The regulation of vehicle entry involves a dispute with a business dimension. The large multinationals in the sector, grouped under Baleval, have historically been the main beneficiaries of a market that has grown steadily in recent decades. According to data from this employers' association, a significant portion of the more than 100,000 rental cars circulating in Mallorca are theirs, a large part of them registered outside the Archipelago. Faced with the new regulation, these companies have expressed their rejection of the planned limits. On the other hand, small and medium-sized car rentals of island origin, grouped under AEVAB, have defended the need to set a ceiling to contain saturation and regulate the market.

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.

MF rented a car in Valencia for a long trip. Upon returning the vehicle, they charged her €200 on her credit card—and the company wanted it to be €500—for exceeding the mileage. "But no one had told us we couldn't do that," she says. On the other hand, Francisca (not her real name) explains that they wanted to charge her for not carrying her physical card, but if she took out vehicle insurance, they would let her pay with her mobile phone. "I didn't know I had to carry the physical card because they didn't inform me," she says. These are some of the victims of the abusive practices applied by some car rental companies, which are under social suspicion because the Organization of Consumers and Users (OCU) recently reported five companies for "lack of transparency and abusive clauses."

The left of the Consell de Mallorca asks the president of the island institution, Llorenç Galmés, to take "brave and real" measures for limit rental cars on the island. At least, Vox believes that it is unacceptable in any way that the regulations require Spaniards to pay a fee to enter Mallorca by car. The different political positions leave the approval of one of Galmés's flagship measures in the Consell in high regard. However, the island president is not giving up and continues to negotiate the final proposal for the regulations with entities and companies in the sector, as well as with the parties represented in the Consell, with the aim of ensuring that "it is not only a proposal from one government team, but that it is applied in other legislatures," as Galmés hoped.

Although the plans of the president of the Consell, Llorenç Galmés, were to have the bill approved this autumn to try to control the influx of vehicles to Mallorca and send it to the Parliament, the text still does not have sufficient political support in the Consell de Mallorca. The party that most opposes it is Vox, to the point that for the moment it makes it unthinkable that the PP can count on its votes. "We cannot accept in any way that a fee is imposed on Spanish citizens to enter Mallorca with their car. No Spaniard should pay a fee to enter the island," explained the spokesperson for the party to the island institution, Toni Gili, on ARA Baleares.

While there are 122,000 excess cars in Mallorca, there are only 2,170 in Menorca. The recently presented study on the carrying capacity of Menorcan roads proposes only a 1.8% reduction in vehicle traffic compared to last year. This measure has almost no impact and clashes head-on with the study conducted by the left in 2023, shortly before losing the island's government, which estimated the excess number of cars on the road network in summer at 30%. Furthermore, the limitation will not begin to be applied until next summer, although Article 28 of the Biosphere Reserve Law has empowered Menorca to take measures in this regard for three years.