9,000 homes in eight Strategic Residential Projects (PRE). These are the files that are already moving through Palma City Council and are going through the long process of obtaining a permit. This is the great commitment of the mayor of Palma, Jaime Martínez, which is still far from being a reality. Especially if the initial processing has to go through different controls, such as that of the General Directorate of Water Resources. Martínez and his team wanted at least "some cranes" building hundreds of homes within a year, as has been said in some PP meetings, convinced that it is necessary to show that action is being taken against the housing shortage.

The Government introduced a last-minute legal modification to water regulations to exempt some urban development operations from the need to obtain authorization from the Directorate General of Water Resources. An additional provision of the Omnibus Law approved by the PP and Vox allows for the avoidance of new water sufficiency reports (water availability) in certain cases, provided that a specific plan or project is not considered to increase demand or that the circumstances justifying previous reports have not changed.

The old Lluís Sitjar field will house a new sports complex with a capacity for up to 2,500 spectators, prepared to host different types of sporting and cultural events. The overall project, which includes the sports facilities, two parking areas with capacity for 650 vehicles, a green area, and the reorganization of the surrounding roads, will have a budget of approximately 44 million euros.

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.

The mayor of Palma, Jaime Martínez, considers that living in a building without minimum conditions like the old prison is a "personal decision" and not due to a situation of vulnerability. This is how he responded in an interview on the program Hoy por Hoy from Radio Mallorca (Cadena Ser), when the program's host pointed out that the people residing there have vulnerable profiles. "A personal decision has nothing to do with extreme vulnerability," he assured, visibly annoyed by the journalist's questions. "Vulnerability is assessed, and we function like all administrations, people, society," he added.

MÉS per Palma has filed objections to the municipal plan for sustainable water management promoted by the PP government (with the support of VOX) because it considers it a document that jeopardizes citizens' right to access water. The City Council presented this plan in February of this year to address short- and long-term supply in a scenario where the viability of supplying the 46,000 new homes planned for the city in the next decade is questioned.

Regularization, migration, the people from here, siren effect, registry, residence, rights, collapse, obstacles, boycott... These words –and a few more– have been monopolizing the political debate for weeks, in a loop that no longer hides where it is heading and that drags us towards increasingly dark ideological zones. Meanwhile, an idea as simple as it is uncomfortable is consolidating: skin color, place of birth, and the religion practiced determine a person's rights in the Balearic Islands. What is the excuse? That to be a full citizen, one must accumulate years of residence.

MÉS per Palma has denounced this Friday the serious degradation of diversity and equality public policies promoted by the PP municipal government after the association Ben Amics announced the cancellation of the LGTBI+ Pride party in Palma due to the City Council's lack of planning and coordination. The party considers this situation to be the direct consequence of "the political apathy of Mayor Jaime Martínez and the systematic dismantling" of LGTBI+ policies promoted by the PP since the beginning of the legislature.

MÁS por Palma has shown its deep concern about the possibility that Palma will be left without the celebration of Pride 2026, as denounced by Ben Amics this Friday, and has demanded accountability from the mayor of Palma. The party has expressed its support for Ben Amics in light of the possibility that Pride 2026 cannot be celebrated in Palma due to the Palma City Council's lack of response to the requests processed by the entity.

The Palma City Council and the Local Police unions have reached an agreement that will allow progress in improving the organization of the force and the adaptation of their working conditions, after months of tension and protests. The pact, reached this Friday, incorporates a new bonus linked to driving emergency vehicles, with the aim of recognizing the special conditions and risk associated with this function. Additionally, a special dedication bonus is added, intended to reflect the sustained increase in workload in recent years.On the other hand, the City Council has committed to studying the inclusion of weekends and holidays within the specific bonus. Overall, the City Council estimates that the implementation of the plan will have an impact of 10 million euros and could mean increases of more than 2,500 euros gross per month in bonuses.The agreement comes after the force's latest demonstration, in which a hundred officers walked the streets of the city while Cort maintained that there was a "firm proposal". Over the last four months, the unions had intensified protests against the mayor, Jaime Martínez, for failing to meet the commitment to approve the plan by January 1st.Tension reached a peak with internal changes in the City Council, when Llorenç Bauzà took over Public Function, replacing Mercedes Celeste, and the direction of the Local Police. After an initial meeting with Bauzà, now as the highest responsible for the areas involved in developing the plan, the unions considered that the change of personnel had been futile. "The plan remains blocked," they declared.the unions considered that the change of personnel had been futile. "The plan remains blocked," they declared.

It has been one of the questions the sector has asked itself since the Palma City Council announced its intention to bid for the title of European Capital of Culture: how will a title designed to attract more visitors to such a tourist city as Palma benefit the cultural fabric? And now the international experts who have evaluated the project have answered it: “It is clear that Palma is not looking to increase the volume of cultural programming or attract more visitors, as in both cases they have enough [...] and even understanding the local circumstances and needs, the jury wonders if the title of European Capital of Culture is the best platform to advance the city's aspirations.” This is how the report, made public this Monday, concludes, with which the committee, chaired by Tanja Mlaker, argues the decision to discard Palma from the candidates to obtain the title for the year 2031.

A group of Son Reus volunteers has launched a public campaign to denounce the situation at Palma's animal shelter. They claim that the animals' conditions have severely deteriorated and demand the resignation of those responsible for the facility.

One night like any other, Ariadna tucks her daughter into bed inside her home, a caravan. Every evening she faces the same uncertainty: how long can she live like this; when will the Administration recognize her right to officially exist where she lives? The girl is six years old and has been trying to register her address at her home for three years. Without success.

The unions have publicly denounced the blocking of the Urban Development Plan at Palma City Hall following initial meetings with the new Councilor for Citizen Security and Public Service, Llorenç Bauzá. They explain that the situation "has been exposed" and the document will not be implemented immediately, as Mayor Jaime Martínez promised, because the Human Resources department refuses to sign the proposal.

The census of the former Palma prison has risen to 226 residents after some errors were corrected, while the City Council is working against the clock to carry out the eviction of the building. This was explained by the Mayor of Palma, Jaime Martínez, at the press conference following the meeting of the Municipal Governing Board held this Wednesday, at which the revised count was approved. Most of these people have already been notified of the eviction, and the rest will be notified shortly. At the same time, the City Council is receiving and analyzing the appeals submitted by those affected.

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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Deputy Mayor Llorenç Bauzá will also assume the management ofCitizen Security and Civics Area In Palma, Councillor Miquel Busquets will head the delegated area of ​​Innovation, according to the reassignment of functions by the municipal government decreed by Palma's mayor, Jaime Martínez. Thus, the Citizen Security area will no longer be delegated and will no longer report to the first deputy mayor, Javier Bonet, but will be integrated into the area headed by Bauzá, which includes Public Service, Natural Environment, Healthy Environments, and Markets. Martínez has now sidelined Busquets and Councillor Mercedes Celeste to give Bauzá more power in the Citizen Security and Public Service areas. The mayor's objective with this move is clear: to control the bitter conflict he has with the Palma Local Police, with whom he has gone from a cordial relationship to direct confrontations over unfulfilled commitments, according to the officers.

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The situation of the approximately 200 residents of Palma's former prison was the main topic of discussion at Thursday's Palma City Council meeting. Several people living in the abandoned complex spoke, supported by the Platform of People Affected by Mortgages (PAH), to demand a solution before the eviction announced by the City Council takes place. PAH representative Àngela Pons summed up the problem in one sentence: "Will they leave 200 people homeless to build a roundabout?"

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Left-wing parties in Palma City Council harshly criticized Mayor Jaime Martínez, denouncing a situation of "absolute collapse" at the head of the City Council, stemming from the management of the Local Police and the eviction of the former prison. Both the PSOE Palma and MÁS per Palma believe the mayor has chosen to shift responsibility within his government team instead of taking direct responsibility.

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