In the year 2000, 10 million tourists arrived in the Balearic Islands. In the year 2026, 20 million will arrive. For years, some political leaders tried to make us believe that tourist saturation was just a perception. Today, however, hardly anyone doubts that the Balearic Islands are suffering from a serious problem of overmassification.

The environmental organization Terraferida considers that the debate on water in the Balearic Islands cannot be limited to the construction of new desalination plants, as the Government proposes. Its spokesperson, Jaume Adrover, maintains that the problem is older: the territorial model has allowed for decades for dispersed urban growth and housing on rural land to increase pressure on aquifers, which are a public good. "I don't know of any place on the planet where such an abusive consumption of water is made as here due to chalets on rural land," states Adrover, who links this situation with the expansion of single-family housing outside urban centers.

New song against tourist overcrowding, land exploitation, the Balearic economic model, and real estate speculation. Pepet i Marieta have released Ses platges seran sempre nostres, a Mediterranean roots jota that reflects on some of the consequences of tourist overcrowding in Mallorca and the gentrification affecting neighborhoods and municipalities in the Balearic Islands. The song arrives at a time when the debate on the tourism model occupies a central space in Balearic current affairs, coinciding with the call for the 'Mallorca al límit!' demonstration, scheduled for this Sunday in Palma to denounce the effects of tourist saturation on the island.

Although state statistics speak of a global decrease in sales by foreigners in recent months, in the Balearic Islands the reality is quite different: according to the latest data from the Ministry of Housing and Urban Agenda, in 2025 these citizens acquired four out of every ten properties over €500,000 sold. A proportion that doubles any figure from other autonomous communities.

The Omnibus Law was intended to be an instrument for regulating strategic business projects and will go down in history as one of the most deregulatory norms regarding territorial and environmental matters. Among its provisions, there is one that eliminates the restrictions that the Government (former PP councilor Gabriel Company) had promoted to limit the establishment of catering establishments in the maritime-terrestrial public domain.

He was manager for a brief period of the Palau de Congressos de Palma and, therefore, also knows public management. However, Josep Sintes has dedicated a good part of recent years to studying the phenomenon of the excessive increase in real estate prices, in which he currently works. Doctor in Economics, he has sent a proposal to all parliamentary groups in the Balearic Islands to find concrete solutions to the housing emergency, which he has named the Insular Framework for Territorial Equilibrium (MIET).

The future expansion of the Palma metro to Son Espases hospital, which has already been released for public consultation and represents one of the Govern's most ambitious short-term mobility projects, crosses areas with a high risk of flooding. The project incorporates an environmental impact study that confirms this structural constraint, as it affects all proposed alternatives and could determine both the final route and the environmental viability of the project.

This weekend, while this column is published and read, the second germination of Earth Revolts will take place. Last year, the first one, was in Mont-roig del Camp (Tarragona) against a project that exemplifies the trap that green capitalism proposes to us to reinvent the ways it subjugates and conditions territories. Always under the blackmail of jobs and economic dynamization of the territory, it ends up colonizing them and turning them into sacrifice zones at the mercy of profit generation for large international financial capitals. In the case of Mont-roig it was Lotte, a Korean company that plans to implement an industry for the manufacture of a component for the lithium batteries that power the misguided energy transition of the global north.This year it is in Bages, where the company Israel Chemical Limited (ICL) has been exploiting salt mines for years that contaminate waters and lands with salt dumps and, at the same time, sponsors the genocide in Palestine. A company in whose activity ecocide and genocide go hand in hand.Both one and the other, accompanied in development by the competent institutions in turn and, in the second case, with the complicity and indulgence of the institutions in the face of non-compliance with judgments in which the company has already been convicted for environmental damage.From Mallorca, we have approached the Earth Uprising movements from the beginning. First, in meetings that periodically and for three years have been held on struggles in defense of the territory from all Catalan-speaking regions. These meetings have been the seed for the collective construction of a proposal that does not define itself as a coordinator of collectives, nor as a platform, but as a new dynamic of struggle. A dynamic that aims to spread like a mycelium underground, to nourish it with a common sense and feeling, and to emerge at any point where there is a territory that wishes to be defended against projects that threaten life (human and non-human). It is at these points that the germinations will materialize, where a massive confluence of organizations, collectives, and people are convened to confront the disaster, sharpen the challenges, and reorganize life. All, under other logics for inhabiting the earth without compromising the sustainability of life, and that this, precisely, be the political horizon of the desirable transformation of the way life and societies are organized in the territories that sustain it.This is why we learn together, mobilize together, organize together, to invent and reinvent, without ever losing hope, with other forms of relationship, other forms of resistance, other forms of collective construction and other forms of inhabiting the present and future together. Forms that draw on and recognize the learnings and paths that have preceded us, with a critical gaze that allows them to be transcended rather than fossilized, and that, at the same time, seek to become possibility and dispute the imaginaries of what is to be done, breaking the mental, action and interaction frameworks recognized until now. Forms that recognize the great and small struggles in defense of the territory, the ecological struggles, the conservationist struggles, the workers' struggles, those of popular and communalist organization, those of base communities and infrastructures, the anti-racist and decolonial struggles, the feminist struggles, those from other territories that we find inspiring. The latter range from those of organizations from the global south against global extractivism to the struggles coming from France or Germany, which deal with the occupation of territories, the reappropriation and resignification of what it means to inhabit land, bodies and territories, and which are characterized by massive direct actions that allow for very broad confluences of organized people to claim and defend life, the life of all, in a time of death.It will be an intense weekend to meet each other, recognize each other, organize ourselves, inhabit ourselves and inhabit the territory that welcomes us and that, in its welcome, recognizes us as part and with which we become a whole. A territory defending itself. Before it was Mont-roig, today it is Bages, tomorrow perhaps –and certainly, I would say– it will be Mallorca.Therefore, this year, we return and, in the following, we tell you about it.

The GOB Mallorca, Arrels Marines, and the affected property owners' association ANACA warned this Wednesday that the project for a second electricity cable between Mallorca and Menorca is not a viable solution in its current terms and have called for a thorough review of the environmental impact study. They stated this at a press conference in Alcúdia, where they also presented the objections they have registered within the framework of the project's processing.

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.

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.

The presidents of the Ibiza and Formentera councils announced this Wednesday that they will request the use of funds from the Sustainable Tourism Tax (ITS)—formerly known as the ecotax—to cover the costs of transporting waste from the Pitiusas Islands to the TIRME plant in Mallorca, as part of a waste management pilot program. According to estimates, approximately 91% of the waste will come from Ibiza and 9% from Formentera, and the annual costs of the pilot program are estimated at around €10 million. During the summer, the population of Ibiza doubles and that of Formentera triples, which proportionally increases waste generation. Council officials believe it makes sense for the tourism sector to contribute, through the ITS, to solving this shared problem.

The government of Pedro Sánchez has decided to take Law 3/2025 on the protection and management of the Valencian coast to the Constitutional Court. This law, like the one prepared by the central government, aims to create a framework to protect irregular buildings and economic activities within the public maritime-terrestrial domain. Bars, small restaurants, and shacks that violate the national Coastal Law are included in the register of constructions that the regulations consider to be of "cultural interest." under the pretext of protecting heritageAccording to the Valencian regional government, the objective of the regulation is "to guarantee legal certainty and the continuity of existing economic activities, including constructions that, without prejudice to compliance with sector-specific regulations, are considered to be of cultural interest." The government of Marga Prohens The standard has been finalized and is ready to be approved as a bill. and process it in Parliament, but sources within the Executive assure that this will not happen until after Easter.

The Government has put out to tender a contract worth 1.3 million euros to outsource the drafting and processing of reports for the Directorate General of Water Resources With the aim of streamlining procedures, especially those related to housing construction projects, the decision comes at a time of intense pressure from the development sector, which has been complaining for months about delays in water impact reports. These delays are hindering the granting of licenses and the start of construction in a context of soaring demand for housing. The President of the Balearic Government, Marga Prohens, defended the measure in Parliament a week ago, asserting that it reflects the Executive's commitment to addressing administrative bottlenecks. "Our government program pledged to tackle these bottlenecks," she reminded the assembly, also highlighting decisions made at the beginning of the legislative term with the same objective. In this regard, Prohens cited the elimination of the Balearic Environmental Commission, which placed environmental impact assessments in the hands of technical experts rather than a politically appointed body. According to the president, this reform has allowed for an 82% increase in the pace of reports in the first year and a 36% increase in the second. "If it's yes, it's yes; if it's no, it's no, but now in a more agile, more objective, and more rigorous way," she stated. Now, the focus is on Water Resources, a department that, according to the Government, had accumulated delays of up to three and a half years when the legislature began. The Executive maintains that activity has doubled in two and a half years, partly due to the increase in files resulting from measures approved to promote affordable housing, such as the conversion of commercial premises, limited-price developments, and new public housing projects. Complaints from developers

The reality is that developers have lodged complaints with the Government because, on the one hand, regulations and solutions are announced, but on the other, construction projects are not moving forward. The developers' complaints have reached the Consolat de Mar (the seat of the Balearic Government), where the decision has been made to outsource the reports. Government sources anticipate criticism regarding a lack of oversight and assure that "all authorizations will be signed and reviewed by the Administration, as expected." The decision, therefore, is not without debate. Outsourcing reports in such a sensitive area as public water resources—key in a territory with limited resources and subject to intense urban development pressure—is seen by some sectors as a double-edged sword. While it may help shorten deadlines and unblock projects, it also raises questions about public oversight, the uniformity of criteria, and the Administration's capacity to supervise the work commissioned to external companies. Declarations of responsibility

The Government asserts that it has increased resources, modified the internal structure—creating a specific service for managing public water resources and another for planning, works, and maintenance—established different processing queues according to the type of file, and reinforced the teams with support from Tragsa. It has also promoted electronic administration and processing through self-declarations in cases where regulations allow. According to Prohens, these measures have reduced the backlog of files by more than 50%. However, the Government believes they are insufficient to handle the current volume and anticipates that outsourcing will further boost processing. The outsourcing announced by the Government is thus part of a broader administrative reform strategy aimed at reducing processing times and facilitating economic activity, especially in the housing sector. The fundamental question is to what extent this streamlining can be reconciled with maintaining guarantees in the management of a strategic resource like water, which is currently in a critical situation in the Islands.

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The mayor of Palma, Jaime Martínez, has won the first of his battles against the Ministry of the Sea and the Water Cycle, meaning the Palma City Council (Cort) will be able to grant building permits for urban development projects without the involvement of the Water Resources Department when dealing with flood-prone areas. This was announced on Tuesday by Minister Juan Manuel Lafuente, who confirmed an exceptional procedure "agreed upon with the Palma City Council so that it can directly inform the Water Resources Department's reports," he explained in response to a question from Vox deputy Patricia de las Heras. Lafuente admitted that this decision was made to expedite building permits. ARA Baleares had previously reported that the Palma City Council had long been demanding not to have to go through the Directorate General of Water Resources to authorize the large apartment developments that have been made possible by regulations promoting new housing. For now, the Balearic Government, and subsequently confirmed by the Palma City Council, have agreed that the City Council can proceed without going through the department specifically responsible for flood zones. Until now, regulations stipulated that these actions had to ensure water sufficiency, and that it was also necessary to determine the degree of impact on the flood zone map. However, Lafuente has hinted that, thanks to administrative simplification laws, Palma has now been authorized. The official objective is to reduce timelines and streamline bureaucratic procedures that, according to the Government, are blocking investment and housing projects. But there are technicians at the Palma City Council who do not share the argument of obstruction, and some have confessed to ARA Baleares that there is "pressure to build apartments at any cost." "They want images of developments underway to meet housing needs, and water sufficiency bothered them," said a specialist who requested anonymity. In this regard, the pressure exerted by Mayor Jaime Martínez on the Government was well known: the mayor asserted that the strategy of building more apartments clashed with the reluctance of the Water Resources Department. As this newspaper previously reported, this pressure from the Palma City Council (Cort) has been exerted within a context of strong urban development in Palma, and the mayor has defended the need to accelerate the construction of apartments and residential developments in response to the housing emergency. The municipal government team has taken advantage of regulations such as the Land Acquisition Decree Law and other measures approved with the support of the PP and Vox parties in the Balearic Parliament to allow for greater residential density and faster development of buildable land. This legal framework anticipates accelerating the construction of "thousands of apartments," and the City Council maintains that, thanks to these measures, results in the form of new housing could be seen during this legislative term. There are figures of up to 20,000 new homes in various official announcements, but the reality is that most of these homes were already planned under the existing urban development plan, and the maximum possible under the new scheme would be a smaller but still significant number. In any case, some developments already underway occupy, at least partially, flood-prone areas, and this fact has strained relations between the Palma City Council (Cort) and the Balearic Government (Govern).

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The Territorial Defense Agency of Mallorca has ordered the demolition of an unlicensed house built on protected rural land with maximum protection status. The agency detected the construction in an Area of ​​Special Natural Interest and High Level of Protection (ANEI-AANP), where new buildings have been prohibited for 35 years under Balearic urban planning legislation.

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The Court of Instruction number 6 of Palma has decided to close the case against former Environment Minister Miquel Mir and members of the former leadership of the Balearic Government's Environment Department for alleged malfeasance related to the systematic expiration of files within the Department. Legal sources explained to ARA Baleares that it was not easy to keep the investigation open despite the complaint filed by the Environmental Prosecutor's Office, "since for malfeasance offenses, the intent must be clearly identified, and in this case, it appears to be primarily systematic negligence." The court closed the case precisely because, based on the statements taken, it cannot be concluded that the files were deliberately allowed to expire.

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