These days, everyone is talking about the disastrous results obtained by students in the Spanish state in the PISA tests. It is true that the trend has not been positive for years, but rather the opposite; however, there is one issue that is especially alarming: reading comprehension. For years, the education system has been balancing constant legislative changes, pedagogical experiments, budget cuts, and forced digitalization without achieving the desired results. All this paraphernalia has eclipsed a fundamental issue: school no longer guarantees that students know how to read and write. Degrees are given away and students are passed to the next grade to mask a chilling reality, which is that every year the system churns out students with an ESO degree in hand that is good for nothing more than for the government of the day to exempt itself from the responsibility of having a high school failure rate. Students with an ESO degree incapable of maintaining a basic level conversation in Catalan; students with an ESO degree who do not know how to locate continents on a map; students with an ESO degree who do not know what a percentage is; students with an ESO degree who cannot link two sentences in English and now, with all of you, the icing on the cake: students with an ESO –or high school– degree who do not understand what they read. Unfortunately, it seems that the system is no longer designed to educate children, but to look after them while their parents are at work.While the law asks teachers to train critical citizens, to evaluate competencies such as ‘learning to learn’ and to prepare students for the world of the future –a delirious abstraction– the reality is that the educational system is not a priority for political leaders. What future awaits all those who are not capable of understanding a short text? How is someone supposed to learn for themselves if they do not have the minimum literacy skills developed? Who will be the great beneficiary if, tomorrow, a worker is not even capable of understanding what their employment contract says? Who does it benefit that the public education system is in decline?It does not seem that the LOMLOE has helped much to improve the situation or to facilitate the work of teachers – whoever has read any of the evaluation criteria stipulated therein will know what we are talking about. Likewise, the implementation of some pedagogical approaches has not achieved, for the moment, much more than burdening teachers with bureaucracy. As if all this were not enough, artificial intelligence will arrive in schools to definitively suppress natural intelligence and, incidentally, will allow some to do business with new 'training' for teachers.It is true that the current educational model is much more ambitious than that of past times: it attempts to reach everyone, respect the family and personal situations of each child, adapt to the rhythm and needs of each student… But to achieve all this, the ground must be prepared: increase investment in education, dignify the role of teachers, implement realistic laws, and, ultimately, imbue the public education system with an authority and prestige that, as of now, it has lost. Lamentations and the patches with which public school has been mended over the last decades are of little use. An ESO degree that does not guarantee that the student has basic knowledge has the same value as a thirty-euro bill. Let's not fool ourselves; we will not get out of this situation by inertia or without making structural changes. It is necessary –more than ever, perhaps– that all parties involved –government, opposition, teachers, families, citizens committed to a better future (excuse the abstraction)– fight for the public education system to be a guarantee of knowledge and academic quality.

The Balearic Parliament approved a bill for the creation of an airport authority for the Balearic Islands, also declared itself against the works announced at Ibiza airport, on June 2, and pronouncements have been made against the planned expansion at Menorca airport. In my opinion, these demonstrations and positions are made out of ignorance, prejudice, or more unconfessable intentions.If we talk about going to a sustainable model and against massification, I agree, but it won't be by attacking and blaming Aena as we will clarify. To defend the autonomous management or co-management of airports, and to oppose Aena, it is said that if we manage the airports from here, public or social interest will prevail, and connectivity will be better. And recently a new one has been added: Aena is responsible for the tourist overcrowding we are suffering and, therefore, we need to move to a new management model to avoid it. The truth, however, is that there is no argument to support this position, beyond populist, not to say demagogic, expressions, and simple answers to complicated problems.Imagine you that because of waiting lists or the lack of doctors, nurses and specialists in public healthcare the solution was to privatize healthcare? Something similar is happening with the airport self-management/co-management proposal or the attacks on Aena.Aena is the leading airport operator worldwide, moving 10.8% of Spain's GDP and, according to an Incosa study, in the last decade, Aena has become the most successful European air model, and it doesn't cost us a cent! You read that right, it costs us nothing, it is self-financed with airport fees and what it invoices to companies that carry out commercial or economic activity there.Breaking it up would only make management more expensive and increase problems.Mass tourism is not a consequence of Aena's management, which, we recall, manages airports of general interest by constitutional mandate of article 149.1.20a; and, therefore, manages the airports of Ibiza with 9,138,224 passengers in 2025 and that of Menorca with 4,210,152 in the same year, two islands similar in terms of square kilometers and the same manager, but with a very different economic evolution. The first island has bet since the sixties of the last century on a model based on the tourism sector, while Menorca had a more diversified economy with more presence of the primary and secondary sectors.Aena also does not control the number of flights and slots. In Europe it is regulated by Regulation (EEC) No 95/93 and in Spain, since 2014, it is AEFCA, an independent body, that determines the slots based on the capacity declared by each airport and the historical rights of the airlines.  The works announced in both Ibiza and Menorca are not aimed at increasing the declared capacity, but at providing solutions to structural problems in both terminals, which are not well dimensioned for the current number of passengers. Increasing the declared capacity is what should really alarm us.Does this mean that Aena is doing everything right, that there is no room for improvement, that we can do nothing? Well no, but the political and social initiatives in our autonomous community should be directed in another direction and address the real problems we have at our airports. Firstly, fight for the reversal of the 49% privatization carried out in 2015, in compliance with article 128.1 of the Constitution. Secondly, ensure that they have the necessary staff, as they claimed at Menorca airport on July 21st, or more recently in Ibiza on August 24th with gatherings, not forgetting Son Sant Joan and Son Bonet. The same applies to the staff of many airport contracts, be they companies of handling, security, restoration or cleaning. Thirdly, to have the essential infrastructures. The most urgent case, that of a new control tower at Menorca airport. Fourthly, to demand compliance with occupational risk prevention regulations, which are very deficient. Fifthly, to actively participate in airport coordination committees and improve their composition and competences. Finally, if we really want to combat mass tourism, we must decrease, regulate tourist rentals, intervene in the housing market, limit vehicle entry and reorient the economy towards more sustainable sectors. And all of this is within the autonomous and municipal power, but it is easier to blame Aena for everything. By the way, and what about the ports where the Autonomous Community participates? In the case of APB (and, therefore, of the influx of cruise ships) it has the competences of the Ports of the Balearic Islands, which manages, among others, the port of Ciutadella, where we have gone from 205,461 passengers in 2012 to 643,582 in 2025 (and they want to expand it). But it's better not to talk about that, right? We can go against Aena, like Don Quixote against the windmills, thinking they were giants. But they were not giants, they were windmills. The sooner we open our eyes, the better, lest by attacking the windmills' sails we get hurt.

About seventy residents demonstrated in front of the Manacor City Council with banners and shouts of ‘No Macro-farm’ just before the ordinary plenary session of July. During the session, the plenary approved a motion presented jointly by the governing team (MÉS-Esquerra, PSOE and AIPC) and the PP against macro-farms in Mallorca.The affected neighbours left the plenary session happy. The motion, generic and which does not explicitly mention the toponym of Son Brau at any time, nor the company Avícola Son Perot, which is the one that wants to build this farm of 80,000 laying hens, was approved, with the only votes against from Vox. They asked for a statement from all parties, who showed themselves, with more or less vagueness and with more or less arguments, contrary to “intensive exploitations like this one”.Avícola Son Perot has presented a project that seeks to comply with the provisions established by law 2/2025, approved, precisely, to prevent the construction of a mega-farm by this same company in the municipality of Sineu with a load of 800,000 chickens.In fact, Avícola Son Perot also owns the Llucmajor mega-farm, sadly known as 'the farm of horrors', after images of the interior of the facilities were leaked showing that the animals are in "deplorable conditions". "Live hens coexist with dozens of carcasses in different states of decomposition, including skeletons and other animals, such as rats (alive or poisoned) and hedgehogs, expired fire extinguishers and containers with carcasses in a state of putrefaction and full of worms" an informant who allegedly took the images told a media outlet. Avícola Son Perot received a fine of 200,000 euros for the conditions of the facilities.Now, the company presents itself as a modern entity adapted to the times and current law. But we must have memory and remember what actions it has carried out previously.Meanwhile, there are many questions that our representatives in the City Council could answer. Why, despite the verbal agreement that the government team had with the representatives of the Macrogranja No platform, did the motion finally have to be presented urgently? Did they have doubts about the advisability of presenting it?Why does the motion speak exclusively of mega-farms and not mention the concept of 'farm' at all? Is this absence intentional? Does the fact that the farm planned in Son Brau is for 80,000 chickens, ten times less than the load projected in Sineu, have anything to do with it? Is the one they are now asking to build in Manacor really considered a mega-farm?

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.

There are places that are more than a natural space, they are symbols, because their conservation represents a way of understanding the country and the landscape. El Trenc is one of these places. For decades, society has mobilized to defend this space against urban, speculative and economic threats.Today, this defense is once again necessary. The modifications introduced with the Omnibus Law are not simple technical adjustments. They do not imply an immediate reduction in the protection of Trenc or the rest of the natural parks of the Islands. The problem is not today, but what these reforms make possible tomorrow. Until now, the main guarantees of the park were included in Law 2/2017. Any substantial modification required political debate, transparency, and a parliamentary majority. With the reform promoted by the PP, modifications are simpler.The protection of natural spaces does not depend on a single norm. It is the result of a legal architecture built over decades, made up of laws, territorial guidelines, management plans, and public participation mechanisms. Wanting to modify this framework reveals a strategy aimed at weakening the guarantees that sustain protected natural spaces.First, limitations previously enshrined in law are eliminated or relaxed. In the case of Trenc, certain protections will no longer depend on Parliament and can be modified by decree of the Governing Council. The change is profound. What previously required parliamentary debate and democratic control now disappears. Current regulations limit tourist, commercial, and recreational activities, set authorized uses, and establish essential prohibitions to preserve the natural values of this area. Now, with the reform, everything can be reviewed more easily.The central piece of this operation is the Land Use Plans for Natural Resources (PORN), which are the main barrier against the intensification of urban and tourism uses within protected areas. In the case of El Trenc, it prevents, among other things, the increase of tourist spots. If the legal limitations that define them are now lowered, future PORNs may be more permissive.But the strategy does not end here. The future agrarian law foresees the modification of the Territorial Planning Directives (DOT), one of the main guarantees for the protection of rural land in the Balearic Islands. Now, the aim is to reduce these limitations and facilitate complementary activities linked to the tourism and recreational business. This combination will weaken the legal guarantees of natural parks and lower the limitations imposed by the DOT. The result is a progressive reconfiguration of the environmental protection system built over the last decades.This decriminalization facilitates future modifications of tourist, recreational, and commercial uses within the park and opens the door to reviewing the qualification of a Natural Area of High Protection Level. The urbanistic projects that for decades had put Es Trenc in the spotlight still exist and from now on will be possible.Therefore, it is surprising that we are accused of alarmism. The fundamental difference between the ecological view and the short-term political view is found here. President Marga Prohens and counselor Joan Simonet maintain that there is no intention to deprotect El Trenc, because today there is no formal proposal to modify its protection. It is an electoral view. On the other hand, natural spaces require a much longer-term view. Major territorial transformations are prepared over years through small regulatory modifications that eliminate limitations, reduce controls, and facilitate changes. We must be very clear that, like democracy, the protection of natural spaces is not an irreversible conquest, and that we must fight continuously, because those who would want to reverse the situation continue to pressure. And in the case of El Trenc, Prohens has the pressures very close.The same is repeated with the future Balearic Coastal Law which proposes a simplification of procedures and uses. Therefore, the defense of El Trenc goes far beyond a specific natural park. The Omnibus Law, the future agrarian law, the reform of the DOTs and the new Coastal Law are part of the same intention of deprotection of the territory. In isolation, they may seem like simple modifications, but, together, they outline a clear territorial model: fewer limitations, fewer guarantees, and more ease for private economic interests.The defense of Trenc is the defense of all protected natural spaces in Mallorca. Thousands of Mallorcans already understood this decades ago. Citizen mobilization was decisive then and will be again now. Because Trenc is not just a beach. It is memory. It is collective heritage. It is one of Mallorca's great environmental victories and, precisely because of this, it is still the subject of dispute.