While institutions repeat the mantra of tourism containment, the machinery of promotion and the search for new markets to attract more tourists does not stop. In the case of the Council of Mallorca, the Minister of Tourism, Guillem Ginard, and the Island Director of Demand and Hospitality, Tomeu Ferragut, will meet with representatives of Turespaña in Italy, the United States, Japan, and the United Arab Emirates, countries that the island institution considers "markets of strategic interest" for the island. The meetings will take place during the Turespaña convention, from October 20 to 22, in Zaragoza.

The Government control session at the Parliament plenary stopped being about control a long time ago; it does not just come from this legislature. Now it is a boxing ring, a battlefield, where the one who lands the strongest dialectical punch wins, only to later show on social media how witty these politicians are. The rules are lax: bad jokes, offensive pranks, absurd comments, and repetitions ad infinitum are admitted. In view of the state of things, it is a good time to recognize those citizens who listen to the Parliament plenary sessions – in person or via YouTube – with the hope of finding an example of constructive politics.

The ultra-Catholic group Christian Lawyers applauded this Thursday that the Provincial Court of the Balearic Islands has reopened the case regarding the Saint Sebastian Q+ poster that artist Lluïsa Febrer created to promote a party organized by Unides Podem at the beginning of 2025. This ultra organization recalls that it filed a complaint against Podem, the party's coordinator in the Balearic Islands, Lucía Muñoz, and Febrer for a possible crime of mockery, since the poster "represented the saint in demonic sexual scenes". "It is a very important victory against those who intend to use freedom of expression as an excuse to humiliate Christians," stated the president of Christian Lawyers, Polonia Castellanos.

The First Vice President and Minister of Economy, Finance and Innovation of the Government, Antoni Costa, admitted this Wednesday "some delays" in aid to economic sectors to deal with the crisis derived from the war in Ukraine. Costa met with economic and social agents affected by the price increases caused by the war to analyze the situation and propose measures to contain energy costs, the EFE agency reported. Precisely this Wednesday, it became known that the Consumer Price Index (CPI) rose to 5.1% in the Balearic Islands in September, compared to the same month last year. This is seven tenths higher than in August, with prices chaining five consecutive months of increases in the Islands. Transport led the increase, with 7.7% more than in September 2025. Restaurants and accommodation services show a price increase of 6.8%. Costa has described the rise in prices in the Balearic Islands as "worrying".

Alfonso Rodríguez announced this Wednesday that he will leave his post as delegate of the Spanish government in the Balearic Islands to dedicate himself fully to preparing for the May 2027 elections and attempting to regain the mayoralty of Calvià. Rodríguez stated that this decision has nothing to do with the general elections on November 29, which "have crossed paths" with his decision, made since he announced he would run in the municipal elections.

For a good part of society, housing is currently 'The Problem'. There are those who have lost their home, who are waiting to lose it, who do not know if they will lose it... The social outburst has surprised no one. In any case, what is surprising is that it has been a civic outburst. Unfortunately, for a good part of the politicians, housing is the star topic of the campaign, the weapon to throw in the rival's face, an empty word. Because the bricks of the building of this economic sector that we call politics are precisely that, words that the professionals of speeches have emptied of content: 'democracy', 'freedom', 'equality', 'rights', etc.

Some illustrious representatives of the PP have demanded that the squares remain clear of grumbling campers. This has been done by the president of the Community of Madrid, Isabel Díaz Ayuso, and the mayor of Madrid, José Luis Martínez Almeida. Of course, the mayor of Palma, Jaime Martínez, has also complained about the encampment in Plaza de España. Furthermore, he has offered us a display of demagoguery by having used the complaints from Flama regarding sexist behavior by some campers. A behavior that the collective itself has criticized.

"I have never had to vote for something different from what I believed." Josep Castells (Barcelona, 1970) made this reflection in September, when he announced that he would leave politics at the end of the term, after 12 years as a deputy for Més per Menorca in the Parliament. He acknowledges that maintaining coherence is a privilege in current times, when many politicians are subject to the discipline of state parties. And he also emphasizes that, despite everything he has experienced during these three terms, he still maintains the naivety of thinking that things can be changed, even if only a little.

The Minister of Health, Manuela García, appeared this Wednesday before the Parliament's Health Commission, six months after the PSIB made an urgent request for her to provide explanations regarding the collapse of the Balearic public health system. García has denied that there is a collapse and has defended her management. What she did do was justify the strain on the system with the growth and aging of the population. "Not only are there more of us, but we are living longer. Since the legislature began, there are 40,000 more people entitled to healthcare benefits," she remarked at the beginning of her appearance – right now there are 1,258,490 people in the Islands with a health card. As she explained, primary care centers handle an average of 33,643 consultations every day. "In hospitals, 1,522 emergencies are attended to, 223 surgical interventions are performed, and around 5,840 specialized consultations are conducted," she detailed. García also highlighted the increase in chronic patients on the Islands, a fact derived from aging. With 210,230 people over 65 years of age – 59,117 over 80 – "34,406 complex chronic patients and 2,549 advanced chronic patients" have been identified.

The PP voted this Tuesday at the Parliament plenary session against a PSIB bill that established the mechanism for town councils to request the declaration of a stressed zone and limit rental prices. So far, this fits the measures defended by Marga Prohens' party, which bets on increasing housing supply as a mechanism to lower prices, even though the cost escalation does not stop (the Socialists speak of a 30% increase in rent and a 40% increase in purchase price since the beginning of the legislature). A clarification: the initiative did not imply that the Government would make any declaration of a stressed zone, but rather allowed town councils to declare their municipalities as such. This is precisely the path that the Xunta of the Popular Party's Alfonso Rueda found to apply the State Housing Law in Galicia, a measure that town councils like A Coruña and Santiago de Compostela had demanded. In fact, the text of the PSIB's proposal is based precisely on the Galician model, and this is the model that the Balearic PP has rejected at the Parliament plenary session, where it was not even taken into consideration (Vox also voted against it), so the processing that would have allowed for amendments and negotiations was not opened.

"We invested 150,000 euros to transform mobile coverage antennas and satellite data into occupancy sensors at 150 beaches in the Balearic Islands. This data, together with that provided in real time by lifeguards and the history from previous years, has allowed for the generation of a predictive model within the beach application to have an approximation of the influx that there may be over the next six days." This is how the Vice President of the Government and Minister of Economy, Finance and Innovation, Antoni Costa, responded to the question from Més per Menorca deputy Joana Gomila regarding the 4 million euro investment in smart sensors that the Executive announced at Fitur in January 2026. That is to say, one of the methods that the Government has used to measure the influx at the beaches has been the count made by the lifeguards and the data from mobile coverage antennas.

In a television commercial from a few years ago, the players of a board game accepted the absurdity of considering an octopus as a pet in order to continue the game. In the same way goes the game regarding containment in the Islands. The Government boasts about something it calls 'containment', while the number of tourists has not stopped breaking records. It remains to be seen if this year we will reach 20 million tourists.

'Parliament' comes from the verb 'to speak', not from 'to listen', 'to negotiate', 'to dialogue', 'to reflect'. It is enough to spend a while in our Chamber to verify it. What it is about every Tuesday is to place one's own monologue and to get on top of the other. Debate? What is that? The deputies and the ministers are there to have their say, receive applause from their colleagues and leave for home satisfied if they have managed to post some video on social networks.

Psychologists Lynn Hasher, David Goldstein, and Thomas Toppino named the illusory truth effect in 1977. According to this cognitive bias, people tend to perceive information they have heard repeatedly as more true and reliable than information they receive for the first time. In other words, repetition is an effective tool of persuasion: it makes a message gain credibility through the act of hearing it. That said, I do not know if our politicians have ever studied the illusory truth effect, but they certainly master it to perfection, even if only intuitively.

The philosopher Marina Garcès explains that we are no longer in the postmodern condition, but in the posthumous condition (please, read Radical New Enlightenment if you haven't already). And she speaks of "a period of grace that we give ourselves when we have already conceived and partly accepted the real possibility of our own end". In this way, we (mal)live asking ourselves when it will all end, because the narrative of "the irreversible destruction of our living conditions" has been imposed.

The Government presented the Housing Observatory this Thursday, and a glance at its website is enough to verify the participation of Alquiler Seguro in this organization, where it collaborates through the foundation it established in 2019. The problem hidden behind this collaboration between Alquiler Seguro and the Government's Ministry of Housing is that the Ministry of Social Rights, Consumer Affairs and Agenda 2030 sanctioned it in December 2025 with a fine of 3.6 million euros for making irregular charges to tenants following a complaint from the consumer federation Facua. The Spanish government dismissed the company's appeal and ratified the fine in April 2026. The ministry headed by Pablo Bustinduy determined that the company had committed six very serious infractions and one other serious one.

Manuel Pavón was appointed Director General of Immigration and Development on July 15, 2025, a position with an inherent paradox, because it is the State that decides on borders, expulsions, residence permits, and regularizations. Pavón's scope of action focuses on managing what happens afterwards: integration, reception, services, and coordination with organizations. Thus: what has this Government Directorate General done for almost a year and three months? Sources from the Ministry of the Presidency, on which Pavón depends, reduce his time of action: during the second half of 2025, no concrete initiatives can be detailed because Pavón entered in July and began meeting with third-sector entities, consulates, and foundations. That is to say, the first months in the position could be considered as a period of making contact. The same sources recall that last summer there was "the largest wave of small boats until then." But the management of borders and irregular arrivals is not the responsibility of this Directorate General.