The demonstration called by the Moviment Jove de Sóller and the platform Menys Turisme, Més Vida for next Saturday, August 8 arrives surrounded by controversy. After the tensions derived from the multitudinous protest against tourist overcrowding on July 26 in Palma, marked by the charges of the National Police at the end of the route, the controversy has now moved to Sóller. Just over a week before the mobilization, the Association of Merchants of Carrer de la Lluna has requested to modify the itinerary or the schedule of the march for security reasons and the impact it could have on commercial activity, a request that the organizers reject and interpret as an attempt to displace the protest from the main commercial axis of the municipality.

Les Voltes gathered 3,200 people this Wednesday evening during the event day of the Atlàntida Mallorca Film Fest. Three days earlier, the National Police had closed access to the same venue when there were only just over 500 participants in the demonstration against tourist overcrowding. The difference has raised questions because the closing of the gates was, according to the protest organizers, the origin of the tension that led to the police charges.

The tourist pressure on Mallorca continues relentlessly in the middle of high season. Tourist rental homes on the island have already reached a booking rate of 99% for this August, the highest of all coastal areas in the State, according to a study by Rentalia, Idealista's holiday platform.

One of the more than twenty people who were injuries during the police charges with which the demonstration against tourist saturation on Sunday in Palma ended is still hospitalized. The affected parties are now considering the possibility of filing a collective complaint against the National Police officers who participated in the operation. This was announced this Tuesday by one of the spokespersons for the platform Menys Turisme, Més Vida, Jaume Pujol, during the rally that brought together nearly half a thousand people in front of the government delegation to demand the resignation of the delegate in the Balearic Islands, Alfonso Rodríguez.

There is an image that better than any other summarizes what happened on Sunday: a massive and profoundly civic demonstration that ends with people injured by a violent police action. The question is inevitable: who had an interest in the narrative ceasing to be about mass tourism and becoming about public order?

Not a single graffiti. Not a broken window. Not a single argument with the hundreds of tourists who were strolling through the center of Palma. Tens of thousands of people paraded this Sunday for more than two hours through the streets of the city in one of the most massive demonstrations in recent years without any incident occurring. The contrast with the end of the protest was absolute. When thousands of people were trying to reach Les Voltes to hear the reading of the manifesto, the National Police blocked the entrances and, a few minutes later, charged against the demonstrators with batons. Several videos recorded by attendees also show detonations during the police intervention.

Marga Prohens has avoided commenting on the National Police charges against the protesters. The president assures that she cannot determine if it was a "disproportionate" action, because she "does not know the circumstances under which it occurred" and also does not know "the orders they had received".

Tens of thousands of people, up to 70,000 according to the organization and 25,000 according to the always conservative calculations of the National Police, have taken the center of Palma and have shouted all kinds of slogans against the excess of tourism, with one idea above all others: a significant part of the island's society is tired of the collapse. The end of the demonstration turned out to be a real chaos because the planned space, les Voltes, has absolutely insufficient capacity for such a massive demonstration. The Police have closed the accesses to les Voltes, which has caused a strong confrontation among the demonstrators, because, after walking for more than an hour, most of the demonstrators have not managed to reach the end and have been dispersed throughout the Parc de la Mar, which has been filled with banners.

“I remember we used to come with the little motorbike from Sóller, with friends. We would go down to Cala Deià on the motorbike almost to the beach and our little boats were on the sand all summer. There were people from Deià, from Sóller, and a few tourists. What times…”. Tomeu Ferragut, a man from Sóller, remembers it, and today he doesn't even consider going to what is one of his favorite spots on the Mallorcan coast: “Every year Narcís Serra, from Felipe González's government, used to show up. We knew his bodyguards. And we used to joke. Everything was very familiar”.

With her face hidden behind a skull mask and dressed as a peasant woman, Madò Farta began to make noise —despite being a mute figure shrouded in mystery— on social media in June of this year. Since then, this figure, halfway between a bogart and a feminist water spirit, has appeared both alone and supporting other calls, in most —if not all— of the protests against tourist overcrowding convened throughout Mallorca.

The Balearic left must be a prodigious political force. It has been in opposition for more than three years and still manages to collapse roads, increase housing costs, saturate beaches, and fill the airport. There are governments that barely leave a legacy. The Pact, on the other hand, seems to have discovered the secret of political immortality.

Tomeu Penya, 77, speaks candidly to ARA Balears: “I want my current state of mind to be very clear. I am very sad. As a young man, I would never have imagined that Mallorca's future would be like it is now, an island full of cement and tourists, with saturated roads and residents who cannot afford housing. For this summer's concerts, I'm considering singing ‘Trenc’ again, which I dedicated four decades ago to the emblematic beach of Campos that now, unfortunately, is once again under threat”. ‘Trenc’ was the debut of the country singer from Vilafranca as an environmental activist at 35 years old. It is one of the most outstanding songs from his third album Coverbos (1984).

Palma will once again experience this Sunday, July 26, a new demonstration against tourist overcrowding. The mobilization, called by the platform Menys Turisme, Més Vida (Less Tourism, More Life) with the slogan 'Mallorca at its limit', will begin at 7 p.m. in Plaça d’Espanya and will tour several of the main streets in the center of Palma.

It has been more than two years since the Government promised "bold" measures against saturation, but the application of President Marga Prohens' commitments has been uneven. The Executive has deployed measures to regulate tourist rentals, but the fiscal initiatives for containment announced this legislature – such as the Sustainable Tourism Tax, the water levy, and for rental cars – have not materialized. The containment advocated by the Executive is not reflected, at the moment, in the arrival figures: in 2025, a new record was broken with more than 19 million tourists in the Balearic Islands. "We understand the discomfort," said the first vice-president, Antoni Costa, about Sunday's demonstration against saturation: "We can be told that the measures are insufficient (...), but we have taken them." Which of the Executive's promises have been applied, which have been half-done, and which have not been fulfilled?

For more than ten years, in the summer, we no longer go to Cala Varques. We stopped going there before admitting that it had been taken from us. Just as we have stopped going to Caló del Moro, Es Trenc, Formentor and so many other places. In conversations these days, while WhatsApp groups organize carpools to go to Palma on Sunday, organizations prepare buses and groups of friends paint banners, an intimate and endless list appears of everything we have stopped doing, swallowed by the collapse.

The arrests of two activists accused of making graffiti against five real estate agencies in Santa Maria have raised tensions ahead of the anti-tourist massification demonstration called for this Sunday, July 26, in Palma. The GOB considers the action against the two women to have been "disproportionate" and warns that the case "further inflames spirits," while making it clear that the graffiti should not have been done.

The Sóller Youth Movement and the Menys Turisme, Més Vida platform have called for a new mobilization against the touristification of the municipality for next August 8. The entities are calling for people to take to the streets to denounce the effects of the tourism model on the town and to demand measures that limit growth.

The GOB continues to warm up its engines for the demonstration against tourist overcrowding this Sunday, July 26, at 7 p.m. In a social media post, the environmental organization has published a list of reasons why they encourage the population to attend the rally to show their disagreement with the island's tourist and economic model and the consequences it has for residents.

Two houses linked to the family of one of the activists arrested for the graffiti against five real estate agencies in Santa Maria del Camí have appeared this Monday with graffiti of an antisemitic nature. The perpetrators have drawn several Stars of David next to the words 'Jews' and 'Juden', in German, and they have also tried to paint a swastika, although the drawing has remained incomplete.