It can be listed in any order, but the fact is that housing, saturation, and mobility are the major structural problems that the citizens of the Balearic Islands have been dragging since the beginning of the last legislature, that of the Pact. Governments, headlines, announcements, and press conferences have passed, but the difficulties have shown their resilience and public policies have not even been able to diminish them.

Politics has become a risky activity in Spain, a permanent race to sustain improbable majorities, a task more suited to acrobats and movie stuntmen. People who wouldn't suffer from vascular problems under any circumstances. Even in Andalusia, the PP's majority has not withstood the wear and tear. Anxiety and balancing acts: this is also the general situation in the Balearic Islands. Except in Ibiza. On the most turbulent island in the Mediterranean, as modern as it is feverish, politicians live in a beneficial oasis: it is the magic of absolute majority. There is one year left until the next local and regional elections (the last ones were on May 28, 2023) and not a leaf stirs on a tree here. Certainly, in recent weeks Aena has livened things up a bit with its delirious proposal to expand the airport. But hey! We know what we're about here; in a couple of days, no one will remember Aena and its megalomaniacal dreams – which I have no doubt will be executed to a high percentage. The season is starting, and we have to make money for the whole year.

The non-attached deputy Idoia Ribas has filed a formal complaint with the Spokespersons' Board against the President of the Parliament, Gabriel Le Senne, whom she accuses of having “viof­lated her right to personal and non-delegable vote” during the vote on the Law for the acceleration of strategic projects held this Tuesday. In her statement, Ribas maintains that Le Senne decided to group 14 amendments “against her expressly stated will” and calls on the Spokespersons' Board to condemn the President of the Chamber's actions.

The culmination of the legislature with the Popular Party at the head of the Government has arrived one year before the elections with the approval of the Law for the acceleration of strategic projects by the Parliament this Tuesday. It is the last omnibus law that Marga Prohens will be able to push forward before the May 2027 elections. Precisely for this reason, the popular party, hand in hand with Vox, has taken the opportunity to modify about fifty laws, amid the opposition's complaints, even though the PSIB has also taken the opportunity to introduce amendments that have nothing to do with the reason for the initial decree-law.

The Superior Court of Justice of the Balearic Islands (TSJIB) has dismissed the lawsuit filed by the Parliament, Gabriel Le Senne (Vox), to prevent the placement of the LGTBI flag on the facade of the regional Chamber's headquarters.

The second vice-president of the Consell de Mallorca, Pedro Bestard, appeared this Thursday to clarify the use he has made of two vehicles from the insular institution. But the appearance served above all to confirm one thing: that Vox considers it a sufficient explanation to say that Bestard does a lot of work and travels to many places in Mallorca. Wanting to know what two public vehicles were doing —without the label identifying them as such— parked in front of his house is nothing more than a strategy by the left to wear down the PP government and the far-right, according to the spokesperson for Vox on the Council, Antoni Gili. Denying that a Subaru and a Dacia, which should be used for institutional tasks, have been used personally is already, apparently, providing explanations.

The People's Party is studying a Vox amendment to the law on accelerating strategic projects to speed up large commercial areas projects, as reported this Monday by Europa Press. The PP spokesperson, Sebastià Sagreras, commented that his party views the administrative streamlining part of the initiative favorably, but will review that it does not go against the Master Plan for Commercial Facilities of Mallorca (Pecma).

The Popular Party is studying an amendment by Vox to the law on accelerating strategic projects to streamline large commercial surface projects, as reported this Monday by Europa Press. The PP spokesperson, Sebastià Sagreras, commented that his party looks favorably upon the administrative streamlining part that the initiative entails, but will review that it does not go against the Master Plan for Commercial Facilities of Mallorca (Pecma).

The plenary session of the Senate has definitively approved this Wednesday the reform of the Spanish Constitution promoted by the Balearic Parliament that modifies article 69.3 so that the island of Formentera has its own senator and is detached from the electoral tandem it currently forms with Ibiza.

The conflict between the PP and Vox has once again become evident in the Balearic Parliament. The far-right party has voted against all the amendments presented by the PP, some 80, to the strategic projects law, known as the òmnibus law, during the deliberation of the Committee on Finance and Budgets this Tuesday. The move leaves a package of key measures for the legislature in suspense and is seen as a clear warning from Vox to Marga Prohens' Government.The decision means that several prominent proposals will be blocked or will have to be debated again. Among these amendments are tax reductions to expand the thresholds for the Property Transfer Tax (ITP) bonus, to reduce the tax on Documented Legal Acts (AJD), as well as a 50% reduction in both ITP and AJD for the purchase of limited-price housing.

"Stop making a fool of yourself and deceiving. You, ideology and zero management": this is the accusation that the Minister of the Presidency, Antònia Maria Estarellas, launched at the PSIB deputy Omar Lamin during Tuesday's Parliament session. What kind of accusation is it to tell a politician they have ideology, when it is precisely the ideology of public representatives that determines a good part of citizens' lives? At this point, it is worth remembering what Slavoj Žižek says, who considers that the most dangerous ideology is precisely the one we pretend not to have. It is not an theoretical extravagance. Jürgen Habermas also warned that technical rationality —what we would call 'management' today— can impose values while presenting itself as neutral. And Thomas Piketty has been reminding us for years that behind many technical decisions lie very specific ideological choices about inequality. From this, an uncomfortable conclusion emerges: 'management' is often not the alternative to ideology, but its best disguise.

The debate on the situation of healthcare in the Balearic Islands has reached the Parliament of the Balearic Islands this week, but the statements made during the session have generated a response from Doctors of the World. The organization has denounced that erroneous ideas about healthcare for the migrant population have been disseminated and has warned that some interventions are based on “falsities” or ignorance of reality.

The Parliamentary Group of MÉS per Mallorca has informed the Parliament's Board that it will desist from processing any amendment to the Law on Strategic Projects that is not related to this regulation. In this way, the eco-sovereignists fully align themselves with the criteria of the chamber's jurists, who were very clear on the matter last week. As established by Article 125 of the regulations, amendments submitted to draft bills must be related to their subject matter, and only in case of unanimity among the members of the Board can an exception be made to introduce others.

A race against time for the PP to push through the maximum possible legislative changes before the elections. Their main obstacle is the slowness of bill processing in Parliament. To overcome it, they have devised some solutions: an abuse of the decree-law figure, which the Constitutional Court criticized last Friday in a ruling, and the stuffing of legislative initiatives with amendments that have nothing to do with them. But with the processing of the law to accelerate strategic projects, the popular party has gone too far: they have submitted 88 amendments affecting up to 70 different norms, most of them unrelated to strategic projects. Furthermore, they have introduced some of the agreements with Vox against Catalan and immigration.

The PP has presented dozens of amendments to the law on strategic projects that have nothing to do with the purpose of the norm. Some have served to create an almost parallel norm. Otherwise, it has invited Vox to present some of its pacts on Catalan and immigration, also through amendments.

The apocalypse is approaching while the President of the Government, Marga Prohens, learns to dance bachata and someone in her cabinet, in a fit of inspiration, decides this is relevant enough information to share with the world. As could be expected, the PSIB reminded everyone of this throughout the six hours of the Parliament session on Tuesday. The Chamber increasingly resembles a stand-up comedy stage: everyone brings their prepared monologue, and if it goes well, the audience might even laugh for a while.

The Government is taking advantage of the parliamentary process for the decree-law promoting strategic projects to broaden the use of the "responsible declaration," a mechanism that allows citizens and businesses to ensure their compliance with the law without having to wait for the required permit. With the amendments presented this Thursday to the decree-law, the Popular Party's parliamentary group is significantly expanding the application of this mechanism. If the current wording is approved, the use of responsible declarations will apply to all procedures initiated by interested parties within the Balearic Islands' public administrations and instrumental public sector entities, provided they are accompanied by accredited documentation. This certification will be a document provided by a range of authorized entities, from professional associations to certified companies. The certifying entities will guarantee that the documentation accurately reflects the facts. Professional associations can do so within their areas of competence, chambers of commerce within their territorial scope, administrative certification bodies and entities regulated by sector-specific legislation, as well as other entities and legal persons that meet the solvency and efficiency requirements.

"Rape of dolls and women," "jihadist terrorism in the streets of Europe," "savage knife attacks resulting in amputations," collapse of public services, "cultural impoverishment in schools," "imposition of cultures"... This was the litany of accusations that the Parliaments had to listen to. The Vox spokesperson, Manuela CañadasShe won the award for the most racist speech, surrounded by silence and with the mocking smile of the Speaker of the House, Gabriel Le Senne, who did not intervene to stop the debate's drift.

Political polarization is escalating in the Balearic Islands just over a year before the regional elections. The Parliament has long since become a boxing ring where parties hurl arguments like punches, often without listening to their opponents. Accusations have been made that this is a contemporary classic. "You did worse" is the most repeated refrain. The phrase bounces from one seat to another like a ping-pong ball, amidst the astonishment of one segment of the population and the thirst for revenge of the other.

"There's not room for everyone here" has been the political mantra of the week. The Prime Minister, Marga ProhensThis was proclaimed on Tuesday in the plenary session of the Balearic Parliament, with the approval of the right-wing and far-right parties. There is no room for migrants—especially if they are Muslim—nor for democratic memory, but there is plenty of space for the more than 19 million tourists—an Olympic record for 2025—hundreds of thousands of cars, and vacation rental properties. There is so much space that the Council of Mallorca declared on Thursday that it is no longer necessary to reduce the cap on tourist accommodation on the island, while the Balearic Government proclaims the miracle of containment and deseasonalization without having implemented a single measure. Are more tourists arriving than ever before? We should be happy, because the summer season isn't spiraling out of control and business is booming in the months that weren't previously full of visitors. It's well known that an empty month is not economically productive. Since there's room for so many visitors, we won't raise the ecotax either, because we mustn't upset the hotel owners. And yet Prohens has announced it a couple of times. In its defense, it can be said that the cart of announcements is full of initiatives, from this and other legislatures, whose trace can only be found in the newspaper archives.