A new call to fill Palma

The discontent against tourist overcrowding will return to the streets this summer. The platform Menys Turisme, Més Vida (Less Tourism, More Life) has called a new large demonstration in Palma for July 26 at 7:00 PM with the aim of repeating the massive mobilizations of recent years and placing the tourism model back at the center of political and social debate.

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Ibiza constitutes a tourist offering without competition. It sounds exaggerated but it is not. What makes the difference are the discotheques, the best in the world, as recognized by several awards in the last couple of years (the Golden Moon Awards and the annual DJ Mag ranking). Clubs have always been the distinctive Ibizan element, but their weight in the overall offering has skyrocketed since the Matutes Group entered the business with three large venues: Ushuaïa, Hï, and for two seasons now, UNVRS. Right now in Ibiza you can party at night or during the day, under the stroboscopic lights of a club or on a beach, it doesn't matter.

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It can be listed in any order, but the fact is that housing, saturation, and mobility are the major structural problems that the citizens of the Balearic Islands have been dragging since the beginning of the last legislature, that of the Pact. Governments, headlines, announcements, and press conferences have passed, but the difficulties have shown their resilience and public policies have not even been able to diminish them.

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Caritas Mallorca provided care and support to 6,976 people in 2025, 10.4% less than the previous year, according to the report the entity presented this Thursday and which was disseminated by Europa Press. The director of Caritas Mallorca, Esther Romero, stressed that housing is "the epicenter of inequality" in the Balearic Islands. In fact, 49.5% of the people Caritas has assisted in Mallorca lived in shared houses with people with no degree of kinship – 4.4 points above 2024 – and 40.5% in sublet accommodations. This turns the homes where these people reside into "survival spaces", with a "lack of privacy" and where "conflicts deteriorate the physical and mental health of families".

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The Local Police of Sant Josep has dismantled an illegal settlement in a protected area of the Ses Salines Natural Park (Ibiza) and has issued a dozen fines with sanctions ranging from 10,000 to 30,000 euros.

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Jaime Palomera (Barcelona, 1983) is part of the Urban Research Institute of Barcelona (IDRA) and is one of the founders of the Tenants' Union. A year ago he published the book The Housing Heist (Pòrtic Editorial), which attempts to explain how the gap is widening between rich landlords, who are getting richer and richer, and tenants, who are getting poorer and poorer.

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The Palma City Council has advocated for the forced eviction of the old prison, where about 80 people currently live, even though the Bishopric of Mallorca has requested it be done in stages, as reported by Europa Press. The spokesperson for Cort, Mercedes Celeste, referred to Bishop Sebastià Taltavull's request after the Governing Board meeting. Taltavull maintains that the residents' reception must be done in a "personalized" way and in small groups to offer specific attention. "We cannot receive 100 people en masse because we wouldn't know where to put them," said the bishop, who reiterated his willingness to collaborate in assisting those affected. Despite the request, Cort has approved the forced eviction "through direct compulsion on individuals." That is, there is the green light to remove residents using physical force.

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A woman who is a victim of gender-based violence was evicted this Tuesday from the home where she had been renting since 2018, in the Palma neighborhood of Santa Catalina. The Stop Evictions Mallorca platform has stated that the eviction of this person "was carried out even though a document was submitted this Monday to request the annulment of proceedings, and which was pending resolution".

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A building on Manuel Sanchis Guarner street in Palma had to be temporarily evacuated this Saturday after a part of the false ceiling of a dwelling detached. The incident, which caused no injuries, occurred at 12:30 PM and mobilized the Palma Firefighters.

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The difficulty in accessing housing and the high cost of living continue to take their toll on public healthcare in the Balearic Islands. The SATSE Nursing Union has reported that 80 nurses have left the Balearic Islands between January 1 and May 15, a situation it directly attributes to the impossibility for many professionals to maintain themselves economically in the Archipelago.

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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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The residential market in Menorca is increasingly out of reach for those who live there year-round. However, for the first time, proposals and measures are being put on the table that do not consist solely of ceding land to Ibavi for it to promote social housing. The island's Council is promoting the purchase of unoccupied private buildings, and experts and business people suggest that land be reserved for residents to separate this offer from the one that now dominates the market, aimed at attracting the attention of the wealthy.

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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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The Government has expanded the "Lloguer segur" (Safe Rental) program after the initiative's failure: only 82 homes have joined after a year and a half, when at least 2,000 were expected. The Minister of Housing, José Luis Mateo, explained that multi-property owners, homes pending renovation, and apartments from tourist rentals will also be allowed to join the program. As well as properties affected by illegal occupations or an eviction process due to non-payment. In these cases, the general requirement that the homes have been vacant for at least six months will be waived.

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The Government has expanded the Safe Rental program after the failure of the initiative: only 82 homes have joined after a year and a half, when at least 2,000 were expected. The Minister of Housing, José Luis Mateo, has explained that multiproperty owners, homes pending renovation, and apartments from tourist rentals will also be allowed to join the program, in addition to properties affected by illegal occupations or non-payment eviction proceedings. In these cases, the general requirement that the homes have been vacant for at least six months will be waived.

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While the Parliament began to process the reform of the Law of capital of Palma, a hundred people had already received the order to leave the old prison without knowing where they will live when the judicial process ends. This image summarizes the political moment that the Balearic Islands are going through. The capital that the mayor Jaime Martínez claims as the economic and institutional engine of the Islands is also the scene where many of the tensions that have marked the PP's return to the main institutions are concentrated: the housing crisis, tourist saturation, demographic pressure caused by the need for labor in the tourist economic model, the fragility of public services, and a discourse increasingly obsessed with poor migrants.

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The Plenary of the Consell de Mallorca approved this Thursday the free transfer to the Balearic Housing Institute of the land located next to the Illes Balears Velodrome, in Palma, so that more than 300 public protection homes can be built. Thus, the announcement made by President Llorenç Galmés in the General Policy Debate held on March 30 to "provide a response and solution to the main problem of the Majorcans: access to housing" becomes effective.

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The Palma City Council has announced that it will go to the points where caravanners gather, such as Ciudad Jardín, to fine and "restore order" because "in Palma and in the Balearic Islands there is no place for motorhomes to set up, do tourism or camp".

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The Government will expand the safe rental program this Friday after its scarce results. As ARA Balears advanced, it has been nine months since the Executive internally admitted the failure of this measure, which was supposed to achieve between 2,000 and 3,000 homes in a first phase, and so far it has only mobilized 87. That is why it has been forced to modify its operation.

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Tourist overcrowding continues to occupy a good part of the political and municipal debate in Mallorca. Last Thursday, mayors, councilors, and municipal representatives from MÉS per Mallorca met in Binissalem to share the problems that, they assure, are already evident in many towns on the island, coinciding with the constant increase in visitors and pressure on the territory.

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