The Balearic Islands are nearing the end of a summer that, thanks to climate change, is more of a thermal penance than a period of leisurely pleasure. Curiously, the last summer of the legislative term has served for the PP to close the circle: Marga Prohens the term began with massive protests against saturation, and it ends the same way. However, there is a difference, because in the summer of 2023 the police did not assault the protesters. The island society continues to await the report commissioned by the Spanish government delegate, Alfonso Rodriguez, who assured that he had given instructions to remain calm. Better not to think what would have happened if he hadn't given them.

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.

At the time when the Moon had already begun to eclipse the Sun, a pair of German posers were clashing shopping bags from the golden mile stores and four Jehovah's Witnesses were waiting in vain to proselytize. As if an exceptional astronomical phenomenon were not about to occur. On the way to the terraces of Es Baluard, a street vendor was placing, bored, his straw hats. "Do you have glasses?". He shook his head because he knew they were asking him for the eclipse ones. Already at the top of the museum, a foreign couple had decided to cut in half the only pair they had and their children were looking at the Sun with one eye and covering the other with a hand.

The presidency and the heads of the departments are only part of a Government. Below these top figures there is a second and third level of senior officials who are key players in the functioning of the Administration. These are secretaries and general directors, managers and advisors who are known by the Italianism sottogoverno. This legislature has seen a high turnover among these trusted positions. In three years, there have been 142 changes of position: 68.27% of senior officials have changed ownership or responsibilities. Sources from the Executive admit that volatility can have consequences for the stability of institutional functioning.

The former mayor of Manacor, Rafel Muntaner, died this Friday. The President of the Government, Marga Prohens, has conveyed her condolences to his family, friends, and colleagues in a message published on social media. “He was a benchmark for the sporting, social, and cultural life of Mallorca,” she wrote.

Just one day after the demonstration on July 26, GOB and Terraferida requested a meeting with the President of the Government, Marga Prohens, and the President of the Consell de Mallorca, Llorenç Galmés. Neither of the two leaders has shown any sign of life so far, nor have they expressed any intention to meet with the activists, who are demanding that the outcry against the saturation of more than 70,000 people who took to the streets on 26-J be heard. "We have not received any response and it concerns us," pointed out GOB representative Tonina Siquier, adding a warning: "We will not stop. We have just begun." Siquier emphasized that Prohens and Galmés are "the only two people who can take measures against overpopulation." "Prohens says she agrees with the demands and that the Pact did it badly, as if the current responsibilities did not concern her," she added.

The President of the Government, Marga Prohens, has taken advantage of the meeting with the Spanish President, Pedro Sánchez, to place the debate on the limits of the tourism model at the center of the Balearic agenda. The meeting comes after the historic demonstration against tourist overcrowding held in Palma, a mobilization that organizers estimated at 70,000 people, and which has reinforced the discussion on the Balearic Islands' capacity to cope with the current volume of visitors. After the meeting, Prohens defended that the policies promoted by her Executive respond to the demands expressed in the streets. "The policies that this Government is promoting are precisely in line with what is being asked for," she stated.

Demonstrations are not only held in the street. They also contend with the aftermath, when a media and political narrative is imposed about what happened. And, after the police charges of 26-J, the narrative of tourist saturation has been sidelined in the media by another debate much more comfortable for Marga Prohens' Government. It is important not to lose focus, because the president is one of the main people responsible for responding to the problems that the tourism model generates in the daily lives of the citizens of the Balearic Islands. The day after one of the most massive protests ever seen in the Islands, Prohens has not felt the need to face the situation, nor to give explanations about the lack of management, nor to confront her unfulfilled promises. The president has spoken about the charges, has demanded explanations from the Spanish government delegate, Alfonso Rodríguez, and has remarked that she respects the right to demonstrate, as if that were not a given.

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?

Govern after govern, councilor after councilor, plan after plan, day after day, and presentation after presentation. Good words, intentions, and, for some time now, a certain self-criticism have succeeded one another. “We are at the limit.” Now, even the PP admits that the Islands are on the verge of collapse.

While Aena and the island and regional governments pass the buck over who is responsible for the saturation, the saturation does not stop increasing. In the first six months of 2026, Mallorca's main airport has once again pulverized all its records and is already close to 15 million passengers (14.9), which represents 14% more than just three years ago, compared to the first semester of 2023.

Citizen mobilization in defense of Trenc is more than a protest for an emblematic natural space. It is the image of a society that is on guard. The slogan that is resonating again these days, ‘Neither before, nor now, nor ever. Trenc must not be touched’, is also a preventive warning against any indication that could put at risk a collective heritage that the people of Mallorca have had to defend time and again over the last few decades.

Summer once again puts Marga Prohens (Campos, 1982) before the main challenge of her term: tourist saturation. Two years after she promised "brave" containment measures, the street is mobilizing again. She speaks to ARA Balears in her office at the Consulate, where she defends the Executive's management.

The Omnibus Law also lowers the requirements for building facilities in rural land. The norm, which modifies more than 50 laws, mainly environmental and territorial management, excludes complementary activities of the primary sector for the transformation and direct sale of products from the same agricultural holdings from the simplified environmental assessment procedure.

Drums of war are sounding in Mallorca's environmental sector. Marga Prohens' government, after a string of environmental deregulation and deregulation measures, has now dared to tackle one of the great symbols of Balearic environmentalism: Es Trenc.

Marga Prohens' Government cannot be blamed for decades of saturation. However, the social and environmental movements calling for this summer's demonstrations – Menorca is giving the lead – consider that “it cannot be stated that they have taken a single real containment measure, not even to mitigate the impacts,” according to UIB geographer Macià Blázquez.