"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.

The Official Bulletin of the Parliament (BOPIB) number 124 was published this Friday for the first time in Catalan and Spanish since 1992. This bulletin was published in bilingual format following the agreement of the Parliament's Bureau of February 14, 2024, modified by the same Bureau on February 28, 2020.

The chronicle of Maria Llull preparing the Parliament's rentrée It offers an essential overview of the political situation. And it raises an unavoidable point. Two years after the biggest attempt ever made by a Balearic government—it must be said clearly—to solve the housing problem, the results are abundant in terms of regulations, but quantitatively meager. It's not simple. As long as the European middle and upper classes (millions of people) can accumulate property with impunity, the market will continue to reign supreme. pitilessThis is what has happened, for example, in the Levante industrial park, which was meant to be a space for social and cultural interaction with all kinds of people, but has ended up being a collection of luxury apartments impossible for locals to afford. Laws, decrees, regulations, and rules of all kinds have been passed; more public housing has been planned, but two years is far too short a time to change such complex dynamics. And the situation is practically the same. We don't know if the left will be able to capitalize on this hopeless citizen desperation, because the problem is enormous. However, there is one sector that, under the pretext of simplifying the administration to make it more efficient and expedite the processing of the apartments that still haven't arrived, has fared very well: the offenders in rural areas. Everyone who owns a building, some even large villas, has rushed to legalize what they once built without permission. The PP and Vox parties strongly dislike the legalization of undocumented immigrants who, ironically, come to lay cement in Calvià or Andratx. But those with the illegal chalet get the red carpet treatment. Even those who built it in a fire-prone area.

The Parliament's governing board, meeting this Wednesday, rejected the proposed amendment to the Capital City Law to incorporate matters falling under the purview of the regional government. According to the PSIB (Socialist Party of the Balearic Islands), the proposal "exceeds its authority" and includes modifications for which it lacks jurisdiction, specifically two additional provisions that would have granted Palma the freedom to decide on privately owned infrastructure and facilities. The Secretary General of the PSOE (Spanish Socialist Workers' Party) in Palma and spokesperson in Parliament, Iago Negueruela, emphasized that Mayor Jaime Martínez "needs to focus more on governance and doing more work for Palma." "A Parliament with a PP (People's Party) and Vox majority has blocked a law passed by a PP and Vox-controlled city council because things weren't done properly," he criticized. In his opinion, the mayor "must assume his responsibilities and, at the very least, propose legislation that is legal." "The law doesn't comply with the law, and the City Council will have to reconsider it; it's yet another mistake," he reproached. The Socialists, as the party emphasized in a press release, had already warned in November that the changes introduced by the law "did not comply with current legislation." They also criticized the proposed reduction in public housing in newly developed areas. The proposed law has been tabled pending the City Council's revision of the wording of these two provisions, which proposed modifying other decree laws. The revisions are expected to be made at the next plenary session of the City Council, at the end of January.

The lack of a spending cap and budget was one of the main topics of discussion during Tuesday's parliamentary question time. The PSIB (Socialist Party of the Balearic Islands) criticized the government's deadlock, arguing that it will not pass the budget, despite Pedro Sánchez's administration not having approved a single budget this term and instead extending the previous one due to a lack of support from its coalition partners in Congress. The Socialist spokesperson, Iago Negueruela, called on the President of the Balearic Government, Marga Prohens, to call early elections given this situation, while the President reminded the Parliament that Sánchez has no intention of doing so in Madrid. "The legislature will be blocked from today onward," Negueruela emphasized, adding that "social dialogue is stalled, 640 million euros [from the 2025 budget] remain unspent, announcements are being made to cover up the incompetence of the Housing Minister, and there will be no more budgets." The Socialist spokesperson criticized the fact that "major reforms" will enter into "an institutional deadlock" without the budget being passed, and reproached Prohens for "no longer having the will to negotiate" and for attending a Unified Police Union congress in Toledo just when the spending cap is due to be voted on in Parliament. "She has no ambition to govern, call elections, Ms. Prohens," he concluded.

The government is heading into another crucial vote for the continuation of the legislature without any guaranteed support. Next Tuesday, the spending ceiling will be debated, an essential step before any discussion of the 2026 budget can begin. At the time of writing, the People's Party (PP) was the only party defending it. Although it has held talks with Vox and the Socialist Party of the Balearic Islands (PSIB), the current feeling is that the government has given up hope. This deadlock has been the general trend of the legislature, in which the Executive has too often found itself cornered by its partners and even unable to reach agreements on legislation. In response, it has legislated primarily through royal decrees, a measure intended for "cases of extraordinary and urgent need," according to Article 86.1 of the Spanish Constitution, and has submitted fewer bills than in previous legislatures.

The Balearic Parliament on Tuesday rejected, thanks to votes against from the PP and Vox parties, a proposal from the left to prohibit the construction and authorization of housing in risk prevention areas, such as flood zones and areas at risk of fire, landslides, and erosion. The bill, promoted by the PSIB, Más per Mallorca, Más per Menorca, and Unidas Podemos, proposes limitations on construction in flood zones, prohibits the conversion of commercial premises into housing in these areas, and also prohibits new construction in priority traffic zones.

Never before has the double game played by the Balearic People's Party (PP) been so blatant in the Balearic Parliament: trying to curb Vox's obsession with the Catalan language while simultaneously attempting to retain pro-Spanish voters. This week, the PP voted against Vox's proposed law to marginalize Catalan in schools, sparking outrage among its coalition partners. But in an almost simultaneous move, they submitted their own amendment to the Education Law to introduce Catalan and Spanish as languages of instruction. This tactic reinforces the discourse of Marga Prohens's government in favor of "friendly bilingualism," in the words of one of its opponents. However, in practice, the PP's proposal has no effect: it maintains both the Law on Linguistic Normalization and the Decree on Minimum Standards, which stipulates that at least 50% of classes must be conducted in Catalan.

Waste from Ibiza will be taken to Mallorca "and that's it," is how Pedro Bestard, the Minister of Environment, Rural Affairs, and Sports of the Mallorcan Council, responded to Catalina Inés Perelló, a member of MÉS for Mallorca, regarding the current status of the pilot plan for waste transfer.

The Parliament of the Balearic Islands has approved the popular legislative initiative promoted by the Balearic Coordinator for the Defense of Public Pensions, which aims to ensure pensioners a minimum income equivalent to the Minimum Interprofessional Wage (SMI), currently set at €1,184 per month in 14 installments.