While a part of the island's society demands the co-management of airports as a measure to reduce the massive influx of tourists, the data confirm an inertia that seems impossible to change: the airports of Palma and Ibiza have once again broken historical records in the month of highest traffic. Son Sant Joan saw 4,808,295 passengers pass through, the highest monthly record in the island airport's history and 2.3% more than the same month in 2025. El Codolar moved 1,519,201 passengers, 2.5% more than in August 2025, and with the January-August cumulative total reaching 6,778,163 passengers, 3% more year-on-year.

The Council of Ministers approved this Tuesday the new Airport Regulation Document (DORA III), which will mark the investments, capacity, and tariffs of the airports of Aena between 2027 and 2031. For the Balearic Islands, the approval consolidates a new increase in air traffic and places the three major airports of the Islands at the threshold of 50 million annual passengers by the end of the period.

Amanda Fernández, a teacher by profession, a member of Parliament and Secretary General of the Socialist Federation of Mallorca, now faces the challenge of contesting the presidency of the Council. She began as a councilwoman in Manacor and was a director general during the governments of Francina Armengol. Now, she defends a project based on setting limits on growth, reducing tourist spots and strengthening the role of the island institution.What do you want to change about Mallorca that justifies you wanting to preside over the Council?

The tourist train continues at full steam in the Balearic Islands, despite citizen protests and political promises and laments. There isn't a year that the Islands don't break records since the pandemic ended, and the data suggests this year will be no exception. This Tuesday, Ibestat released the tourist data up to July: 11,189,324 people, 1.77% more than in the same period last year (from January to July 2025 there were approximately 10,995,000 tourists).

The institutions of the Balearic Islands have acknowledged the impact of tourist saturation on citizens. However, the remedies to alleviate its effects are diverse, while the Islands are on track to reach 20 million visitors this 2026. In the case of the Palma City Council, the Fundació Turisme Palma 365 is committed to "improving the perception" that residents of the city have of tourist activity, with a strategy whose objective is to work on the "pride of belonging" of the people of Palma to their city, in the words of the entity's manager, Pedro Homar.

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.

There were reasons to fear the worst: an exceptional total solar eclipse coincided with one of the days of greatest human pressure of the year and with the Islands, especially Mallorca, becoming the center of world attention. It was like a stress test for islands that live at the limit of their capacity. And yet, the balance of August 12th is, despite the incidents, very positive.

The Government presented its package of measures to contain tourist saturation on March 7, 2025. Among the announced initiatives were the increase of the Sustainable Tourism Tax (ITS) during the high season and the creation of a tax on rental vehicles. A few months earlier, in the general policy debate, President Marga Prohens had also announced an increase in the water levy for large consumers. None of these initiatives have materialized. The limitation of vehicle entry to Mallorca, one of the bets of the President of the Council, Llorenç Galmés, is still pending parliamentary processing.

The Minister of Tourism, Jaume Bauzà, referred this Wednesday to the complaint from GOB and Terraferida, who requested a meeting with the President of the Government, Marga Prohens, on July 27 and have not yet received any response. "Agendas are complicated," he pointed out at an event at the Can Sales library, in addition to stating that the entities will be attended to at some point, as reported by Europa Press.

"It is clear that Spain has never done so well in its history, no matter how you look at it: 46.6 million international tourists in the first six months of the year and a record spending of 63.8 billion euros. So much noise and exaggeration so that you don't feel that we govern well and it benefits you". Apparently, the socialist Minister of the Presidency, Justice and Relations with the Courts, Félix Bolaños, has not been told that in places like the Balearic Islands people are not so happy and that 70,000 people took to the streets on July 26 to demand something as simple as it is difficult to achieve at this point: that the citizens of the Islands can live with dignity. I want to think that Bolaños understands the difference between GDP and GDP per capita, because this nuance will help him understand that the 63.8 billion euros left by visitors do not affect residents in tourist areas. Perhaps the satisfaction is because companies like Aena exceed their profits year after year by squeezing the doors of our home.

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.

A month ago, the Moviment Jove de Sóller (Young Movement of Sóller) called for the August 8th protest against saturation in the municipality, which they consider one of Mallorca's hotspots in terms of touristification: a municipality where "all the effects of overcrowding are clearly observed," state members of the entity, in conversation with ARA Balears. "For us, it is impossible to imagine a future in Sóller," they lament, and emphasize that the measures implemented by the City Council, focused on mobility (more parking, some only for residents, and low-emission zones among others), do not solve the underlying problems caused by saturation. The main one, as in the rest of the Balearic Islands, is housing.

It's very hot. Suspended dust. Heat and humidity. Another plane crosses the sky, cloudy and heavy. Heat like from an exhaust pipe. The Tramuntana is not visible from afar. So hot that you can't go outside. The ring road at five in the afternoon. You can't even breathe. The highway, at the height of the airport, at any time. According to the forecast, tomorrow will be even hotter. Two girls are arrested; they say they had a banner at their home with the slogan 'SOS Residents'. Heat and anguish in the street: we don't know where to put ourselves. Gasoline is going up and yet everything burns: fire on earth and fire in the sky. Orange sunsets, beautiful as a bad omen, as a point of disaster. It's too hot: what if we take shelter from the fan? It's already the end of the month and we don't have money to spend either. Heat like a pressure cooker, as if about to suffocate us, as if about to make thunder.

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.

The delegate of the Spanish government in the Balearic Islands, Alfonso Rodríguez, has distanced himself from the police action at the demonstration against tourist saturation, which he described as "disproportionate" in relation to the risk of a protest marked by "exemplary civic behavior". "Police charges depend on the "in situ operation, they are not decided by this delegate. The use of violence did not adjust to the risk," he stated this Monday, after the organizers of the protest and MÉS per Mallorca called for his resignation.

The President of the Government, Marga Prohens, assured this Monday that the saturation in interurban public transport affects only 2% of TIB services. However, the Executive will launch a pilot test for prior reservation starting July 1st on line 203, which connects Port de Sóller, Deià, Valldemossa, and Palma, one of the routes that has generated the most complaints in recent months among residents of the Serra de Tramuntana.

The Hotel Business Federation of Mallorca (FEHM) expressed this Tuesday its respect for the demonstration called against the tourist saturation planned for July in Palma, but has harshly criticized the narrative of the protest, which it considers "uses tourism as a punching bag".

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.

The president of the Consell de Mallorca, Llorenç Galmés, has taken advantage of the island institution's general policy debate to make the umpteenth announcement about the island's tourist capacity ceiling. This time, Galmés has once again announced that he will reduce the number of places, just two months after the insular Minister of Tourism, Guillem Ginard, indicated that they would not be cut because it was not an urgent measure. However, after three years of contradictory announcements, the Consell has not made any decision on the capacity ceiling beyond saying that it will do one thing or another. Currently, the ceiling in Mallorca is 430,000 tourist places.

This summer, no concrete measures will be implemented to curb overcrowding and limit the arrival of tourists and cars to Menorca during peak season. Neither the updated Island Territorial Plan (PTI) nor the new tourism capacity ceiling, set at 107,917 beds in the preliminary carrying capacity study, have yet been approved. And this despite the fact that the influx of visitors continues to increase not only during the summer but also outside of peak season. In fact, 2025 was the first year in which the number of registered residents on the island never fell below 100,000, not even in December. Even so, the People's Party (PP) team, which governs the Menorca Island Council in minority with the external support of the councilor expelled from Vox, will still lack the necessary physical and legal mechanisms to restrict vehicle traffic. The PP's repeated announcements throughout its term have remained just that: words, not actions. It will likely be the last island to take measures to restrict access and limit congestion, although it is also the only one that, for the past three years, has had a legal tool to do so: the Biosphere Reserve Law, approved in 2023 by the Balearic Parliament. Nine months ago, last June, the Consell (Island Council) presented the study that was supposed to determine the number of excess vehicles on the road network. The conclusion surprised everyone, as it set the limit at 120,000 cars, while the maximum daily traffic recorded on Menorca's roads in 2024 was 122,170 vehicles, only 1.8% above this limit.