Ministry of the Sea and Water Cycle, August 17, 2:15 p.m. The head of the Legal Service, Mariano Socias, digitally signs an 80-page legal report and resolution proposal on the controversial authorizations for sunbeds and umbrellas in Formentera. The proposal is to re-authorize a large part of the facilities that the Directorate General of Coasts had excluded just three months earlier.

In Ibiza and Formentera, the vocabulary related to livestock conveys a way of life where raising sheep and goats was part of the peasant economy and daily diet. It is not simply an abundance of names, but a precise lexicon that allowed animals to be distinguished according to species, sex, age, or their function within the flock.Words like ‘xai’, ‘anyell’, ‘moltó’, ‘ovella’, ‘cabrit’, ‘cabra’, and ‘boc’ are part of this rural universe. In the case of ovines, ‘xai’ and ‘anyell’ denote the young of the sheep, while ‘moltó’ identifies the adult male and ‘ovella’, the female. Among caprines, ‘cabrit’ is the name for the young, while ‘cabra’ and ‘boc’ distinguish adult animals according to sex. These are words known in the Catalan language as a whole, but in the Pitiuses they are integrated within a much broader peasant terminology, where differences in the animal’s age and state could have practical importance.

A beach umbrella may seem like an insignificant object to destabilize a government. In Formentera, it is not. For more than 20 years, beach umbrellas and sun loungers have been capable of confronting technicians, businessmen, administrations, and parties, and even influencing electoral results on the island.

The non-attached councilor of the Consell de Formentera, Llorenç Córdoba, will bring to the next plenary session of the insular institution a proposal to censor the management of the Government and the governing team of Sa Unió in the processing of authorizations for seasonal facilities on the island's beaches.

The Government has tried this Tuesday to close the political crisis opened around the management of the seasonal concessions of the beaches of Formentera. After days of controversy marked by the dismissal of the Director General of Coasts and Littoral, Maria Joaquina Ferrer, the criticism of the opposition, the public support of the officials of the Directorate General of Coasts to the former director and the complaints of the concessionaires of the beach huts for the lack of decisions, the Ministry of the Sea and the Water Cycle has announced that it has completed the review of the seasonal facilities and has approved the resolution that sets the authorized occupations for the period 2026-2029.

Maria Joaquina Ferrer is no longer the Director General of Costs and Littoral, but a good part of the team that worked with her does not seem willing to let her dismissal be read only in terms of a management crisis. Twenty-one officials from the agency have signed a letter addressed to the Minister of the Sea and the Water Cycle, Juan Manuel Lafuente, in which they express disagreement with the Government's decision and claim the way Ferrer has led the agency in recent months.

"Whoever goes to the beach in Formentera and wants to rent a sun lounger, doesn't have one." This is how the Vice President and Government Spokesperson, Antoni Costa, spoke about the situation on the island regarding the concession of sun loungers and umbrellas, which has led to the dismissal of the already former Director General of Coasts, Maria Joaquina Ferrer, this Friday after the Government Council meeting. The origin of this conflict dates back to May, when a resolution from the Directorate General of Coasts for temporary facilities for 2026-2029 denied authorization for 681 sun loungers and 339 umbrellas, provoking criticism from the Formentera Council towards the Government (Coasts did authorize 1,169 sun loungers and 589 umbrellas). The Vice President commented that this situation "had not occurred in Formentera in previous years" and stressed that "it has a very significant impact on public interest." "Whoever goes to the beach in Formentera and wants to rent a sun lounger, doesn't have one," he lamented.

On August 12, 2026, the Balearic Islands will be one of the few places from which to contemplate a total solar eclipse. But it won't be enough to find yourself on the right island: the phenomenon will practically coincide with sunset and any building, tree or mountain that blocks the western horizon may prevent you from seeing its most spectacular moment.

Two young women, aged 30 and 31, died this Tuesday morning in a traffic accident in Formentera after the motorcycle they were traveling on was hit by a taxi. The incident occurred around 11:27 AM in the Cala d'en Dúo area.

A taxi has fatally run over two 25-year-old women while they were on a motorcycle this Wednesday, as reported by SAMU 061.

A 65-year-old man of American nationality died this Thursday after drowning off the island of Espalmador, in Formentera, after jumping into the sea despite the red flag flying due to the sea state.

I grew up with the beach in front of me. Before I knew almost anything about the world, I already knew how to hold a crab net from my grandfather, how the wet sand clung to my feet (also the varnish) and how the castles we built with my mother and my brother, with a bucket or just with our hands, had minutes counted before the sea took them away. Later came the long summers of adolescence: hours and hours with friends sitting on the sand doing nothing more than chatting, laughing and jumping again from that rock we saw from our house. Mornings, afternoons and evenings. The beach was our natural place. We didn't go there, we lived there.

In Formentera, calm seas provoke unease. A strange feeling in a sun and beach destination. The same anticyclone that encourages the arrival of tourists and recreational boats fuels the arrival of dinghies. And more and more are arriving. The figures confirm it: in the last weekend of May alone, 15 boats with 236 people on board arrived at the southern Pitiusa island, 17 of whom were minors. Data from the Government Delegation in the Balearic Islands confirms the trend: by May 31, 63 dinghies with 1,056 people had arrived in Formentera, 49% more than in 2025. Another 156 people arrived in Ibiza. There is no one left who disputes the facts: the route between Algeria and the Balearic Islands – and especially Formentera – is a massive and consolidated migratory route. Less than a year ago, the Spanish government was not so clear about it.

Our objective is the Torre de la Gavina, one of the five towers built in Formentera during the 18th century for the surveillance and defense of its fragile coastline. The other constructions are the Torre de la Guardiola, on the island of Espalmador, the Torre de Punta Prima, next to Es Pujols, the Torre del Pi del Català, on Migjorn beach, and the Torre del Garroveret, near Cap de Barbaria. The route we have traced circumvents the Estany del Peix, a large natural pond open to the sea by La Boca, which was the island's first major fishing and salt port. Indeed, the venda de Porto-salè takes its name from the Portus salarius, a salt exploitation from Roman times. An extraordinary place where natural and heritage values have built a powerful and extensive cultural landscape. We will also visit the public estate of Can Marroig, one of the emblematic corners of the Ses Salines de Eivissa i Formentera Natural Park. For inquiries about the island's public transport, we can consult the website busformetera.com, where we will find all the information about routes and timetables.

The former vice-president of the Parliament of Catalonia and one of the leading figures of the independence movement, Josep Costa, received a message at the end of April: “We’ve done it! The PP has voted for it! The King will sign this!”. It was from a previous life before politics. It was the technical secretary of the Consell de Formentera, Àngel Navarro, with whom he had worked as a lawyer at the island institution. Both drafted the reform of the Constitution which, years later, has ended up giving a senator to Formentera. It was a “regionalist and assertive” text, recalls Costa, born in Ibiza: “Along the way, many things have been destroyed, but some have survived”. For example, the toponym ‘Illes Balears’ in Catalan; and the fact that it states that the Constitution “restored” democracy in Spain, an implicit reference to the II Republic.

Starting from the next elections, Formentera will have its own senator. The constitutional reform that has allowed this since April 23rd has been the latest milestone for a territory that has fewer than 12,000 inhabitants but has a growing influence on the institutional system. “It is important because it provides the possibility of having a person who specifically looks out for this island during the processing of numerous laws made in Madrid,” explains political analyst Toni Fornés.

The plenary session of Congress approved this Thursday the reform of the Organic Law of the General Electoral Regime (LOREG) that adapts the regulations to the recent constitutional modification that recognizes Formentera as its own electoral constituency to elect a senator. The text now goes to the Senate for final approval.

One of the makeshift boats that arrived this week on the coasts of Mallorca carried the body of a person on board. With this body, there are now three that have been located in the last few days on the coasts of the Balearic Islands.

A group of fishermen found the lifeless body of a woman this Wednesday at noon in waters near the island of Formentera, as confirmed by the Civil Guard.

An investigation led by the Center for Ecological Research and Forestry Applications (Creaf) warns that the horseshoe snake (Hemorrhois hippocrepis), an invasive snake that already occupies 90% of Ibiza and can swim to the islets, "threatens" to extinguish the Pitiusa lizard (Podarcis pityusensis).