"Holy cow! What are we doing here?". This was the reaction of some of the members of the Palma Municipal Music Band of Palma when, a few minutes before the start of the event in defense of Ceuta, they saw the atmosphere and heard the shouts against the Spanish government and Pedro Sánchez. One of the musicians explains that the ensemble had been requested by the mayor, Jaime Martínez, and that they approached it like any other institutional act. "But one thing is to be with the people of Ceuta and another is to want to oust a government", he summarizes.

"Zero contact", as summarized by a member of Menys Turisme, Més Vida, the interactions with the Spanish government delegate, Alfonso Rodríguez, after thepolice charges of 26-J, the most important anti-saturation demonstration day in the Balearic Islands. Rodríguez has not contacted the organizers or the injured, despite having called a press conference the day after the protest to criticize the "disproportionate" actions of the National Police and announce that he had commissioned urgent reports to "determine responsibilities". "The images we have seen cause us concern. I have asked for explanations from the head of the National Police [José Antonio Puebla]. Violent actions were carried out by some members of the police force against people who posed no threat. I regret what has happened and convey my consternation," he said on July 27.

The National Police has returned from the August holidays with their September homework done: a nice internal report (but immediately sent to the courts) on the demonstration of July 26, in which the demonstrators appear as the culprits of the police charges, and seven people in particular are pointed out as the instigators of the clash. The government delegate, Alfonso Rodríguez, was urged to resign as the direct political official responsible for that episode of police brutality. There were more than enough reasons to ask for it, this resignation, although, on the other hand, it was quite predictable that Rodríguez would not resign, and he did not. On the contrary, he received the support of Pedro Sánchez himself after his visit to Felipe VI “to confer” in Marivent: the president and the head of the Spanish state are undoubtedly two conspicuous connoisseurs of the social reality of the Balearic Islands, who know better than anyone what the citizens of these fortunate islands need. For his part, the day after the demonstration. Rodríguez not only did not resign, but he commissioned this police report that now arrives loaded with blame for everyone except the Police. Indeed, a surprise never seen before.

Three weeks, this is the time that has passed since GOB requested a meeting with the President of the Government, Marga Prohens, and the President of the Council of Mallorca, Llorenç Galmés, to know if they are willing to listen to the outcry of the 70,000 people who, according to the organizers' figures, demonstrated in Palma on July 26th against the perverse effects of saturation and touristification on the lives of residents. The meeting was requested just one day later, on July 27th, but the Executive has ignored the environmental organization's request. "We have not received a single response," assure GOB sources.

More than 800 people gathered on Friday evening in the Plaça de la Catedral in Ciutadella to denounce the tourist saturation that Menorca is suffering. The call, promoted by the Via Menorca platform, brought together citizens from different parts of the island for a popular, protest-oriented dinner.

Around 2,500 people (according to organizers, 1,000 people according to the Spanish government delegation) demonstrated this Saturday in Sóller along a route that began in Plaça dels Estiradors, passed through Carrer de la Lluna, and culminated in Plaça de la Constitució. After the demonstration on July 26 in Palma, Sóller, a symbol of tourist overcrowding, was the next stage of citizen mobilization.

The National Police is finalizing a report that it plans to submit to the court regarding the incidents recorded at the end of the demonstration against over-tourism held on July 26 in Palma. This was made known by the police force just a few days after the platform Menys Turisme, Més Vida i Alerta Solidària announced the details of the judicial offensive they are preparing against the officers who left about twenty demonstrators with injuries of varying degrees. The document, according to sources familiar with its content consulted by Europa Press, records the throwing of objects, alleged assaults on officers, and incidents with tourists, and argues that the police charges near Les Voltes and Antoni Maura avenue were a response to "the escalation of tension".

The demonstration called for this Saturday in Sóller by the Platform Less Tourism, More Life is planned as a peaceful, civic, and family mobilization. The organization has called for responsible participation and respect to ensure the day unfolds with normality and safety.

Eleven years ago, Jero Hernández Gelabert opened Just Sant Elm, a “sustainable souvenir,” as she describes it, in Sant Elm. There, she mainly sells products that follow the bases of her initiative: fair trade, local products, and craftsmanship. At the same time, the owner demonstrated against Mallorca's tourism model on July 26th.

A month ago, the Moviment Jove de Sóller (Young Movement of Sóller) called for the August 8th protest against saturation in the municipality, which they consider one of Mallorca's hotspots in terms of touristification: a municipality where "all the effects of overcrowding are clearly observed," state members of the entity, in conversation with ARA Balears. "For us, it is impossible to imagine a future in Sóller," they lament, and emphasize that the measures implemented by the City Council, focused on mobility (more parking, some only for residents, and low-emission zones among others), do not solve the underlying problems caused by saturation. The main one, as in the rest of the Balearic Islands, is housing.

In democracies, governments begin to fall the day they decide to send the police to beat citizens. They don't fall that same day, nor the next, but when they make this colossal mistake, this unacceptable mistake, they are badly wounded. Beating citizens when they protest peacefully and legitimately is a sign of authoritarianism, but also of weakness. Of not knowing how to govern. They are very poor credentials to present themselves later at the polls.The direct political official responsible for the police charges against the demonstration —massive, historic— of July 26 is the government delegate Alfonso Rodríguez. Even if he did not order them and is against them, as he has declared, it is he who must assume political responsibility for them. Also, even if Pedro Sánchez has supported him with the disdain and ignorance that all Spanish presidents have always had in relation to the society, politics, and reality of the Balearic Islands. If it is true that delegate Rodríguez did not order the charges and is against them, then he must resign for not having known how to exercise his office and for having allowed the so-called security forces and bodies to act in the Balearic Islands outside or against his criteria (he was also against the detention of the activists from Santa Maria, but the detention did occur). Incompetence is also a reason to lose one's position.However, delegate Rodríguez is politically responsible for these events, but he is not the politician who benefits from them. Nor is he, for that matter, the one who enjoys them and even has fun with them. No: it is the politicians of the PP and Vox, who are in the Government and who have had a great time watching the government delegate do their dirty work. But the days have passed and things have become clear enough for those who want to see them. Going to Almudaina and explaining to Felipe VI (with the fake smile of the best occasions) that there is tourist overcrowding due to the socialists and then meeting with Pedro Sánchez making faces in the photos is not a solid argument. Nor are the sustainability tables that are born dead, nor the statements in which "saturation" is admitted while legislating to deregulate the protection of rural land and natural spaces. The PP and Vox would do well to advise some discretion to their domesticated journalists: some have even let slip, these days, that the baton blows of July 26 were "never better delivered". We have reasons to suspect that this is an opinion widely shared among the leaders of the parties that support the Government.The fact is that 70,000 Majorcans took to the streets on July 26 to say they are fed up with paying the consequences of the greed of a few. Police charges will only lead to more protests: the first, on Saturday, August 8 in Sóller, also convened by the platform Menys Turisme Més Vida, which will once again be a great success in participation and mobilization. Then there will be more, and all will be peaceful, civic, democratic, impeccable. Governments begin to fall like this. If President Prohens doesn't believe it, she can ask her friend M. Rajoy. The police charges in Catalonia for October 1 had something to do with the fact that eight months later a motion of no confidence against it succeeded. It also has to do with the fact that, even today, the PP has no political alliance with anyone other than the far-right Vox. It starts by hitting people, or laughing when they are hit, and ends up locked in a corner with fascists.

It's very hot. Suspended dust. Heat and humidity. Another plane crosses the sky, cloudy and heavy. Heat like from an exhaust pipe. The Tramuntana is not visible from afar. So hot that you can't go outside. The ring road at five in the afternoon. You can't even breathe. The highway, at the height of the airport, at any time. According to the forecast, tomorrow will be even hotter. Two girls are arrested; they say they had a banner at their home with the slogan 'SOS Residents'. Heat and anguish in the street: we don't know where to put ourselves. Gasoline is going up and yet everything burns: fire on earth and fire in the sky. Orange sunsets, beautiful as a bad omen, as a point of disaster. It's too hot: what if we take shelter from the fan? It's already the end of the month and we don't have money to spend either. Heat like a pressure cooker, as if about to suffocate us, as if about to make thunder.

It is difficult not to talk about the summer issue. No matter how much the beatings and the lack of knowledge of those responsible for the National Police have entertained us for a few days, what has become clear here is that there is enormous discontent among the citizenry due to the saturation we are suffering.

The delegation of the Spanish government in the Balearic Islands has asked the General Directorate of the Police to open a reserved information file to determine if some of the agents who intervened in the police charges last Sunday in Palma committed infractions liable to disciplinary sanction. The decision comes after a week marked by intense political and social controversy following the police action at the end of the demonstration against tourist overcrowding on July 26.

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 demonstration that this Sunday marched through the center of Palma ended with moments of tension and charges by the National Police at the entrances to Les Voltes, after more than two hours of mobilization without incidents. Several people were injured by baton blows during the police intervention, which occurred when hundreds of demonstrators demanded to be able to access the final point of the route, where the manifesto was being read.

The Federation of Hotel Employers of Mallorca (FEHM) has called this Monday to "act" and "leave polarization behind" after Sunday's massive demonstration against tourist overcrowding. The entity's executive vice-president, María José Aguiló, has assured that the sector shares the social concerns expressed by protesters during the demonstration, but has warned that the debate about the future of the Islands "should not be reduced solely to tourist degrowth".

The delegate of the Spanish government in the Balearic Islands, Alfonso Rodríguez, has distanced himself from the police action at the demonstration against tourist saturation, which he described as "disproportionate" in relation to the risk of a protest marked by "exemplary civic behavior". "Police charges depend on the "in situ operation, they are not decided by this delegate. The use of violence did not adjust to the risk," he stated this Monday, after the organizers of the protest and MÉS per Mallorca called for his resignation.