More than 30,000 undocumented immigrants in the Islands now have the possibility to emerge from invisibility. Since April 16, long queues at town halls have become the image of the extraordinary regularization driven by the Spanish government. They have been preparing documentation for months, but until the last minute they did not know that they would also need a vulnerability certificate, and that explains, in part, the system's saturation. "I don't understand why they want it, if all of us who are undocumented are vulnerable," reflects Abdou, a 32-year-old Senegalese man. Despite this, the priority is clear. "Even if we have to lose days of work: papers are papers," assures Khalid.

The extraordinary regularization process for migrant people promoted by the Spanish government is seen as a “historic” opportunity for tens of thousands of people in an irregular administrative situation in the Balearic Islands. However, jurists and legal professionals also warn of technical shortcomings and application difficulties that have generated uncertainty and occasional collapses in the first few days.

The Palma City Council has assured that it does not plan to reinforce the Social Services area due to the regularization process for migrants promoted by the central government and has defended that the service “is functioning normally”, despite the queues recorded these days at the citizen service offices (OAC).

The Palma City Council has assured that it does not foresee reinforcing the Social Services area following the migrant regularization process promoted by the central government and has defended that the service “functions normally”, despite the queues registered these days in the citizen service offices (OAC).

The Ombudsman will investigate the obstacles denounced by parties and officials by the Cort Government team after MÉS per Palma filed a formal complaint.

The PP mayors of the Balearic Islands have called this Friday for the suspension of the extraordinary regularization of migrants due to the impact that, as they claim, it is having on the town councils. They consider that the process has generated situations of collapse in municipal services from day one.

The Balearic Government maintains its tug-of-war with the State over the distribution of migrant minors and already warns that it will return to the courts if the Spanish government approves a new decree to extend the current system. This was announced this Friday by the Executive's spokesperson, Antoni Costa, after the Governing Council, in a press conference marked by the firmness of his speech.

Although he arrived in Mallorca from Bolivia, Farouk Pino and his wife, Claudia Andrade, have held Spanish nationality for a decade. Pino has been at the helm of Bolivia Centro Social for 15 years, an organization through which he has built networks with associations and individuals of diverse backgrounds living in the Balearic Islands. Concerned about the rise of the far right, this activist makes his voice heard in Palma City Council meetings, where he denounces the policies of Vox and the PP.

Two babies, aged 2 and 18 months, are hospitalized at Can Misses Hospital in Ibiza after being rescued from a boat with symptoms of dehydration. According to sources at the Balearic Islands Health Service (Ib-Salut), the infants are in the Pediatric ward and are recovering well. The girls were traveling on a boat with 32 sub-Saharan migrants that was intercepted on Saturday in Ibiza. This is one of the three boats whose disappearance was reported last week, as confirmed by the NGO Caminando Fronteras. Initially, it was reported that there were 30 occupants, but it has now been confirmed that the two children were also on board. The boat had departed from the coast of Algeria on January 22 and was carrying three women and two children, among other passengers. Following their rescue by Maritime Rescue, the migrants were able to contact their families in their countries of origin, who had previously alerted the humanitarian organization to their disappearance. The Government Delegation in the Balearic Islands had reported on Friday that the Algerian Navy had intercepted two of the boats reported missing, although without providing details that would allow for their identification. That same day, the Civil Guard and Maritime Rescue rescued another vessel with 22 people on board in southern Mallorca, which was confirmed as one of the missing boats. With the location of the boat intercepted on Saturday in Ibiza, at least one of the vessels initially reported as located by the Algerian authorities does not correspond to those that had been reported missing, according to Caminando Fronteras. Meanwhile, the two children remain hospitalized and under medical observation.

In recent weeks, one of the racist mantras of the European far right—often adopted even by some on the left, such as the British Labour Party—of defending "jobs for locals" has been reiterated by the highest authority in our region, President Prohens, in various contexts.

"7,300 immigrants arrived by boat in 2025, and the impact of this is that, in healthcare alone, 300 patients from Mallorca, Menorca, Formentera, and Ibiza are left without care every day because doctors refuse to treat these people who contribute nothing to the healthcare system." The Vox spokesperson in the Balearic Parliament, Manuela Cañadas, made these statements on January 29th. The issue here is that the far-right representative lied, because no one is left without care by the Balearic healthcare system: not residents, not tourists, not migrants. In this report, we debunk one of Vox's lies, although the party uses many others.

Having passed the halfway point of the legislative term, those in power seem more focused on securing their victory than on addressing citizens' problems. To be charitable, we won't speculate on percentages. Marga Prohens's People's Party (PP) has concluded that overcrowding will never be their kryptonite, their Achilles' heel, and has abandoned any significant measures to combat the saturation. The protests came quickly, the noise hasn't subsided, and the tourist season will begin as usual. In the end, the Consell de Mallorca (Mallorca Council) also doesn't seem likely to limit car access and will continue monitoring illegal tourist rentals with ridiculously limited resources. Without any major consequences. Except for negative ones for those who end up living on the streets while speculators enrich themselves illegally.

The Spanish government's announcement of the regularization of 500,000 immigrants prompted an immediate reaction from the Catalan government. It reacted in its usual fashion, with much grandstanding and threats to challenge the measure in court, etc. Everything outlined, point by point, in the talking points sent from the People's Party headquarters on Génova Street in Madrid. But then the spokesperson for the Catalan government, Antoni Costa, wanted to add his own perspective. He stated that he felt the Spanish government was "giving away" residency to immigrants and that more requirements should be added to the regularization process: for example, that immigrants learn Catalan. "Here we have, and I say this clearly, our own language. And those who want to obtain legal residency in Spain, and in this region in particular, must demonstrate a willingness to learn our own language." He said this with dramatic pauses and facial expressions for emphasis. He also asserted that "here we have customs and traditions, and it is those who sell [these things] who must adapt, not the other way around."

The Sa Pobla Town Council has approved a Vox initiative (with the support of the PP and the Independents mayor, but with three councilors from their own group abstaining) to prohibit the wearing of a burka in municipal buildings. The proposal was opposed by the PSOE, MÁS, and El Pi parties and reinforces a regulation that has been in place since 2011, which Vox considers ambiguous, unclear, and ineffective. Vox councilor Roberto Vicente stated that it is shameful that councilors from the same party as the mayor "hide behind abstention," while their own mayor votes in favor of "a basic security measure." "The PSOE, MÁS, and El Pi have once again positioned themselves on the side of political correctness and cultural compromise, demonstrating that they prioritize their ideology over the safety and general interest of the residents of Sa Pobla," the councilor added. Vox reiterated its claim to authorship of the proposal, "even though the PP is now trying to appropriate it" by presenting it in other municipalities. The same motion will soon be presented in other municipalities such as Manacor and Felanitx. It should be noted that the PP will register the proposal to the Consell de Mallorca (Island Council of Mallorca) to request a ban on the burka and niqab in public spaces, which was approved this past Tuesday in the Balearic Parliament.

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.

When Romina received her degree in digital communication in Argentina, she went out into the street in costume with her friends and they threw "eggs and a mix of things" at her to celebrate what they call "the received"for the achievement. She imagines, repeatedly, that such a scene is repeated; a fantasy of reliving it the day that obtain legal residency in Spain. She is 32 years old. She arrived in Palma almost three years ago, fleeing instability and a lack of opportunities in her country. Since landing, nothing has been as she imagined. "You always come with illusions that mask reality. I knew it wouldn't be easy, but not that it would be this difficult. They don't recommend anyone come without papers. It's living 24 hours a day, 365 days a year with constant uncertainty and frustration," she admits.

The Government has once again extended an olive branch to Vox to advance initiatives in this new political year, which it faces with "absolute tranquility," despite having extended the budget. "Neither the Government nor the PP will obstruct negotiations with Vox," stressed the Executive spokesperson, Toni Costa, at the press conference following the Cabinet meeting, as reported by Europa Press. The Minister of Economy, Finance, and Innovation also noted that Vox is the PP's natural partner and that, consequently, negotiations with this group will continue. Costa also maintained that the budget extension does not imply any parliamentary gridlock and expressed his confidence in approving the upcoming initiatives in Parliament "with considerable consensus." Regarding the tax deduction that the Government announced to prevent rent increases, the spokesperson indicated that negotiations are underway with Vox on an amendment to include it in the draft law for accelerating strategic projects, which is expected to be processed in the second half of February.

The Civil Guard is investigating the death of a man whose body was found floating in the sea near the commercial dock of the port of Palma on Tuesday. Investigators are working on the hypothesis that he may have been a migrant who died during the crossing to the Balearic Islands in a makeshift boat. The body was spotted during the morning and recovered around midday by agents of the Special Underwater Activities Group (GEAS). Sources close to the investigation confirmed that, once the body was brought ashore, the corresponding legal protocol was activated. A judicial delegation took charge of the body and ordered its removal before its transfer to the Institute of Legal Medicine, where an autopsy will be performed. This should determine both the identity of the deceased and the exact cause of death.