The proposal for a law by the Council of Mallorca on the regulation of vehicle influx on the island of Mallorca has already encountered its first obstacle: the vehicle employers' association rent a car, Baleval. The Balearic Association of Vehicles with and without a driver brings together large, medium and small operators that carry out their activity on the Islands. In a forceful document registered in Parliament on September 17, Baleval has presented 22 amendments to the initiative that promises to limit the entry of rental vehicles to Mallorca with the aim of slowing down the circulatory collapse and saturation.Baleval considers that the bill promoted by the executive of Llorenç Galmés restricts access to an economic activity without demonstrating that rental vehicles are the specific and main cause of the problem: "The law is based on an attribution of singular responsibility to the vehicle rental sector that does not appear sufficiently accredited in the legislative file". Therefore, if this responsibility is not accredited, they consider that the law may result in being arbitrary or discriminatory. They believe that the bill does not incorporate a sufficient analysis of less restrictive regulatory alternatives nor does it accredit why the specific limitation of rental vehicles is the most appropriate measure. The employers' association maintains that limiting fleets and distributing vehicle quotas is an "intense intervention" in the market that requires solid data, a detailed justification, and the study of less restrictive alternatives.

The PP expects that the law to limit the entry of vehicles to Mallorca will be definitively approved in Parliament between October and November and that it will come into force during the next tourist season. This was announced this Tuesday by the spokesperson for the Popular Party in the Chamber, Sebastià Sagreras, in a press conference prior to this Wednesday's plenary session, in which the consideration of the legislative initiative will be debated. Furthermore, Sagreras reproached the opposition for demanding "degrowth" measures, while not having taken "any" during the two previous legislatures, when, as he stated, "illegal tourist rentals proliferated." The Popular leader announced that the president of the Consell de Mallorca, Llorenç Galmés, will defend the proposal in Parliament.

The highlight of the parliamentary session is the debate on vehicle limitation in Mallorca. The PP has pledged to pass the law before May 2027 and be able to sell it as a victory before the next elections. The consideration of the initiative will be voted on next Wednesday in the first plenary session of September, and it starts without any party against it. Vox, which is the most critical party regarding the proposal, has announced that it will abstain because it "shares part of the diagnosis, but not the solution".

Less than nine months before the insular elections, Llorenç Galmés faces the last political year with the vehicle limitation pending in Parliament, decisions to be finalized on tourist places, and the Tirme contract questioned by Intervention, among others. The president of the Consell de Mallorca claims to have fulfilled more than 95% of the government agreements, while the opposition focuses on the issues that remain open.

Menorca will limit car entry from June 1, 2027. This is the common objective of the PP and the PSOE, who have hastily agreed to modify the Biosphere Reserve Law to make it possible. For various reasons, Més per Menorca and the renegade Vox councilor have voted against it.

The Consell de Menorca has postponed until Wednesday the extraordinary plenary session scheduled for this Monday to approve the modification of the Biosphere Reserve Law, a necessary step to promote the limitation of vehicle entry to the island.

The Biosphere Reserve Law, which was supposed to compensate Menorca for the capital status recognized for Mallorca and Ibiza, will be modified again without having been practically applied in its first three years of validity. Reduced by the Urgent Measures Law of 2024 —first— and by the coastal law announced for this autumn —later—, now the Menorca Council itself will modify it.

The shipping companies have warned this Thursday that the future law to limit vehicles in Mallorca could shift some of the tourism that currently arrives by car towards air transport. The president of Baleària, Adolfo Utor, gave the example of the restrictions applied in Ibiza, where the arrival of tourist vehicles has fallen by 11% during the first half of 2026. As he warned, this limitation could end up favoring visitors arriving by plane. Nevertheless, he insisted that it will be necessary to measure to what extent the regulation is effective and what results it yields.

The president of the Consell de Mallorca, Llorenç Galmés, has already registered the insular institution's proposal to limit vehicle entry to the island in Parliament, as stated in the Chamber's registry. The popular politician is pushing the deadlines to try to get the regulation definitively approved before the legislature ends, although it is already late for this tourist season and there are doubts that he will achieve it. However, the parties have already confirmed that they will maintain their position in Parliament and, therefore, he has the necessary majority.

Vox blocked the first attempt by the President of the Council, Llorenç Galmés, to regulate vehicle entry into Mallorca, but this time the President of the Council has ignored his governing partner and will approve the law with the left. A lack of "loyalty", in the words of the party's parliamentary spokeswoman, Manuela Cañadas, which in the opinion of the far-right party, cannot go unanswered. As ARA Balears has learned, Vox is studying the possibility of overturning the Agrarian Law, the project on which the minister of the sector, Joan Simonet, has been working all legislature, as well as the Coastal Law, which the Government planned to bring to the Council of Government imminently, to ensure parliamentary approval within this legislature.

The PP abstained from voting on the proposal to limit vehicle entry into Mallorca, presented by the PSOE at Tuesday's extraordinary plenary session of the Council of Mallorca – the PSIB had registered a bill in the Parliament. Interestingly, thethe socialists It consists of the same text that the president of the Council of Mallorca, Llorenç Galmés, publicly presented on June 13, with the sole exception of a reference to the transfer of public transport powers, currently held by the Balearic Government, to the island institution. It also raises the possibility of financing sustainable mobility policies with an ecotax.

The Consell will allocate €1.2 million to install 250 cameras in Mallorca (125 license plate readers and 125 surveillance cameras) with the aim of obtaining more data on the origin and type of cars before limiting the number of vehicles on the island. This comes after having already paid a load study which was presented in October 2024 and which states that almost 400,000 vehicles entered Mallorca in 2023. The island councilor for Territory, Mobility and Infrastructure, Fernando Rubio, has justified that the data extracted will allow "a much more detailed load study, with data, and will reassure the sector of It's expensive. who has requested it and it's understandable that they want more specific data."

The three shipping companies The companies that handle freight, passenger, and vehicle traffic in the Balearic Islands (Trasmed, Baleària, and GNV) believe that vehicle restrictions in Mallorca should be implemented "based on rigor, data, and dialogue," according to Baleària's president, Alfonso Utor, who spoke on Thursday after meeting with the Consell de Mallorca (Mallorca Council). He added that the three companies are fully and completely willing to collaborate with the island institution to "find solutions to the island's traffic congestion problems." "We are ready to collaborate with public officials in any way they request," he emphasized.

Traffic chaos is now part of daily life in Mallorca. And winter and summer are becoming increasingly indistinguishable. The deseasonalization that was so desired for years, along with the progressive purchase of properties by foreigners, has made the difference between high and low season increasingly insignificant: traffic jams are a recurring problem. According to data from the Consell de Mallorca (Mallorca Council), residents own more than 800,000 cars, while 380,000 arrive annually, primarily for tourism. There is a growing consensus on the need to limit vehicle access to Mallorca, as the Pitiusas Islands have done, and the People's Party (PP) in the Consell presented its proposal a year and a half ago. How is it possible that it has not yet been approved?

The Balearic Islands Tourist Accommodation Association (Habtur) is concerned that vehicle restrictions in Mallorca could create "more problems getting to their accommodations" for tourists staying in holiday rentals, according to the association's manager, Maria Gibert. She described Mallorca's public transport network as "deficient." "Tourists staying in agriturismos need a car to get there because they're in a tourist area or staying in a town that doesn't have good public transport access," she emphasized. She added that "depending on the type of measure" proposed in the regulations, "it could benefit large hotel chains because, in a way, it would draw tourists to the big hotels and would also harm complementary services." In this regard, she explained that "a large hotel can charter a bus to the premises" because "it's in their interest for tourists to spend money there and not go out to eat at a restaurant."

The PSIB (Socialist Party of the Balearic Islands) has registered a proposed law in the Balearic Parliament and the Council of Mallorca to regulate vehicle access and promote sustainable mobility on the island, citing the "inaction" of the island institution, according to a party statement. The initiative registered by the Socialists is the same text that the President of the Council of Mallorca, Llorenç Galmés, publicly presented on June 13th, about which nothing has been heard since, the statement notes. The Secretary General of the Socialist Federation of Mallorca, Amanda Fernández, has called for the swift processing of the legislation so that it can come into effect next summer. "We've gone three years without taking any action, and we have nothing six months after presenting the law. We don't know if it's due to incompetence or a desire not to upset certain interests," Fernández criticized. "The PP only talks about roads. They have again requested a meeting with the Secretary of State to discuss roads, with a list that they haven't even agreed upon with the other parties," said Catalina Cladera, spokesperson for the PSOE in the Consell de Mallorca.

Baleària has criticized the restriction on vehicles for maritime transport, considering the impact to be "zero" and unnecessarily punishing the sector and forcing shipping companies to make adjustments.

The shipping companyBaleariahas filed a lawsuit against the Ibiza Council's March 28th resolution on the Law on Vehicle Traffic Control on the island and has requested the annulment of the restriction. In the document, the shipping company asks the judge to raise a question of constitutionality, considering that this regulation "violates the fundamental rights of equality and mobility."

If the People's Party (PP) of the Consell de Mallorca wants to obtain the support of the PSIB (Socialist Socialist Workers' Party) to push through the bill to limit rental cars on the island, "it will have to open a space for negotiation," warned the Socialist spokesperson in the island institution, Catalina Cladera. According to her, this space "has not yet been opened" and the PP has not discussed with the PSOE how to implement the limitation. As Cladera explained to ARA Baleares, the Consell's governing team and the technicians have met twice with all the parties they have representation in to "explain the technical criteria" of the regulation.