at the PSIB deputy Omar Lamin during Tuesday's Parliament session. What kind of accusation is it to tell a politician they have ideology, when it is precisely the ideology of public representatives that determines a good part of citizens' lives? At this point, it is worth remembering what Slavoj Žižek says, who considers that the most dangerous ideology is precisely the one we pretend not to have. It is not an theoretical extravagance. Jürgen Habermas also warned that technical rationality —what we would call 'management' today— can impose values while presenting itself as neutral. And Thomas Piketty has been reminding us for years that behind many technical decisions lie very specific ideological choices about inequality. From this, an uncomfortable conclusion emerges: 'management' is often not the alternative to ideology, but its best disguise.

"Healthcare [assistance] for people without legal residence represents 1%. We must attend to them for reasons of humanity and public health." This is how Prohens spoke in the Parliament plenary on Tuesday about what the attention to migrants means for the services of the Islands, who, despite residing in the Balearic Islands, have not yet regularized their administrative situation. The president had to respond to a question from Vox about the healthcare spending for the attention of people in an irregular situation, a pointless request, as Prohens herself made clear: "IB-Salut only has one budget and one accounting, and no items are distinguished based on where they come from." "A public representative should know this," she reproached the spokesperson for the far-right, Manuela Cañadas, who this Wednesday has accused the Government of opacity for not making non-existent data public. "Mrs. Prohens has decided that the money of all citizens is a state secret," criticized Cañadas.

MÉS per Mallorca has accused the Director General of Agriculture, Fernando Fernández —who already held the position last term with Podem— of favoring speculation with l’Esplet, the old potato export terminal in sa Pobla, whose warehouse has been sold for five million euros. The spokesperson for MÉS in Parliament, Lluís Apesteguia, recalled in Tuesday's plenary session that Fernández decided to divest himself of the Government's shares just before the 2023 elections, an operation that benefited the rest of the shareholders, including "an employer linked to the PP" and Asaja, "the employers' association where the current minister Joan Simonet worked".

The president of the Consell de Mallorca, Llorenç Galmés, has taken advantage of the island institution's general policy debate to make the umpteenth announcement about the island's tourist capacity ceiling. This time, Galmés has once again announced that he will reduce the number of places, just two months after the insular Minister of Tourism, Guillem Ginard, indicated that they would not be cut because it was not an urgent measure. However, after three years of contradictory announcements, the Consell has not made any decision on the capacity ceiling beyond saying that it will do one thing or another. Currently, the ceiling in Mallorca is 430,000 tourist places.

The apocalypse is approaching while the President of the Government, Marga Prohens, learns to dance bachata and someone in her cabinet, in a fit of inspiration, decides this is relevant enough information to share with the world. As could be expected, the PSIB reminded everyone of this throughout the six hours of the Parliament session on Tuesday. The Chamber increasingly resembles a stand-up comedy stage: everyone brings their prepared monologue, and if it goes well, the audience might even laugh for a while.

Why do we try so hard to be nice and friendly? Friendliness is exhausting in general, both our own and that of others. Furthermore, it is often false, because nice people know, even if intuitively, that hypocrisy is the basis of good manners. We not only don't say what we think, but we tell lies to get along with others, so they think we are civilized and not barbarians.

Although he arrived in Mallorca from Bolivia, Farouk Pino and his wife, Claudia Andrade, have held Spanish nationality for a decade. Pino has been at the helm of Bolivia Centro Social for 15 years, an organization through which he has built networks with associations and individuals of diverse backgrounds living in the Balearic Islands. Concerned about the rise of the far right, this activist makes his voice heard in Palma City Council meetings, where he denounces the policies of Vox and the PP.

In the midst of a political drought in the Balearic Islands, we can summarize the week in just two words: Caribbean and war. The PSIB has seized upon the trip of the President of the Government, Marga Prohensin the Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico, and has not tired of repeating, often shouting, that the president is not in a catastrophic, terrible, apocalyptic moment for the Islands, affected by the crisis of the Iran war. The socialists have turned it into a mantra, but some journalists were about to bet on whether they would reach a hundred times or not.

The Balearic agricultural sector has conveyed its concern to the Government regarding the rise in fuel prices due to the Iran-Contra conflict. According to an internal calculation, product prices will increase in approximately one month if they do not receive aid, representatives of the farmers informed the Vice President of the Government, Antoni Costa, this Wednesday. This was explained by Jerónima Bonafé, representative of the Balearic Agri-food Cooperatives, after the meeting, as reported by Europa Press. Bonafé emphasized that fuel prices have increased by more than 60% in less than a month, and also explained that the Government has committed to providing aid to the sector to mitigate the price increases. However, the Government wants to wait to coordinate these measures with the initiatives that the Spanish Executive will announce on Friday after the Council of Ministers meeting.

The Council of Mallorca has presented an appeal to the Supreme Court to try to definitively eliminate the bus/HOV lane on the Ma-19 motorway, the road that connects Palma with the airport. This was announced on Monday by the Island Councilor for Territory, Mobility, and Infrastructure, Fernando Rubio, at a press conference. He explained that the legal argument for the appeal is based on technical reports from the Island Council that support the removal of the lane, which should be "binding," just as they were when it was implemented. Rubio argued that this infrastructure "has not produced the desired effects" and that, therefore, the Island Council has opted for this legal route after the High Court of Justice of Madrid (TSJM) issued a ruling just a month ago in favor of maintaining the lane. In any case, the implementation of the bus/HOV lane has been suspended since 2024 due to various road infrastructure works on the island. Once these are completed, it should be reinstated unless the courts decide otherwise. The regional minister also announced that new works to improve safety on the highway median will begin "shortly" and that work on the first section of the second ring road will start in a few months.

Once the last plenary session of the Parliament had ended, the president of Memoria de Mallorca, Maria Antònia OliverShe re-entered the room. She needed to make one last gesture before leaving, and placed her red handkerchief on the table where the Prime Minister was still sitting. Marga Prohens"Truth, justice, and reparation," he said and left. He did so in protest against the repeal of the Democratic Memory Law, swiftly struck down at the initiative of the far right, supported by the PP. Vox celebrated it as another victory, while the Popular Party simply weathered the storm as best they could. No applause, no congratulations, just perfunctory smiles. "We're the only normal party," the PP spokesperson, Sebastià Sagreras, was heard saying once the plenary session ended. You know how it is: non-small excusatio, manifest accusatioIn other words, perhaps you should get it checked out if you feel the need to justify your behavior.

"Law 2/2018 (...) on memory and democratic recognition in the Balearic Islands will be repealed, and reconciliation will always be sought, avoiding historical manipulation and the partisan use of the victims and the tragedy of the civil conflict. Policies will be implemented to facilitate the recovery of deceased persons, without discrimination based on any grounds." "of monuments and historical elements, ensuring their proper maintenance and understanding within their historical context." This is what point 48 of the governance agreement signed by the PP and Vox on June 28th states, an agreement that was enacted in the plenary session of Parliament this Tuesday.

The deception isn't sophisticated, but it is effective. The wheel of the system turns in favor of the capitalists, who always win in this roulette of bad luck. On the other hand, there are the poor, who rent out their bodies and brains by the hour in exchange for a wage they must spend to feed the 'natural' state of things.

"Rape of dolls and women," "jihadist terrorism in the streets of Europe," "savage knife attacks resulting in amputations," collapse of public services, "cultural impoverishment in schools," "imposition of cultures"... This was the litany of accusations that the Parliaments had to listen to. The Vox spokesperson, Manuela CañadasShe won the award for the most racist speech, surrounded by silence and with the mocking smile of the Speaker of the House, Gabriel Le Senne, who did not intervene to stop the debate's drift.